I can't draw my 100# Elm warbow so I needed something I could use to practise a 32" draw...Can you see where this is going? The old fibreglass and Maple horsebow I made seemed like a good candidate and I shot it as few times with the draw getting successively longer.... then bang!
the failure mode is quite interesting. The glue line on the belly gave way and the fibreglass buckled at the butt joint under the grip.
I'm not upset as it was always risky and the bow had been made as an experimental bow from old materials, it had even been glued up twice as it's original draw weight was too high. I don't much like fibreglass anyway, so it's passing will not be greatly mourned. One day I'll get round to making a real horn and sinew bow, but even my advanced years haven't quite given me enough patience for that task yet!
Update on the Elm Warbow:- It's much easier to draw it with an arrow nocked on the string! I'm still not back to full draw, but probably getting to 29-30". By this time next week I should be getting a good draw on it. Here are some pics.Afraid they are a bit higgledy piggledy, but the blog editor doesn't make it easy to move pictures around. Why they can't make a wysiwyg full screen editor is beyond me... but hey What do I know?
One pic shows a filled knot near the middle, you may be able to see the pencil mark showing the centre and arrow pass if you click on the pic to enlarge it. You may notice the scuff marks from the few arrows I've shot, this shows where the edge of the bow could do with a little adjustment to bring that mark nearer the centre.
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