Warbow Preventative Maintenance

I went out to shoot the 80 pounder and see my mate JT try the 120# Warbow I made for him a while back. The was a fair head wind so we didn't make vast distances. I managed 227 yards with the 80 pounder and a flight arrow.
JT showed me a bit of a pinch on the 130# Warbow I made back in 2013, it had slowly been getting more noticeable over the preceding months. With it braced you could feel it with a fingernail and I said he should let me put in a patch rather than risk shooting it. No good having it explode and then saying, I should have patched it!
The pinch seems to run from a relatively small pin knot, but when I rasped it out and dug out the knot it was surprisingly big, it's no wonder the surrounding wood had buckled as the manky wood round the heart of the pin was compressing. The knot doesn't go right right through to the sapwood which is a good thing.

I'll fill it with a Yew plug and patch over a matching piece of Yew heartwood, hopefully it will be barely visible and will extend the bow's life.
Warbows are notorious for having a short life, and this sort of thing shows the value of inspecting a bow and acting in time. Many bows will succumb to pinches round knots and they can cause the bow to take excessive set and lose poundage and cast, especially at higher poundages.
In the lower pic, my finger nail is marking how deep the probe goes into that hole! You can see I haven't had to rasp out too deep, but I've made it a long shallow scoop so there will be plenty of glue area and no sharp corners. The hard bit will be to find some matching wood. I do actually have the bottom part of the stave from which the bow was made! Mind I'm not sure if it will be long enough.