Splicing on Tips

Now the bow is 60" long, which in theory could give a 30" draw if tillered expertly with good wood and a sound design... But, this stave is full of character knots and bumps, I also want it to be smooth and reliable rather than operating on the edge and stacking at 28"draw.

As an illustration of that, I have a terrible confession, the character bow that shared "Bow of the Month" exploded some time after, I glued it back together as a memento/wall hanger, mind that one was full of discolouration, rot, burrs and streaks which is why it was pretty.

Anyhow, back to this one, it has one big character bulge which will give at least a 1" stiff area another couple of knotty areas, these will reduce the actual working limb.
I'm thinking I'll splice an extra 2" onto each tip. I've sketched up what I'll do, and picked out a nice off cut of Oregon Yew. The extra length will allow gracefully tapered stiff tips, while leaving the full length of the original stave to remain a bit wider and flex closer to it's ends.

I jumped in and made a start on it this morning, there is only so much thinking and prevaricating one can do before trusting yourself and going for it. I already have a good feeling about doing this, as the splice will add extra strength and stability to that longitudinal split in the sapwood. (If you click on the pic of the splice to enlarge it, you can see the crack, it actually runs up into the splice and on to the centre line). I took some rough dimensions for the tips from "Twister" my go to Yew primitive.
I've also picked out a couple of loose knots, they went very deep, I put in a little low viscosity superglue to help seal out any moisture if I leave 'em hollow like that, although I may fill 'em with wax.
I've ordered some more glue, Cascamite this time, it's the same stuff as Resintite, but i found a supplier via E-bay that does smaller tubs (220g, or half a pound in old money) which is useful, as it does have a shelf life and the 1.5kg tub just doesn't get used up.
Progress may ease off a bit next week as we have visitors for a couple of odd days. I've also got endless pension phone calls to make and paperwork to fill out too (my excitement knows no bounds).

Really noticed it getting cold here, I'm thinking of going to the ILAA Roving Marks shot at Windsor Great Park early December, but I'll need to keep a weather eye out, if it's fine it will be cold and if it's warm it may be soaking wet. Once it's below 10 degrees C or I get wet I get even more irascible!

Update:- I've got both splices cut fitted and glued and clamped, I've taken a lot of trouble to get a good fit and hopefully a near invisible glue line. I'll be able to have a look at 'em tomorrow, I may bring it indoors overnight, the glue will have gelled by then so it won't be dripping and making a mess and it will be warmer than the garage.