Busy Time

My mate Rob came over last week Thurs' and gave me a couple of Yew logs and a couple of Elm, he brought a couple of lengths of timber and a broken bow for an autopsy too. There was some confusion regarding the timber identification... it's tricky at the best of times. I think he had the right species, but not necessarily in the right order! I think the broken bow was Lemon wood and it had only broken due to the grain running diagonally back to belly on one limb. I clamped the other limb in the vice and heaved mightily on the tip, it bent in a lovely curve showing his tiller was ok. Generally lemonwood is used on the belly of backed bows (Hickory backed Lemonwood being a common combo). The two lengths of 2x2 were Ash and Hickory, so we got 'em roughed out on the bandsaw with the grain running back to belly as if quarter sawn  like this ||||||||||||.
The Ash was roughed out to be a heavy bow ~90# and the Hickory as a light ladies bow.
Rob pretty much had the Ash bow back to full draw the next day!

Next day I was doing some more on my Hickory flight bow and tidying up. At the weekend I got the Yew and Em run through the bandsaw, the ends painted and up onto the shelving.

On Monday Jeff came up from Folkestone with a half a Yew log that he'd cut himself some years back. We got it roughed out and flexing on the tiller, it was a lot of work crammed into 4 hours with me demonstrating and Jeff doing some of the work too. In the end we had it pulling 60# @ 14 1/2 " on a string that would just slip onto the bow. There are a couple of knots to fill and maybe a little twist to take out of one tip, then another session should get it finished.
While we  were working another friend Piers turned up with a bow that he wanted me to see if I could repair. It was a Chris Boyton bow, two laminations of Yew with a back of a single growth ring of Ash. The was a crack on the back by a couple of tiny pin knots near the handle. I had a quick look and said I'd have a good look and evaluate it later.
That night I had trouble sleeping as my shoulders and elbows were aching!

I decided to take it easy today, but I still had a tinker with the Hickory flight bow, finally getting it to about 50# at 28".

I also had a look at Piers' Boyton Bow. I pulled it to about 26" on the tiller and could see the crack opening a whisker, so it needed repair. I unwrapped the grip and rasped out the cracked area to see how extensive was (not too bad, mostly on the corner) and found some Ash I could patch it with. The crack extends under the grip which makes it a tad tricky, but I'm optimistic.
You can see the two little pin knot where it is rasped out, I've allowed for a long thin patch to give a nice long glue line. Because it's only a about 1/4 of the width of the backing and on the corner it shouldn't be under too much stress. Hopefully it's more prevention than cure.
Whew! I need a bit of a rest! I have lots of projects on the go, but it's better to be busy than bored.