"TakeDown" Explodes!

I'm going to a shoot tomorrow at Avalon (weather permitting) and I'd made half a dozen new arrows.
I thought I'd test shoot them through TakeDown which is the bow I was going to take tomorrow. It's 40# which is a bit lighter than Twister.
First shot I hear a slight cracking/creaking, was it the string in nocks? I felt over the bow, nothing untoward. Second shot, there it was again... still couldn't see anything. Third shot BANG and I got a nice whack across my left tit from the upper limb.
The point where it broke is fairly predictable. It looks like the bamboo back gave way where it's thinned to go into the socket. Easy to be wise after the event (Any fool could see it would break there!) and it didn't help that the bow had an arrow pass inlaid on either side.
I'll know next time to leave the backing going right down into the socket next time and to barely (if at all) cut into it. It could have done with more thick grip section above the join*, but it was never originally built to be a takedown. All good learning experience. The fibres in the 'boo show up nicely in the lower pic'

The upside is that the lower limb is fine and I can made a delightfully mismatched upper limb to investigate the phenomenon of limb timing with odd limb lengths, weights, materials etc. It will make a novelty bow... If I take it to a shoot I can say it's half longbow half primitive!
Dunno what I'm going to shoot tomorrow now, but fortunately I have a few to choose from, although I might have to change bow category.
Shame as it was a V fast smooth bow to shoot and I don't have a takedown to show.

The distance from nock to the break is 31", and from the break to the top of the socket 3".
If we consider the limb as a lever and the point where the limb thickens into the grip (the fade) as the fulcrum. Then near enough 10:1 leverage, so with 40 pounds on the end, it was exerting 400 pounds! (Or about 1/5 of a ton if you think in those terms).
Looking closer, it's maybe nearer 32": 2" which is 16:1 and gives 640 pounds, so in reality it's prob' somewhere between.
No wonder it tore the bamboo where it is stepped down.
I'm sure this analysis isn't probably technically correct in it's detail, but the whole point of physics and maths is to make stuff understandable. In the context of natural materials I think it's probably reasonable. If anyone feels like drawing it up into into a CAD system, I'd be V interested to see one of those pictures that shows the stress in different colours.

I was looking for a bow to shoot tomorrow, and picked up a scruffy character Yew stick bow (here:-
http://bowyersdiary.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/stick-bow.html )
I thought I'd check out my arrows with it... first arrow, thwack, dead centre in the scrap of paper pinned to my target boss! I immediately decide that the runty little stick bow had booked it's place on the shoot.
I checked it on the tiller, just about 40# at 28" I tidied it up a bit round the nocks and arrow pass and gave it a good wipe of bees wax polish.

Knotty Yew Heat Treated

The bow is slowly getting there, The heat treating pulled it back to shape a bit taking the ugly deflex from the tips but leaving it in the centre.
The irritating thing was it shifted a bit sideways by about half an inch which needed some heavy duty heat straightening.
I got it up on the tiller (see pic) and took some video, here's a still, showing how it's a nicer shape and it's stiffened up, now being 50# at about 21" (it was about 23" before heat treatment).
More work has been done rasping away at the belly (which has removed the scorching) the wood is palpably crisper and harder now.
I've also been improving the sides, narrowing the tips and generally tidying it up. Now it's back to about 24", with a nicer full bellied bend starting to show. It's a bit scary with the big knot, but hopefully the pristine back will hold it together.
Dunno if I'll ever have the balls to pull it the full 32", we'll see.

I may add another pic later, mind I'm busy mending the electric shower... the solenoid failed in the open position causing a panic phone call to me asking where the stop cock was, whilst I was at work! A watery disaster was averted.

Knotty Yew Progress

It's now at 50# at 23". I've done a video where I talk about it and show the problems.
https://youtu.be/LTQr_svYsDk
I intend to get it somewhere near 50# at 25" and then heat treat the belly whilst removing some of the deflex and set. After that I can narrow it and hopefully proceed to 28" and beyond...

Visit from a Bowyer

Jamie from Ravenbeak in Canada is over in UK for a month doing a couple of bow making workshops at The Longbow Shop, taking in the Mary Rose museum at Portsmouth, the Tower of London and a couple of roving marks shoots with the ILAA.
He wanted it meet up, and as we're well positioned for getting into London on his travels we put him up overnight on Thursday.

It was great, I don't often get to talk at length to a fellow bowyer and he doesn't often see another bowyers workshop. We had a play with all the weird bows and the Chinese Repeater of course. He pulled up all his stuff on the internet and I was green with envy at the quality and quantity of the Yew he has over there... the stuff I get to work with wouldn't even warrant a second glance if he saw it growing. Mind that's not to say we haven't got decent Yew, it's just the availability of it. Running him back to the station on Friday I took a detour and showed him a fine stand of local ancient Yew in a nearby church, I'd forgotten how big the trees were... they are huge. I also showed him a nice row of big coppiced Hazel along one of the cycle tracks which looks like an explosion of bow staves.

My mate JT dropped in while Jamie was here to show him some of his Warbows including the biggest I've made (130# Yew) and one of my Elm ones. We were sitting in the sun lounge on the two little sofas Me Jamie JT and Sophie the cat taking the fourth seat looking on with interest as great long warbows were being examined with the prospect of a nock getting pushed through a window at any moment!

We kept him fed and plied him with my home made cider and had a taste of the Plum wine from August, it's still a bit young, but very fruity with a hint of fizz and quite sweet as it's still slowly fermenting. We gave him apple pie and custard as an English pudding... "what's custard?" he asked.
Ah the delights of proper custard!

He was telling us how on the West coast of Canada the climate and vegetation is very similar to here and how our back garden looked just the same as over there... the big difference is the mountains, the Yew, the animal life... it made me want to get off my backside and move! Plentiful Yew and Black bears! What's not to like? he said they don't even suffer from too many nasty poisonous critters like some parts of the world and it's cold enough to season the Yew with the bark on.

The pic' shows us with my two latest bows the Yew molle' and the Yew ELB.

We looked at the badly seasoned stave I'm working on and put it up on the tiller, I'd done a bit of work on it to get if flexing better so he could see what I was working on. We discussed how it was starting to move and he could see my problem of not being able to step back far enough to view it due to the garage being so narrow. I showed him the camera mount on the wall and he could see why it was so useful for me to take video and then review it indoors.
That bow is now at a bout 5" brace and is drawing 50# at 20", some set has returned and I may well heat treat it and pull it straight once it's coming back a bit further. There are still some impressive cracks running through to the pith, but it's generally looking more like a bow. Dunno if I'll ever have the cojones to pull it to the full 32" but we'll see how it progresses. Maybe I'll leave the bit of set/deflex and just straighten the tips, both of which have a little ugly deflex bend.
Video here:-
https://youtu.be/_Pnc3vds8Q0

Steam Straightened Stave

The stave that was warping and cracking is now back to being straight. I've got a busy week so it will have a few days to settle down, I'm going to leave it strapped to the 2x2 on the warm radiator and then probably give it 24 hours back in the garage before starting work on it again.
Mean while here are some pics. The steam has draw out some purplish colour from the wood, and some of the cracks have opened up from the central pith to the belly. The cracks look alarming, but they are very shallow, much better having them coming out to the belly than running deep into the bow. Dunno how the stave would have been if I'd used the side with the wider rings and didn't have the pith to contend with, however that side had the natural deflex. Who knows, but the received wisdom is that the tighter rings are some how "better", not that I have any real evidence for this. My decision for cutting was based on the the clean state of that face of the log, the look of the sapwood and the reflex. The other side which was cut off, doesn't have enough thickness left in the centre for a big bow so I can't make two bows and compare. We have to work with the wood we have in front of us and live with the decisions we make (no charge for the homespun philosophy!).

Yew Longbow 70@28"

The longbow is now finished apart from a few coats of Danish Oil and some buffing up of the nocks.

This is the bow that was partly finished here:-
http://bowyersdiary.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/roughed-out-yew-molle-and-heat-bend.html
It
Here's a few pics with it's nice new string at a good full 28" draw.
You can just about make out the arrow plate, it's very subtle but has a nice bit of figure in it. The bow is fairly pale over all but will darken up a bit with time.

Fashion notes:-Those baggy sleeves aren't very good for shooting.

Sunday:-
Meanwhile the stave that was warping and cracking has been steamed straightened in 3 sections over the course of the day, I'll give it a day or so to recover and start work on it again.

Warping vs Set

My suspicions have been confirmed.
The stave that was showing signs of not being fully seasoned was left with one limb strapped up to a length of 2x2 on my long warm radiator.
I could hardly believe my eyes this morning, the strapped limb hasn't moved any further, but overall the bow has taken on a lot of bend. With the tips placed on the floor there is a 3" gap between floor and the belly measured at the centre. The good news is the bend is pretty much in line with the desired direction of bend of the bow (E.G In line rather than sideways) I could claim that's due to my skill in selecting where to cut the log, but it's probably more luck than judgement!
Note:- There is a pic of the stave on the shave horse in this post, you can see how it was straight:-
http://bowyersdiary.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/the-devils-in-detail.html

Now, had this just been made into a bow it would have been seen as a poor bow with a load of  "set". It just goes to show how tricky wood is.
I believe the stave has been cut for several years but has been in an old garage partially open to the elements.
I've had this sort of problem before where wood has been just left in a pile with a tarpaulin over it.

To season wood properly it must be off the ground, protected from rain and with plenty of air circulation around it. Ideally it should be split or sawn into halves or quarters as appropriate, and the end sealed. In the UK I leave the bark on but in some countries it may be best removed and the wood treated to prevent insects laying eggs in it and the grubs feeding on it.

Hopefully the longbow stave has dried considerably now. I'll strap it up and heat bend/heat treat the belly. This should get it back to a sensible shape ensure it's dried through and toughen up the belly a bit. The bark has all popped off now, so hopefully in a few days it will be ready to start tillering again.