I've been working on a Hickory board bow for the last week or so. The bow is 66" n/n with a 10" riser. On this one I decided yo Kerf (I think this is the correct term) the limbs. After rough cutting the bow, I split the limb in half. I then made a form to re-glue it back together, imparting a recurve tip. About 1 1/4" reflex. I cut it 9" up the limb. I did not use an insert of wood to take up the blade cut as I used a band saw and lost very little material. I have been working on tiller and really had to scrape the belly of the limb to try and get down to 50#. I noticed the belly side of the Kerf cut was getting thinner than the back. I scraped the back to bring the weight down so the belly side of the Kerf cut did not get to thin. Today, while getting close to weight, I noticed a fracture across the limb about 1" from the end of the Kerf cut (8" from the tip). The fracture was perfectly staight across the limb. It did not run with the grain. Almost as if it were cut with a knife straight across. I spread it open, glued it and re-clamped. I'm thinking because the back was thicker than the belly at the Kerf cut, it acted like a backing over powering the belly. Anybody have any ideas or opinions?
Thanks,
Emmett
I would not kerf it into the working section. I have this only to flip the tips or recurve a bow. his means 6" or so to me. Event at that, I am surprised the last 9" of the limb would have that much effect on the weight.
Well the glue didn't work. It's now in the hickory wood pile for smokin meat.
Thanks guys.