Finally made a ****ty bow. Bow #4 was put together hastily, did not receive a backing, had poor grain, twisted limbs, and cracked during tillering.

I took it outside and smashed it against a tree to vent. I also saved the riser (because at least THAT was good).

It now rests in an apartment public trashcan. What a waste of oak  :mad:

(oh yeah, feel free to post any related ventings in this thread  :p )

Welcome to the club, I broke a dozen before I got a decent wood bow. A big thing to consider in new mexico would be moisure, most hardwoods are overdried, needs to be at least 8% moisture for a bow. I bought a cheap pin moisture meter from Harbor frieght for $25 a few years ago, best bowmaking tool I ever bought. Most of the wood I had was too dry, but came up after being left in a moist basement for a week or so. Then I made several bows in a row without breaking one.

Yaeh that happens to everyone dont feel bad!! limbcracker has a very good point if the wood is to dry its very brittle if its to wet it will take a large amount of set,so if you dont have a moisture tester i would look into it!!

nice job! Now you can call yourself a bowyer. Sorry for your loss. We have all been there.

Built a R/D bow from IPE backed with bamboo, shaped it ang hung it on the wall, over a wall heater for several months. When I got time to finish the bow it broke at 26" draw. The bow flew across the shop into my floor fan, thru the grill. I have built a number of these bows with great success, do you guys think the bow dried out and got brittle. Important becasue I glued up two of these and really conserned about tillering the last one.

yea you want to keep them away from heat sources, it will dry out the wood and it needs to have the right moisture content to stay in its pliable state. also some glue will break down with heat. titebond and most room temp curing epoxies included. epoxies you have to bake are usually resilient to heat as long as its within reason.i havent worked with ipe but im guessing it being a tropical hardwood it needs its fair share of moisture.

all my in progress staves/ bows stay in the concrete floored shop till theyre finished to keep the moisture content stabilised, i work with alot of board staves and have had very good success with them, my storage method probably contributing to putting some much needed moisture back into the kiln dried wood.

i finally broke free of a LONG string of red oak bow explosions by moving to Hickory instead.  MUCH more forgiving.

I can't remember who said it here first but "if you ain't breakin, you ain't makin" I have ony got two shooting and there not completely done. I put them on hold for my trade bow.

The first few osage staves I got my hands on I just trashed in a hurry but I had fun and learned a bunch.

The first one I thought was gonna come through snapped at mid limb when I took her to full draw. My wife was standing there and her eyes got real big, I'm sure she expected to come apart next but I just took a deep breath and laughed a little when the old saying crossed my mind. "If you ain't breakin' you ain't makin"

Stiks

lol my girlfriend refuses to come within 20 feet of my work area when i got a bow on the tillering tree after she saw/ heard a crack form in a limb. i told her thats part of what makes it so fun is that you cant tell till the very end whether or not youre going to be successful.

That was Ole jawge who said that, Sticks? Desert Fox, sounds like you were making a board bow. How was the grain? Probably not good? Info on my site. Jawge
http://georgeandjoni.home.comcast.net/~georgeandjoni/