I am building a straight limb longbow and had to shorten it up a bit to hit my target weight. I had to let it sit a time so I put a couple of coats of tru-oil on it to keep the high Michigan humidity out. When I got back to it I glued some Whitetail antler tips on the ends to give it a little strength and dress it up a bit. I sanded the glass to remove the tru-oil and glued them on with Smooth On. I have the lower limb done and moved to to upper and it came off. I need some help with a glue to put it back together so this can go to a youngster to have fun with.

Did you remove the porus material from the inside of the antler, it doesn't glue well. Smooth on should have held it. Super glue may work if your in a hurry.

I use gorilla super glue but I only build wood bows. I would think it would work on glass too.

I had the antler down to about 1/8 inch thick and it came from next to the base. I don't see any pores. I did not heat the smooth on and was hogging off material with a small belt sander, maybe to much heat?

Some others may have a better solution, but I just made a knife with a deer antler handle glued on and I used JB Weld, the 2 part mix just like epoxy. It's black when mixed so it will match that limb color perfect and it will stick to anything. You can sand it, drill it, tap it, whatever once it cures, it's good stuff. That's what I would use.

Thick CA glue.

Another vote for thick superglue for tip overlays.

"I did not heat the smooth-on"...that was the problem. Superglue or an epoxy will work fine. I'd sand the surfaces that will be glued with a very coarse sandpaper.

I would seal the antler with CA(some will wick in), then sand both it and the glass with 60 or so grit till well roughed up, then use the CA or smoothon to reglue.

I use CA all the time on my own bows,coat both surfaces and clamp for 10 min.

From here it doesn't look like the glass was rough enough.

The only tip ever to come off for me was antler as well, and I am sure the porous bone soaked up too much glue making a dry glue joint!

I bet the pores and the heat was a factor. I had a knife come apart when I was using a belt sander to shape the handle. I was sanding a thick brass spacer and let it get too hot.

Do like Kenny said. You have to seal the antler with super glue first. I like thin glue for this and gel glue to attach the overlay. I use rubber band to wrap tip overlays til the glue dries. Cheap and it holds evenly and well. Other clamp styles can be a pain with irregular surfaces like with antler.

Ditto on the rubber bands..

Thanks for the help guys. I'll try the thick CA glue and post pictures when its finished.

Todd

Coat the flat antler surface with thin ca first, a lot of it will absorb into the small pores of the antler. Let it dry for 10-20 minutes. Hit it with 60 or 80 grit paper. Blow the dust off it and apply thick ca glue to both surfaces and attach it on the bow tip with about 4 rubber bands wrapped as tight as you can get them. It will be fine then.

is that an all glass bow? or just glass on the back?

I also use super glue and rubber bands.

Gorilla Super glue and the problem is solved.

God bless you, Steve

Asnbli: The bow is glass belly and back elm cores with a thin piece of walnut for color. Riser is walnut and zebrawood with accents of bloodwood and white phenolic.

Ca glue seems to be holding. Getting close to a finish and then I will post Pictures.

Todd

I thought humidity doesn't affect glass bows?

The wood is just there to hold the glass together correct?