Eli Kharmarov once said "One failure is worth seven and a half successes." Well, it looks like I made seven and a half bows today then, because my first one just failed, somewhat spectacularly. I was thankfully unhurt, but rattled none the less as it very much violently imploded towards my face. Whoever said eye protection was useless has obviously never made bows. But as always, pictures:
The three pieces created from one in about 1/10th of a second
A slightly blurry view of the top limb's fade and glue line.
The whole piece. Notice on the left the glue failed whereas on the right it held, instead ripping along the grain of the wood itself.
Top limb, showing the glue failure.
Bottom limb, showing where the glue held.
A different view of the glued riser. You can see the ragged edge of the bottom limb where the glue held, and the nearly straight edge where the glue failed.
Several things seem to have contributed to the failure. Obviously, I must have glued the riser improperly, as that was where the bow failed initially. Limited to that, the bow would probably have lived a long and happy life, but after I piked it to bring up the weight, the added stress was too much for the glue to handle. After 10 arrows, the riser gave way and there was a violent self-destruction within my hands. I don't plan on repeating this mistake, and using some more effective methods hope to do better than that in the future. The next one, a longer hickory self bow, will almost certainly hold up better given this learning opportunity and a much more forgiving materiel to work with. Hickory has a reputation for being incredibly strong, and more forgiving of errors so I hope to make a more durable bow.
