My broken long bow

[Alan R McDaniel Jr]

A while back I refinished an old long bow. I was just getting the hang of shooting one again when SNAP, It was gone. It broke in the handle and precisely at a Joint. I don't know what type of joint it was but it did not break the limbs of the bow. I glued it back together and fashioned a piece of oak as a reinforcement across the front of the handle. I have glued that on but now I am looking for some type of material which will #1. bind all of the above together securely. #2. Be somewhat aesthetically pleasing and yet not add to the already bulkiness of a slim long bow with a chunk of oak tied on the front of it.

I have considered rawhide or even just wet leather

Thanks for any ideas.

Alan

[GF.]

Have you considered fiberglassing it? West System epoxy is probably the strongest thing going, and you can mix it with a little chopped glass fiber to make a thin putty that you use like wood glue. Get that done, and then you might be able to drill & pin with a couple of dowels, using more epoxy.

And of course, if you want it to come out looking fantastic, you just give it to Dave :D

[Alan R McDaniel Jr]

GF, I had not really considered fiberglass because I didn't think it would bind to the linseed soaked bow handle. It might do well if I roughed the handle slightly with some sandpaper. I am a little apprehensive about the whole thing anyway. Perhaps a wrap of fiberglass cloth would do the trick. I am really only interested in functionality as far as this bow is concerned although having it look decent would be nice too.

Thanks for the suggestion.

Alan

[DancesWithKnives]

So duct tape is out?:D

Actually I once had a shovel handle develop a split along the direction of the grain. I tightly wrapped it with some of the fiber filament reinforced shipping tape until I located a new handle. Worked pretty well.

It might be possible to wrap the handle with a thin, non-stretch line---like they use to attach guides to a fishing rod---then apply a thin layer of epoxy.

Something along the lines of epoxy and Fiberglas wrap would probably be pretty strong and durable.

DWK

[GF.]

The linseed oil could definitely cause an adhesion issue.... If you sand down to clean wood, though, and wipe it down with some acetone....The thing about that is that the natural split creates a whole lot of surface area for the adhesion to work with. And tite-bond is supposed to be stronger than wood anyway.....

Or maybe get some really stout superbraid fishing line and wrap it real tight as DWK just suggested...

Hmmmmm..... How dry can you get it? Dry wood shrinks, right?

So maybe first you glue (& maybe peg) it, then dry it as thoroughly as you can, wrap it very tightly (and very neatly) with something like the superbraid, then take the moisture level back up to make the wood swell and tighten up your wraps a little further. You couold probably get enough swelling to leave quite an imprint, if you were to remove the braid.... (noth tat you'd want to ;) )

Then you could either oil or varnish to lock the moisture in, and then stitch a piece of wet rawhide around the whole thing to keep it trad-lookin'. Once that dries out, I don't know how much tighter you could wrap it.....

Reminds me of the Michener book, Centennial, when they repaired a split gunstock that way....

[Alan R McDaniel Jr]

Well, I'm sure most of y'all have heard the old "Uncle Remus" story of Brer Rabbit and dat Tar Baby.

Wall, dis here's da story of Brer Bubba and the "Fiberglass Baby". Lordy what a mess. I learned all the ways not to apply fiberglass resin and cloth to a bow or anything else for that matter. By the time I was through (notice I didn't say finished) my hands looked like a punk rocker chia pet on a bad LSD trip and the bow is going to require some sanding. Everything was going fine until I tried to push one tiny air bubble out of the mat. It was all out of control after that. Gonna let it sit for a couple of days and try again.

Alan

[Greywolf]

Well, I'm sure most of y'all have heard the old "Uncle Remus" story of Brer Rabbit and dat Tar Baby.

Wall, dis here's da story of Brer Bubba and the "Fiberglass Baby".

bow is going to require some sanding.

Everything was going fine until I tried to push one tiny air bubble out of the mat. (:D) It was all out of control after that. Gonna let it sit for a couple of days and try again.

Alan

LMAO , so are you sleeping with the bow tonight?:D