[Archers] archery loaner gear and equipment program - a thought

[Sally Dodson]

As someone that sports a scar from 5 stitches in my hand from having a freaky weird accident of a bow breaking in my hand and I still after 2 years occassionally have pain in my hand too my opinion is that we need to make sure these bows are safe AND reliable before letting newbies or anyone at all use them. 
My question would be if there was any way in on the range to determine of the PVC is stressed and ready to break and if there is, would a marshal be able to determine if it is painted too?
 
I would hate to see anyone injured out on the range by one of these bows or see a newbie's enthuiasm crushed because of it.
 
Regards-
Nichola
 

________________________________
 From: Garth Groff <ggg9y at virginia.edu>
To: archers at seahorse.atlantia.sca.org 
Sent: Tuesday, April 24, 2012 1:15 PM
Subject: Re: [Archers] archery loaner gear and equipment program - a thought
  

Lord Christophe,

Our only reason for rejecting them should be safety, since they
    otherwise meet our rather relaxed requirements for form and
    function. As these aren't factory-made bows with (hopefully)
    consistent quality control, I think we must have senior marshals
    carefully evaluate every one on a case-by-case basis, each time they
    are presented. The skill of the bowyer is going to have a lot to do
    with how safe they are.  What you say about PVC pipe is a red flag,
    and an unpainted, or unwrapped bow will need even greater scrutiny.
    A bow that passes inspection when new might not be safe in a few
    months.

We probably will only be able to make a blanket rule about them when
    we have some experience with their reliability, or lack there of. We
    could learn a lot if we built a couple and put them to use.

Yours Aye,


Mungo


On 4/24/2012 1:00 PM, John Atkins wrote: 
 
>Folks if you go to his site, backyardbowyer.com, and click on Other, then select Youtube you see his videos on how he makes his bows, breakage tests, etc.  I’ve been told by others that the poundage is a product of the piping used.  Thinner diameter, less poundage, also schedule 40 versus schedule 80. 
>  
>My first concern was the effect of sun light on PVC piping.  My first job out of college was running the marine aquaculture lab for San Diego State University.  I learned how to plumb PVC piping from ¼ inch to 10 inch diameter.  I KNOW PVC pipe.  One major issue with it is that after a year or so in sun light it becomes so brittle that if you step on it, it breaks.  He covers this in his videos saying that painting the bow protects it from the damaging UV rays.  I bought a piece of pipe to try to make one to test it out.  If/when I get it finished and tested I’ll report back. 
>  
>My main reason from bringing this up is that I am beginning to hear more about these bows from several folks in my area.  I expect that we will begin to see these bows showing up on our ranges.  We need to decide how we are going to handle them BEFORE that date.  i.e. Will we accept them, we will reject them?  If we reject them, we need to have a good solid reason for rejection.  I recall several years ago an archer took their newly purchased bow to the range at Pennsic where it was rejected.  This was one of those $40 black all fiberglass bows and the archer bought it from Elk Ridge Archery which is a very reputable and SCA friendly bowyer.  The archer took it back to Elk Ridge and told them what the marshals had said.  When Deb, Joe’s wife and co-owner, took the bow back to the range to ask why it was rejected, all they said was “That’s a bad bow”.  No justification or reason as to why or what.  There was nothing wrong with the
 bow.  I would rather not be in that position with these PVC bows. 
>  
>Just saying, 
>cog
>   
 
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