A Red Oak Molly... (Please help me finish the tiller work...)

[Onebowonder]

Here is a Red Oak Molly I am building for a very patient person who has been waiting way too long for me to get it finished.  It is pulling 52 pounds at 20 inches draw right now.  The target is 50 - 45 lbs at 28 inches draw.  I have broken or ruined 4 bows on the way to making this one, ...so I'm a bit nervous about bringing it in the rest of the way without any problems.  The pic where the bow is drawn is out to right at 20 inches.

OneBow

[papoints]

Lol- I can't tiller a bow to save my life.  I am real good at making firewood.  But I know one thing for sure- I dig the handle on that sucker.

[Zion]

looks pretty good, i would reduce the mass on the very tips a little tho ( in depth.) That handle looks cool.

[Blaflair2]

Don't hate me if I try this design. Looks sweet. Keep us posted on tillering!

[HighlandRanger]

That is a really sweet looking bow!

[Newindian]

How long is it, you handle appears very long, that along with the levers you probably have very little working limb

[bushboy]

Hard to tell from the angle but the upper limb could bend more in the inner limb.looks like you got it on a long string? I would go for a 6" brace height and study it.measure the tip height when laid on a flat surface.I tiller pretty much by the way the brace looks,then get someone to take a photo at full draw.for me the brace says everything.

[SLIMBOB]

Are they breaking in the fades?  Appears to me that as cool as that looks, you might be getting some torque with that shape.  If so, the thin handle and fades just might not hold up.  Just my guess.

[dbb]

Im with Newindian on this one,that handle is very long.
I think you need to get all the fullwidth limb to work.

[Onebowonder]

OK - Some measurements are in order...

This Molly is a big girl.  She's just under 74" tip to tip, 72" ntn.  The 'working' portion of each limb is 16 inches, and they are 2.5 inches wide.  Her levers are 11.5 inches long with 2.5 inch lever fades.  The handle, as was noted above is huge, (...too huge probably as I have a habit of over designing.)  The canted Z-handle area itself is 9 inches long with 3 inches of fade on either side of it.  Her tips are still pretty heavy at 1/2 an inch thickness and about an inch in depth.  I figure I can start working those down a bit more after I get her tiller set.  By my calculations, she's right at the 60/40 ratio.

I worked on her some more last night and this morning and have her tillered out to about 53 lbs at 28" and I'm stopping there.  I figure she'll lose a couple pounds of draw weight with final sanding and finish work.  My normal draw length is only 25-26 inches, so working this bow at 28 inches has put a real pinch in my shoulder socket!

Today I'm trying to decide whether or not to apply silk to the working portions of her limbs for extra safety.  I had planned to from the start, but this wood has turned our soooo pretty that I might prefer to leave it just showing off the wood grain.  Hard to decide...

OneBow

[Ifrit617]

good luck with it holding together. I made a red oak molly once with perfect tiller with 14" working portions of the limbs and it chrysaled within 500 shots along the whole working portion of both limbs. Just under designed. Hope yours holds up better! and take some mas off those tips.

Jon

[Onebowonder]

OK, having no real certainty on the issue, I just flipped a coin and decided to go ahead with the silk backing on the working portion of the limbs.  I'll send up a few pix later if it goes well...   

...Oh, and having heard the chorus of sane critiques, I'll work down those tips as well!

OneBow