First bow, a self bow board mollegabet

[Wiley]

I've been working on this one for about a week. Originally it was going to be a board bow like the build along on poorfolkbows. Once I got the shape cut out, I noticed that the grain on the side of one of the tips took a turn towards what I then decided would be the belly, or rather the wood decided for me, because of the runoff I decided to leave the tips static and the design became a mollegabet.

I decided early on if my first bow survived to shoot an arrow it would be a successful first attempt. It survived my inexperienced tillering out to my full draw. I'm not even exactly sure what my full draw length is but it made it there without making any crazy noises, exploding, hinging, or lifting a splinter. Haven't quite shot it in yet, and still have a bit more work to do on the grip and maybe trimming as much mass as I feel comfortable off the tips as they are quite wide at the moment. It was made without a scale, and came out probably around 30-35# at my draw length, judging by the feel of my old 25# recurve. Around 69" ntn.

It's not as wide as it should be for this style of bow, but I remembered half-eye saying they could be made under 2" if aiming for a low poundage. Because it's not very wide, it took some set during tillering but I expected this to happen . I imagine this set increase a bit after shooting it in some more.

There are so many of you to thank for helping make this bow happen. It would have failed without me being on here learning all I have from you people.




I'll get a full draw picture tomorrow.

[half eye]

Looks damned fine so far as I can see. Cant wait for the draw picture. A little set is not gonna hurt a thing either, especially on the lever bows.
rich

[Wiley]

Half Eye, you encouraged me to go take a picture of it on the tillering tree.

[huisme]

It could stand to bend more in the outer working limb, but wow that is great for a first bow, and a mollegabet of all things! I want to see your front profile, it looks like you could have wicked thin levers if you don't already.

Some of us wish our fifth looked like your first, nice job

[4est Trekker]

Nice start   Rich is far more the expert than me on this type of bow, but in the few I've made I've really struggled to get the entire working portion of the limb bending evenly.  It appears you've got an elliptical profile to your working limbs.  See if you can't get the area closer to the lever transition bending a little more.  That'll "stave" off necessary set, too (pardon the pun).

[Wiley]

I was thinking similarly, might work them down on the outer limbs a bit more but its already at my draw length, right limb out of the fade could match the other one a bit better too.

Thank you for the kind words huisme. I'll go take a picture of the front profile. The tips are still very wide, and could stand to lose quite a bit of mass. I decided to focus on the tiller before putting work into thinning the levers in case it exploded on me. I do kind of worry about the serious runoffs on one of the tips, I fear if I make them wicked thin it will compromise their integrity.

[Wiley]

Here is the front profile.


And here is the side of one of the levers where the grain decide to change direction, the other side looks ok though. It's what makes me worry about thinning the levers down a whole lot, but I plan to thin them down at least some.

[PAHunter]

Great first bow!  And I can tell from your attitude you future bows will only improve.  You will find that you could have made it a bit shorter and much lighter.  But the heck with that for now, go get some arrows and have some fun!!

[huisme]

That's about what I do, hold off on refining the skinny things until I've got a nice tiller. If you're interested in my current mollegabet process I did a build along: http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,44858.0.html

I wouldn't sacrifice integrity for skinniness, good call. Make sure the fibers run from the base of the lever to the nock along the back before doing any scraping there. I would make the base of the lever skinnier, though, if that's possible; it's easy to leave a lot of excess mass there because it looks like that area needs to be a lot bigger, but the strength of the levers comes from their thickness compared to the limbs' width.

[Wiley]

I do have some some neat stuff called jabroc laying around. It's a very high density beech laminate used for skidplates on race cars. A lamination of that and I could make the tips wicked thin. I will probably thin the base of the levers down a bit, maybe get the ends of the working limbs bending a bit more and leave the jabroc for a future project.

And huisme, great build along. Soon i'm going to go and cut some white oak or hickory, and if I decide on another mollegabet I will use it for a reference.

[berzerk64]

Following with great interest!

[Wiley]

It's mostly finish work from here, Berzerk. If your a new or aspiring bowyer my advice is to read at least the first volume of the Traditional Bowyers Bible, follow the build alongs of others, learn everything you can here, and get yourself a piece of wood to make into a bow. If at first you don't succeed, try again. Edit: Nevermind, I just saw your thread on your sinew backed ash, you seem to have a pretty good grasp on what your doing.

[berzerk64]

Always learning! I was looking at a Mollie next, or at least soon. I have a friend with north European ancestry who wants something that would be representative of the region his forefathers came from.

Note - I am guilty of making as much kindling as anything, though that happens much less frequently now.