another mollie w/pics

[OffTiller]

getting ready to finish up my next bow. wondering how the tiller looks. this is my best tiller by far, looks slightly stiff near the handles, but my understanding you only want the limb bending slightly towards handle near full draw with a mollie. the bow on the post is unbraced, braced and the one near the grass is unbraced after about 10 shots and 30 mins of being braced. Also a few full draw pics.
Specs:
69" ntn
heat treated hickory board w/bw riser and build up for levers
2" wide limbs
2" fades
string follow is top limb 1/2" and bottom 0"
no measurable set.......yet

curious about tiller before i start breaking in and finishing. thanks again everyone.

[BOWMAN53]

how wide are the levers? unless they are really thin you couldve gotten away without the walnut underlays, which are adding weight. the bow look s great though.

[OffTiller]

bowman - the levers are 5/8 of an inch wide and just about 1 in deep. I kinda overbuilt them to allow wiggle room for finishing(wood was from an all bw bow that blew up, just love bw). i will bring width to 3/8 inch or leave it 5/8 for engraving.

bow 101 - i actually don't see any set yet and is something that will not bother me. i just want it to stay together longer than 200 shots. my draw length is actually 28. i was on an incline and i think maybe i was leaning a little forward, as it does look short.

thanks for the comments. I have taken my time on this one and i just hope nothing causes any issues. one thing i was worried about was being unbacked at that weight and design. It's 65# at 28. but had great grain though and this being my first unbacked bow, i am worried because i know i haven't perfected my eye for tiller yet.

[huisme]

I'd go as far as to say those levers can taper in thickness regardless of width. They're gorgeous, but the idea of a molle is that those tips will be as close to non-existent as possible

Great bend, and that itty bitty bit of set is nothing to worry about man

[JonW]

If you still have weight to drop I would work up into the handle some. Tiller looks pretty good.

[beartail]

do it stack any? or is it smooth as snot on a door knob?i bet it chucks arrers like lightning!!!

[George Tsoukalas]

I never made a mollie but I think it looks great! Jawge

[OffTiller]

huisme, i thought about tapering the tips but read a few of blackhawks (i believe) posts and he mentioned almost no taper for levers and just running straight from fades. if i remember correctly mass was a reason for that. out from my second fade it goes right to 5/8 inch straight to tip-no tapering. I might be mistaken, and not having a front pic posted you cant see it, but that was my thinking behind building up my underlay. Was i correct in that? i appreciate it.

Jon W, thanks for the suggestion. my goal was 65#, i wanted to push myself with this one. I know board bows are referenced as "cookie cutter" bows but, all i have available to me. I still don't have the nerve to cut down a living tree, let it dry and blow it up. I don't know if my skill is there yet where i'm confident to pull it off. this being a higher weight , unbacked bow, i wanted to see how far i could push design and wood and hickory is from what i read, one of the most forgiving woods, and so far so good (fingers still crossed). but i know what you mean - still looks slightly stiff toward handle but i can feel it give just slightly at full draw.

beartail, i don't feel any stack and although a little shocky, it's the smoothest and fastest bow i've built yet. thanks.

Jawge, to hear that from a legend like yourself really means a lot. I hope when i get it finished it's met with the same approval.

thanks everyone.

[huisme]

Almost no taper, yes, but you'll notice all of his levers are narrow and not more than twice the thickness of the working limb. My levers barely taper as well, and what taper there is is me pushing the limits of how much mass I can remove while maintaining a mostly-stiff and stable lever, but they're really puny if I've done them right.

Reducing the levers should get rid of most of that shock you mentioned

[Marc St Louis]

Looks good to me as well.  If you're worried about short/overdrawing the bow when taking pics then just use an arrow of the right length.

[blackhawk]

When you go to reduce your levers measure the thickness of the thinnest part of your working limb,which should be right before it transitions to the levers....for a starting reference point reduce your lever thickness to an 1/8" bigger and go from there as far and as much as ya dare...I usually end up taking a lil more off,but the 1/8" thicker rule is a good start point to quickly reduce it to,then go from there....then make your lever 3/4" wide tapering to as close to a 1/4" at the tips as you dare and can get carefully...and make sure its a half inch wide 6" from the tips...and I do a subtle taper in the thickness of my levers

[DarkSoul]

In my opinion, mollie levers can bend slightly. As long as they don't take set. When you have to move a big boulder with a 2x3, why should that lever not bend? The 2x3 still acts as a lever, even if it's bending.

(Can 'o worms )

[huisme]

In my opinion, mollie levers can bend slightly. As long as they don't take set. When you have to move a big boulder with a 2x3, why should that lever not bend? The 2x3 still acts as a lever, even if it's bending.

(Can 'o worms )

I get my levers bending if they're straight enough (though right now I'm in a sick habit of making funky levers ). It's less mass to move. Thing is though, with a belly surface area of next to nothing, really bad chrysals happen pretty quick.

[OffTiller]

thanks everyone for the feed back. It's been a minute, i've been getting my butt kicked at work. I know now that i need to better my levers and tips. So to begin pursuing that, I think i should start be adding overlay's and after that, start on narrowing my tips and levers.
I am thinking about bw tip overlay's to keep the integrity of my bow. Is this too soft a wood? I don't have anything but wood at my disposal. After i get the overlay's on and shaped, I am going to reduce the thickness or the width first on my levers? Does it matter which i do first? I was thinking width, so i don't end up turning my levers into limbs. Once that's is done I am going to re-toast the belly (lightly), finish up my handle, decorate and seal her up. Can I toast limbs and seal in same day? As i said i will do lightly, should i wait to "re-hydrate" before i seal her up? Thanks for everything.

[bubby]

I've used lot's of black walnut for overlays, heck patb uses leather soaked with super glue