That bow's looking great, Ajooter!
So, I've made more progress on the bow. Here's a pic of the new tips. This tip is the one that malfunctioned:
Here's how it looks with a tight long string (this is actually a new string that I thought I made short enough, but as it was new, it stretched a wee bit):
After pulling the bow down to 12" and seeing it was bending right after being shortened (and to see if the tip would hold... so far so good!!), I went ahead and got it to a low brace! And after a few twists, here she is at about a 4" brace.
I didn't pull on her, as the limbs aren't even. I wanted to take a look at how the string was looking down the belly...
As you can see, not dead even. I'm pretty sure this is the problem:
Even though the profile of the back is looking great, the profile of the belly isn't so even. The right side of this limb doesn't taper like the left. So, I think I'll know the wood on the belly to make it even, then string the bow back up (maybe take a few twists out to have a little lower brace), and see what the profile looks like before starting to bend the bow again.