I assume you are making a mollie. I think a half inch might be too thick on the levers, but thats one of the few things on a mollie you can adjust later if need be. . My first mollie had 1/2" wide levers and a fair amount of hand shock to go with it. I took them down to just under 3/8" and it really helped and made the side profile narrower. They did have a slight taper narrowing to the tips(maybe another 1/16"). My levers were still pretty wide from the side though, compared to others I've seen. I liked how they looked though. I also think you could make the levers longer if you wanted or the bow shorter. I've done them with both long and short levers. The speed seems to increase with the lever length/working limb ratio, but so does the stress on the limbs and stacking of the draw weight. I tried pushing my last one. It was HHB, 56" ttt, with 9" levers and I went for a 65-70 draw @28". That one took some set, well... a lot of set, the most of any bow I made that survived. It also developed a slight hinge, it's in the rework/boredom pile at the moment. I wish I wouldn't have tried for too much, it had potential. Should have went with more working limb and 4" longer overall, and possibly some perry reflex.