Sorry for the long delay, part busy with life and part I'm still feeling a little gun shy on this, so I have been making progress on it, but it's been little by little.
Here's where she stands now. Here's the video of me exercising the bow to 17". I have the bow at a 3" brace now.
https://youtu.be/SOHlKUyxK8gAnd pictures of the bow braced, at the 17" draw, and unbraced right after working on it.
It's sitting right at 40# @ 17". That gives me a little bit of wiggle room to get the limbs right (the goal is 55# @ 29"). My impressions: The fades are not bending as much as the last time I posted (I've been primarily working on the outer 2/3rds of the bow while giving the limbs a general scraping so I don't make a hinge). It looks like the limbs are bending fairly evenly. I think if anything the outer 2/3rds are still a touch stiff, but I don't want to make the mistake I did on the 1st trilam where I ended at full draw with the fades being stiff, so after I see what is said here, then I'll proceed accordingly.
I don't have any big plans over Christmas (in fact, we'll most likely be getting a big snow storm on Christmas Day), so I will have time to get at it. I'm feeling a little more confident that this will end up as a bow vs a bow-shaped object, so I'll try to get this thing finished soon.