Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: SLIMBOB on February 02, 2013, 10:14:15 pm
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My latest.
Osage Mollegabet. 50/50 working limb to lever. 13.75” working limb.
64” ttt
50 ish at 27 inches
9” non-working handle and handle fades (5-2-2)
Limb width at the handle fade is 1 15/16” tapering to 1 11/16” at the lever fades.
The levers are 7/8” wide tapering to a little over 3/8” at the string nocks
Live Oak tip overlays (A first for me, but I’ve been thinking about them for a while)
A few thoughts on the this build; (turns out more than a few)
First I want to thank Blackhawk for all of his advice and direction. Your help was greatly appreciated. Also thanks to Half Eye, as I consulted your drawings repeatedly leading up to and during construction.
The building of this bow lay somewhere near the boundary of my skill and ability. Whether within reach or beyond was still to be determined, but a departure from what I’m comfortable making. I think anyone with some experience can build a lever bow. Make the working limbs long and wide enough, and the levers wide and thick enough, and you got it. But you end up with a bow that performs no better than a typical flat bow, and you spent more time in the construction. The key as I see it, and echoed by others, is getting the levers long and light. There-in lies the challenge, and the pay off. This stave was not a great candidate for a Molly. It was very crooked tip to tip with a good bit of prop twist to boot, so a great deal of time was spent straightening this bugger. I’m not one to worry too much about string tracking as a rule. If it shoots well it’s good. No bueno on a lever bow. String tracking is critical to getting the levers light without losing lateral stability. I’m as light as my nerve allowed me to go, but not as light as possible, nor as light as Blackhawk’s tips. Couldn’t get there. I’m 1/8” off dead center of the handle, and still a bit of twist, so I’m calling it good. Also had some really weird knots on this stave. Swept the tips just enough to get them in front of the handle. This one took more hours to complete than any I’ve made, but it has been worth it. I have not weighed it at full draw but it was 45 lbs at 25 inches. I’ve put 50 shots or so thru it and it’s sweet. Pound for pound the fastest bow I’ve built. Haven’t shot thru a chrono, just the feel of it. I can tell. The stave had 3 inches of deflex that I heated out of it. Started tillering it with 1.5 inches of reflex. After shooting, it has about 1/2 inch if string follow that recovers to ½ inch of reflex. Sorry for the novel here, but a lot of work went into this one. Thanks for lookin.
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Love the Molly's nice work
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Very nice work. I too am starting my first Molly, but out of BL. I also consulted 'hawk and am using a half-eye youth Molly as a general guide. I'm still in the roughing out stage. If mine turns out half as good as yours, I'll be very happy.
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Very sweet bow. Great looking tips and very pleasing shape
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Nice job! Looks great. I really like the full draw shot. Good work!
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Oh good, I'm not the only one that holds his pinkey out on full draw pics :D Nice job on the bow!
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All the quirks with the levers are why the bows which evolved from this style go to separate spliced in levers and lateral stiffening plates of harder wood with the grain placed vertically or thin bone plates.
Gradually tipping them back to the optimal angle and artificially stiffening them will change your views on this design even more.
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Nice job on that one! Gotta love those Mollies!! :)
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Very well done, Ya got a perfect round bend in the working portion (instead of all at the fade). In case you haven't tried it, you are gonna love it's arrow spine tolerance, and it's cast.......aint scared of no heavy arrows 8)
Bet ya got the bug now, eh?
rich
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That is a cool bow. I like the pin knots down the back of it. Great job on it Slimbob. That's a Texas sized squirrel in that braced picture.
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man i really like this bow. Im going to have to make a molle someday.
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That came out really nice Slim, worth the struggle I bet. Looks fast and that sage has some nice color to boot.
Gonna have to try one of those in the future.
Greg
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Saweetttt that came out nice really cool! What's a live oak tip?
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Very nice bend in that bow!!!
Well done :)
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Thanks Ozzy, Greg, Keenan, Arrowind.
Lostarrow, that pinky just will not behave.
PatM, Was gonna sweep the tips more but this Osage (4 bows from this tree) has proven to take a bit of set. I can see where it could really make one scream though.
Thanks Kenny, Greg.
Halfeye, thanks for posting all the research you put into these. Invaluable info. Just today started really shooting it, but it is sweet. Been wondering about spine tolerance. Accuracy, or rather, consistency has been better than I expected.
OO, the pin knots are pretty sweet looking, but several exited the belly as punky, nasties. That squirrel chewed up one of my strings today.
Thanks Muffin and coaster.
Drifter, Live Oak is Quercus Virginiana. Stately southern oak species. Dense heavy wood. SG around .80.
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That is one heck of a slick bow SLIMBOB! Very nice!
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That turned out sweet for your first Molly....good work slim :)
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For all of the problems you had with this piece of wood, the bow came out great! Looks a lot different than the chunk of wood you showed me in December. Curtis
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Love the bow slimbob. When I saw misslemasters Molly and now yours I am for sure doing my hickory bow in this style. Hope it turns out half as good as yours
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TMK, thanks
Blackhawk, you da man!
Curt, I wouldn't have this crazy addiction if it weren't for you and and all that wicked Bois d'ark you had layin' around.
n8tr boy, that misslemaster bow was a work of art! I'm honored, and undeserving of even having this bow in the same conversation as that one. But thank you.
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Great looking bow! Looks like those are some awesome growth rings!
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nice molly. going to have to get off my butt and make me one of those.
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Very thick, but not especially dense. I used to love the thick ringed Osage, because it was so easy to chase a ring and sand the back smooth. Grown to prefer the thinner ringed stuff over time. But hey, it's all good, just some gooder. Thanks misslemaster. The bar was raised for me when you posted your molly. Wow!
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Excellent work Slimbob and the Live Oak tip overlays are beautiful.
Don
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I started reading your novel and thought "man, this is too long, I wanna see the bow". So I scrolled down, saw the bow, and then read your words. Sounds like a good description of what one would want to shoot for in this type of a bow, I like it.
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thats a beaut, i love the look of these mollys.
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Thanks hunterbob, Don, rps3 and danny f. I enjoyed planning and making this bow as much as any I've ever done. But I believe I feel that way on most of 'em. I'm still a bit giddy every time I get a new bow to full draw and this one was no exception. I can improve on the next one in a few areas. Next. Hmm?
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Looks great man. I've got to start a new molly, I made one awhile ago but the tips weren't narrow enough so it had pretty similar performance to a normal flat bow.
Seeing bows like this definitly encourages me to start another. :)
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Beautiful bow.Very nice work. :)
Pappy
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Well done on a sweet bow!
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That looks like a very good first effort Molly to me. Sounds like you have more in your future...looking forward to seeing those. by the way, that was the first novel I ever read cover to cover ;)
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Beauty. Excellent workmanship....
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Looks great. I really like the molly's, I have got to build one.
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Christian Soldier, Pappy, Dvshunter, steve b., steelslinger...Thanks guys appreciate it.
Carson, Pulitzer Prize...Not. Thanks.