Thanx everybody for your kind words.
Thanx Old Bow, I really appreciate that! Yep, I'm proud. I'll probably bust the next half dozen, but it's all part of the game, eh!
Denny - Hølmegård and Møllegabet are two completely different designs found in unrelated archaeological excavations in Denmark. We've had a number of discussions about the several thousand years and differences between the two. Major difference is the Møllegabet has distinct shoulders between the working limbs and the static lever tips; the Hølmegård does not... The Møllegabet (mull-gabbit) is about 7000 years old - yep 5000 years B.C.!! The Hølmegård is older than that by a couple thousand years...
Canoe - just jump in and DO IT! I did, you can too. Think of a Møllegabet as the Ultimate Board Bow. Half Eye was saying you can add depth the the handle and levers by gluing on extra wood. So you really can draw it out as a board bow, and then add more handle (non bending) and depth to the levers (also non-bending). I'm think walnut levers on an Oak or Ash body would look really sharp!
The "floor tillering" technique I used was to cut out the basic shape according to Half Eye's Build-Along. Then, I had found an article by Richard Baugh called
A Foolproof Method For Tillering A Bow, at
www.primitiveways.com , that talked about using a weight and measuring the amount each limb bends, or deflects from horizontal to determine draw weight and equality of tiller between the two limbs.
By using a table of numbers from the article, and measuring deflection as I started removing wood, I was able to keep the amount of bend very close between the two limbs, and also know how close I was getting to my target draw-length and -weight. For this stage I was using a palm sander with 40 grit sanding belt and rubber sanding blocks also with 40 grit paper to remove wood. Twenty strokes here, twenty strokes there, hang the weight and measure the deflection. Repeat and repeat...
Then I switched to a traditional tillering tree, put on a long string, and started with digital photos and comparison to graphic ovals. I also switched to 100 grit sandpaper on the palm sander and sanding blocks. After a few passes I was long string at 27", so I made a shooting string that gave me a 6" fistmele.
At this point I put aside the electric sander and just used my rubber sanding blocks - one flat side and one curved side. Sand and check, sand and check. Praying a little each time I lengthened the draw by an inch or two. Recharge the camera battery for 4 hours. Sand and check, and and check. Finally I was drawing back to 28 inches and maybe a hair more - my margin of error. One final weight and measure, and I was right on the money according to the table. Altogether I took a photo and checked the ovals at least once for every two inches of draw until I got to 24", then every inch until I was in the zone.
If I were going to change anything, I would make the levers even narrrower, and tapered into a long trapezoid or triangular shape from the back towards the belly edge. It's shoots pretty darn fast as-is but I'll bet I could tweak it even further. Another day...
