Shorty Hickory Molle

[4est Trekker]

Well, blackhawk, it all started when I thought to myself, "You know, I could have these tips whipped out yet tonight if I hogged off the bulk with my bandsaw..."     Three days later I finally had my boo-boo all fixed up.  I learned two things in the process, though:

1) Always use sharp blades (which I did)
2) Never swat at flies whilst using a bandsaw (which, unfortunately, I also did)

[k-hat]

Lol, the same goes for getting distracted whilst running a stick through the table saw!!!  Never done that

[lesken2011]

Just curious, 4est, what length & weight were you shooting for originally? I mean before you had to pike the levers? Just curious what weight you thought this design might handle at say, 66"oal? I love the design and have made a couple standard molles, one red oak and one hickory, but never heat treated the bellies and they both came in light. It should handle 45-55 lbs, don't you think?

[dragonman]

thats a really cool  bow and looks verywell made

[4est Trekker]

Thanks again, fellas.

lesken2011:  I was shooting for the finished weight all along (36-38#@26").  When I piked it, I had to remove weight.  Tempering the belly added some weight, too, but I lost the bulk of that increase whilst shooting it in and finish sanding it.  Regarding your last question...I'm no expert on this design (this was my first molle, actually).  But a classic bow wood like osage, ash, hickory, etc. can easily withstand higher hunting-weight draws with this design.  I wouldn't trust red oak (which you mentioned) for any bow design that uses as sort a working limb length (molle, holmie, etc.)  Others more experienced with this design will hopefully chime in.

[Prarie Bowyer]

Nice!

[PeteC]

Very nice bow.I like everything about it.Great work. God Bless

[Jodocus]

Very cool, simple yet stylish!

[mikekeswick]

lesken2011 - red oak will make a hunting weight bow in this or any other design. My 1st question about your red oak bow is did you trap the back? Red oak is a tension strong/compression 'not so great' wood. It can handle the back being 30% narrower than the belly - this takes a lot of compression stress off the belly and will give similar 'increase' in compression strength as heat treating. Seriously try it! I've been doing a fair bit of experimenting with this principle and it really does work I've just made a maple bow with this principle and it holds 1 inch reflex.

Back to those tips - if you notice a little handshock when going below 8gpp then it would suggest to me that a little weight can still be removed. Maybe if you make another like this you could try making them thinner and then compare the two of them. I've found that when just a fraction of bend can be seen by holding a straight edge against the lever section at full draw(I mean a fraction like less than a 1/32nd) then they are as light as they can be. I'm not meaning to sound hyper critical or anything it's just i've made a fair few of these and wanted to pass on what i've learnt from them.

[blackhawk]

Ive made lever bows out of hackberry,hophornbeam,elm,osage,and black locust (that i can think of off the top of my head)...and my favorite wood for these is osage because of its compression strength and elastic modulus. Although the others and other woods will work as long as you keep the width proper in the working limbs and heat treat them,and trapping will help to as Mike suggested. I have a strong inclination that yew wood be even better than osage for this design,due to its lighter SG yet very elastic and compression strong....hopefully later this year ill get to test this inclination out. Hickory is a good whitewood for mollys due to its indestructibility

[4est Trekker]

Thanks, all, for the "tips" on the levers (No pun intended)  I get gun-shy with new designs and short bows.

I should also add one detail that I forget to post originally, and that being that the bow is pretty heavily trapped.  That, combined with the belly tempering, really seamed to even out the compression/elasticity ratio. 

[Prarie Bowyer]

How do you get the photographs so perfectly highlighted around them.  Is that a grey wall you painted and using photo shop to spray white around or some sort of artistic spot lighting?