New here need help losing weight.

[andujar9464]

First of all hello I'm a 28 year old 9 year army vet with a broken back(so i will never be posting about any new, sexy war bow or anything of the sort) who started a few months back at the craft and love it so far. I have had my growing pains, mostly getting over zealous with tip flipping and cracking my bows, but Ive seen a bit of success as well. So i decided to step up my game with a Red Oak board mollegabet so far i had made 2  red oak pyramid bows (one lefty for my wife) a white walnut selfbow and a red oak board reflex/deflex (which i broke improperly unstringing). So i thought i could take the molly on. Problem is she is too much for me i have my working limbs down to 5/16 already and she still pulls about 65-70# at a low 1" brace, way too much for my crooked spine to handle. I heard a snap when i last tried to  low brace it although i cant find the source....meh ill find out when it blows up i guess. so any help u can give me on somewhat safely dropping the weight on it will be appreciated. Also im working on a hard maple reflex/deflex so ill post on that when its further along.

[ionicmuffin]

you can thin it down from the sides as well as from the belly, be warned though that it might be a good idea to back the bow. just remove equal amounts of wood from the sides, and if it isn't dropping enough then take some off the belly, it wont be long before the bow is at weight.

[andujar9464]

Ill try that thank you. I still have some material to remove from the handle and static limbs so losing some width should still keep my dimentions . Also I was gonna back it with fiberglass and epoxy(just one layer) but to wanted to get the weight down before so I can readjust after backing.

[ionicmuffin]

well to reduce draw weight you only need to remove wood from the working limb. after you finish the tiller you can start removing wood from the static limbs to reduce weight. also make sure to remove wood form the handle until it just starts to bend a bit not much but just a tad.

[blackhawk]

Next time shorten the handle/riser length section(too late now)..and by looks of your thickness taper in the limb it looks like only 6-8" of limbs are working and bending,and that's why its so thin..you ll have to remove more wood near the handle and levers,its called tillering,and you remove wood from stiff spots and leave the spots that are bending too much alone..I wood not take any off the width of that....ill be honest with ya..that has a real high probability of breaking if you don't get more limb working and bending

[Will H]

I would listen to Blackhawks advice, hes built alot of mollies and a ton of bows in general. So when he chimes in he knows what he's saying. Just sayin..

[blackhawk]

Also...what's that dark streak in the board? ...that alone might be fatal in of itself

[andujar9464]

Thx for the feedback the length of the working limb is 13.5 inches but I guess I did start to fade early ill have to work on that and that dark streak is an extremely dense line in the wood with no air pockets so hard my sharpest blades barely are able to work it(I'm guessing fire damage), so I  doubt it will fail there but you guys are the experts. If I can't salvage it ill just have to lean on y'all for help on my next one. Keep the advice coming only way ill get better without deforesting the northeast doing trial and error. Also I just got access to a 10 acre stretch of mostly Black Locust and Apple. Any ideas for a beginner. It has some dead standing BL(30-50') what are your experiences with deadstands I was thinking they're dry they're seasoned start with them.