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.
