Wednesday 15 July 2015

Mollegabet First Flexing

To some extent I've tried to make the bow 'by numbers', but that's just to find a start point. I based my figures on advice on the Primitive Archer forum modified a bit to suit the wood I had in front of me. I've used a thickness taper of about 1mm every 3" but this is only V rough to start with and tricky to measure as the Yew backing is rather undulating and still has the thick dusty underbark layer on it. It's horrible stuff, dry and dusty, really gets up your nose.
The principle of tillering is always the same for me. Get it looking fairly even then look at it on the tiller pulling to full target draw weight as long as the bend is ok.
It's all very much guess work, but is looking promising. I'm still not sure if I'm going for 40# or 50#... maybe even 35#!
What does it show me?
I need to take a lot off,.
It's bending fairly evenly.
The right limb is a tad stiffer than the left.
It doesn't explode when loaded up to 50#

Thinking about it, I'm probably going to aim for 35-40# because 50# at a short draw (24") would feel very hard to pull. Has pulling it to 50# done any harm? No, because 50# on the slack string is much less strain than 40# from braced on a short string.
I can also see it will look gorgeous with the pinkish brown Cherry and the creamy white Yew.

I've probably gone a little short on the levers. I missread the advice to make 'em half the limb length as half the "working limb" length. Still, it doesn't matter, I can always graft on some extra length with a little bend towards the back of the bow if I fancy it. I also like the longer working limb on this short bow for security.
It's my first Molly so it's about learning and experiment, I'm not expecting perfection. I'll be happy if it shoots and last for 100 shots before chrysalling or exploding!



2 comments:

  1. What length was your Mollegabet here? I've looked but can't see the measurement in the posts?!

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  2. 56" nock to nock, it's relatively short as it's a flight bow (short draw)

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