Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: leonwood on September 20, 2017, 01:23:44 pm
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This is my first elm stave and my first self bow mollegabet. (Did make a couple of laminated mollegabets) It was a bit of a wonky stave (see rough out pic below) but since it is elm I decided on a molly design anyways.
The stave, although waxed on the back, was full of drying cracks. But after building my mulberry bows with huge cracks held up fine I decided to ignore it and continue the build.
Roughed it out with the drawknife and straightened the tips with dry heat. (See rough out pic below why this was needed)
Tillered the bow to brace and flipped the tips a bit for looks.
Then I heat treated the belly for 40 minutes per limb and let cool overnight. The next morning when I took it off the form I was shocked that the previous corrected bends had returned! Guess I heated a little too far into the levers. So I had to clamp the tips up and correct them again. (Sounds bad but is actually really easy with a heat gun and some clamps)
After heat treating and straightening the tips again I tillered it to 25” and started shooting it at a low drawlength. After a few shots a weak spot next to the handle showed up (despite being 3 mm thicker then the other side!) and I lost about 12 lbs trying to correct that.
Since the elm looked a little boring besides the brown streaking and cracks on the back I added some paint to the tips and some red serving thread to divide the color and the wood. (thread and super glue are also extra security for some drying cracks that run out where the levers begin) Sanded the paint a bit to “age” it and put some leather on for a handle.
All in all a project which was full of mistakes and problems but came out as a super smooth shooter.
Specs:
length: 64 ntn
widest part: 1.9 inch
tips width: 6 mm (0.25 inch)
draw weight: 48@28
handle: rounded leather cord
working area (minus the fades) and levers are the same length
// roughed out
(https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4344/37183004531_8e992c0af9_h.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/YDJBP2)
// side profile unbraced
(https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4401/37286744035_8775fc07e4_h.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/YNUiXa)
// top profile
(https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4430/36448987454_230359e3a4_o.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/XwSA7b)
(https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4358/37286869015_c105229b8d_h.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/YNUX6Z)
// braced
(https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4350/36889177330_bf65683b80_h.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/YcLFdN)
(https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4412/36889355880_e03ab24a71_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/YcMAif)
// tip detail
(https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4430/37114328132_354374ef7b_h.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/YxECHb)
// handle belly
(https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4437/36449227454_3e6e8e11d0_h.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/XwTPs7)
(https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4396/36472624903_36c102bdb8_h.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/XyXJGp)
// drying cracks filled with ca
(https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4383/36472678323_5b70befa79_h.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/XyY1zr)
// fd
(https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4358/37286618365_242caaabb1_o.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/YNTEAr)
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Very nice work, every detail looks superb.
Kyle
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Your finish work is very nice :NN
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Nice job, that turned out great!
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Very well done
DBar
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Holy Molle
Del ;D
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I like that a lot, very well done. I'm working a HH stave now that would be a good cantidate for one.
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Very Nice,,,,
In the past,,i was not fond of the look of this style bow,,but your example is making me reconsider my opinion..
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I can't see the pics. :(
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I can't see the pics. :(
Sorry Pat, no idea what causes that, maybe this wil help:
For the people who can't see the pics, this is the direct link to the album:
https://flickr.com/photos/149541802@N05/sets/72157686286399790 (https://flickr.com/photos/149541802@N05/sets/72157686286399790)
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Very nice congrats !
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Looks awesome!great profiles and tiller!wicked!i love mollegebets!
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Thanks for the compliments! I am going to do some more mollies wih a higher draw weight and some other woods like yew and black locust and maybe combine it with a hollow limb design just to see what it does for me
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Could you post a straight on profile pic pls?
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Very nicely done.
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Very nice.
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Nice looking bow! I like that bow stand.
Hawkdancer
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Nice work
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A true craftsman knows how to recognize problems, and how to work around them to achieve the desired results. Leon, you did a really good job with that crooked stick. It’s a fine bow – start to finish!
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Well executed. I like how all your bows have a "Leon" look to them. ;)
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Fine looking elm bow.
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Thanks again for the compliments guys! Makes me want to build more bows :BB I have one more new bow to show, hopefully tomorrow because I have to sort the pics and write a little story about it.
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Great work, awesome tiller and beautiful details. I really like this bow and would like to try making one myself. How does it shoot? How is its accuracy and speed in comparison to your other bows?
Cheers,
Phil
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Great work, awesome tiller and beautiful details. I really like this bow and would like to try making one myself. How does it shoot? How is its accuracy and speed in comparison to your other bows?
Cheers,
Phil
I did not shoot this bow very much yet but it is very smooth and feels fast for it's draw weight. Did not shoot it through the chrony yet but might do that just to see what this one and my other new bows do.
On Mollegabets or lever bows in general: I made quite a few laminated ones and they all shoot very smooth and very fast compared to a longbow or pyramid bow. A big mistake I see often is that people make mollegabets with extreme thick and overbuilt levers. If you keep the mass of the levers as low as possible and keep the tiller roundish it wil shoot smooth and fast!
(http://www.leonwood.nl/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/molly_rd_draw.jpg)
(http://www.leonwood.nl/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/molly_draw.jpg)
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Very nice :) Great execution with a less than perfect stave. Do you know what type of elm it is? I know it is hard to distinguish between them.
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Very nice :) Great execution with a less than perfect stave. Do you know what type of elm it is? I know it is hard to distinguish between them.
Thanks! This one took some effort to get it into a shooter;-) The species is common dutch elm (Ulmus ×hollandica) which is a hybrid between Ulmus glabra and Ulmus minor. There is still a lot of it around here so I will cut some new staves next month to work on next summer
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Nice!looks like a 50/50?i"m glad that people are moving away from bend close to the handle molly"s like the one illustrated in tbb 1!
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Wonderful work, Leon. I really like what you do!
This is a lever bow of its finest.
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That tiller is Awsome the unstrung profile says it all ,when you Chrono it please post your numbers !
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Nice!looks like a 50/50?i"m glad that people are moving away from bend close to the handle molly"s like the one illustrated in tbb 1!
Thanks! And you are correct, the levers and the bending area are the same length. Keeping the bending section wide to reduce set and the levers as thin as possible to keep the mass low.
I also make my fades quite long, somehow that feels smoother in the draw, I do make sure they move so it does not really decrease the bending area too much.
And thanks everbody else who commented on the bow! I really appreciate it!
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Nice work on both bows.
I've never worked any elm, but on the end grain, near the handle it looks to have rays like oak. Is this an optical illusion of the grain or does it have them. I didn't think elm has rays?
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Nice work on both bows.
I've never worked any elm, but on the end grain, near the handle it looks to have rays like oak. Is this an optical illusion of the grain or does it have them. I didn't think elm has rays?
Thanks Hamish,
I think it is an optical illusion caused by the heat treating and the weird brown streaks in this particular piece of elm. Almost all of the brown streaks where cracked and some in the handle area are really deep. I filled most of them with ca and after sanding the handle it got this look
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Wow! Very impressive! Jawge
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You aint kidding that looked like a hair puller for sure.It turned out great anyhow.