Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: KenH on April 24, 2010, 09:31:50 pm
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Well guys, there’s a first time for everything, and here’s my first posting of my first completed bow, second bow ever. Awhile back Half Eye gifted me with the Viking Pony Bow. Thank's Half Eye - you're a pal!! And that spurred me to wanting to make my own Møllegabet.
So I got a beautiful nearly perfectly quartersawn 1.5 x 3 x 60" Black Locust plank off Ebay. I cut out a 1-3/4” wide 56” TtT Mølle and started tillering. Just before I reached my ideal draw length, the bow suffered “catastrophic failure”. R.I.P.
Half Eye said I should try again with the leftovers. There wasn’t enough for the usual wide working limbs, but here’s what I ended up with:
Maple-backed Black Locust
60" TtT
58" NtN
40# @ 27/28"
Weight 13oz
Handle 1" wide x 1-3/8" deep
Working limbs 1-1/8 wide x 14-1/2" long
Levers 3/8" wide x 1-3/8" deep at the lashing, tapering to 7/16" wide and 3/4" deep at the tips x 11" long
Since the board was so narrow there is no shoulder in the width at the handle fade, just a shallow taper from 1-1/8" to 1" that it is almost unnoticeable.
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Full Draw
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Handle Detail
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Lever Detail
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Cool bow 8) very unusual looking. great job :)
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well Ken ya sly dog ;D That turned out very nice....the tiller on that puppy is perfect. Ya didn't say about speed but it looks fast. My original bows should look as good as yer left-overs.
Rich
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very nice looking bow
ya think we could get a full draw from more off to ths eside instead of so far from behind?
just curious,looks like the tiller could be killer
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nice looking bow great job
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Howdy Ken,
Ya made it look easy. That's really impressive.
(And, thanks for including all those dimentions for those of us who are working up the nerve to try one.)
Also, thank you Half Eye for pushing this forum into some uncharted waters by introducing your Native and Viking bows.
All the Best,
Canoe
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That's a beauty!!!!!!!!!! I love it!! could you give us a run down on tillering that?? I may give this a try Thanks SO much keep this stuff comming! JEFFW
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Sweeeet!!,
Tiller is great and full draw is beautiful, good job.
Jeff
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You've got to be very proud of this one. Congrats! Bookmarked, too, for next week's Laminate Bow of the Month fun.
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Looks good from where I'm sitting :)
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Pleaseeee make me one. I love it! kinda take off from a holmey,hey. Nice job its a keeper. Denny
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Thanx everybody for your kind words.
Thanx Old Bow, I really appreciate that! Yep, I'm proud. I'll probably bust the next half dozen, but it's all part of the game, eh!
Denny - Hølmegård and Møllegabet are two completely different designs found in unrelated archaeological excavations in Denmark. We've had a number of discussions about the several thousand years and differences between the two. Major difference is the Møllegabet has distinct shoulders between the working limbs and the static lever tips; the Hølmegård does not... The Møllegabet (mull-gabbit) is about 7000 years old - yep 5000 years B.C.!! The Hølmegård is older than that by a couple thousand years...
Canoe - just jump in and DO IT! I did, you can too. Think of a Møllegabet as the Ultimate Board Bow. Half Eye was saying you can add depth the the handle and levers by gluing on extra wood. So you really can draw it out as a board bow, and then add more handle (non bending) and depth to the levers (also non-bending). I'm think walnut levers on an Oak or Ash body would look really sharp!
The "floor tillering" technique I used was to cut out the basic shape according to Half Eye's Build-Along. Then, I had found an article by Richard Baugh called A Foolproof Method For Tillering A Bow, at www.primitiveways.com , that talked about using a weight and measuring the amount each limb bends, or deflects from horizontal to determine draw weight and equality of tiller between the two limbs.
By using a table of numbers from the article, and measuring deflection as I started removing wood, I was able to keep the amount of bend very close between the two limbs, and also know how close I was getting to my target draw-length and -weight. For this stage I was using a palm sander with 40 grit sanding belt and rubber sanding blocks also with 40 grit paper to remove wood. Twenty strokes here, twenty strokes there, hang the weight and measure the deflection. Repeat and repeat...
Then I switched to a traditional tillering tree, put on a long string, and started with digital photos and comparison to graphic ovals. I also switched to 100 grit sandpaper on the palm sander and sanding blocks. After a few passes I was long string at 27", so I made a shooting string that gave me a 6" fistmele.
At this point I put aside the electric sander and just used my rubber sanding blocks - one flat side and one curved side. Sand and check, sand and check. Praying a little each time I lengthened the draw by an inch or two. Recharge the camera battery for 4 hours. Sand and check, and and check. Finally I was drawing back to 28 inches and maybe a hair more - my margin of error. One final weight and measure, and I was right on the money according to the table. Altogether I took a photo and checked the ovals at least once for every two inches of draw until I got to 24", then every inch until I was in the zone.
If I were going to change anything, I would make the levers even narrrower, and tapered into a long trapezoid or triangular shape from the back towards the belly edge. It's shoots pretty darn fast as-is but I'll bet I could tweak it even further. Another day...
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Hey Ken, Nice bow. Where did you get those arrow points? I would be interested in some like that. Jeff
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Those are called Bodkin points. I got mine via the Internet from England, but I later found out that 3-Rivers Archery - an official PA advertiser - also carries several version of Bodkin points under their SCA-Medieval category.
The long slender point of the bodkin was an early "armor-piercing" design, intended to make punching holes in so-called chainmail easier.
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Tha'ts pretty slick...I love stiff-tip bows.
I would like to see a pic unstrung if possible.
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Here's the unstrung shot. The tips have deflexed about 1.5" from dead flat, due to the tillering.
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wow man, good job! your brave making your first bow so short. ive made two 6 foot oak bows, but i tried a shorter one, and no go. id trade you all four of my bows for that one!
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Very nice! Is that ivory on the fades? Scott
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Shell - not ivory. I live less than a mile from the ocean, as did the Møllegabet people, and I figure they might have decorated with pieces of wave-sculpted shell. I used epoxy, but they might have used balsam or birch or other sap gum glue, if they didn't use fish or hide glue.
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Very cool bow...nice work!