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A couple of years ago, I ran into a really lovely Hill bow that had gray glass. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find a supplier for that glass. Craig had a couple of pieces he offered, but at .050, too heavy for what I do, and he couldn't get any more either. A couple of months ago I discovered a new supplier who got his glass from a different maker, and he had a few pieces of gray in .040. It turned out to be, at least in my opinion, not as nice glass to work with. The thickness was right on, which was great, but unlike the Gordon's glass I usually get from Kenny's Custom Archery, this had no glaze or protection on the good side. The glue side was, as always, rough, but the the "good" side was also rough, clearly not as rough, there was no trouble telling one side from the other, but also clearly having glass fibers not as well protected as I'm used to. It turned out you have to be extremely careful about removing the tape after the bow leaves the form or the tape will lift glass fibers. Fortunately, I discovered this early and on an edge that would be ground off anyway. This glass also did not take as smooth a finish as I am used to. It was not a really pure gray, there are very faint streaks of a brownish green in it. Finally, I was shooting for a 45# bow and had it dead on, but this glass was very sensitive to sanding, and the light finish sanding took off more than expected, leaving me with 42#. All of that said, it did make a beautiful bow, and maybe the best performing bow I have built so far. It chrono's a mid-150's average consistently, hand released from a 25" draw pulling 35# and shooting 9.4 gpp arrows. This is as good as I've ever achieved with the fastest RD bows I've owned.

I tried several new things on this bow... a new form (see "New Aluminum Form"), a new thinner overpass riser, and using a Dremel tool to make the nocks, which worked very well.

NOTE: core lams and power wedges were ground one piece... lams 72" and pl 24"


Knife and sheath by Ragnarok Forge, everything else by me.

In spite of some frustrations in the building (aren't there always!), I really like this bow. I have three bows worth of this gray glass left, and I'm not sure if I want to use it or not. It really was a pain to work with, but the result isn't bad, and knowing the problems, I can probably handle them better. If I had known ahead of time what I know now, I'd have skinnied the width down more and gone for a 35@28 to shoot myself.