My interpretation of the Hjarnø bow (Elm lever bow)

[Badly Bent]

Thats a very nice bow. Glad you posted it Holten, some inspiration for me to one day try to make one in that style.

[blackhawk]

sweet...you know I like my lever bows 

[half eye]

That sir, is a very fine example of the early Nordic bows. Just outstanding.
rich

[Marc St Louis]

Very nice bow, well done

[SLIMBOB]

Nice work.  Bend looks good to my eye.

[Holten101]

Thanks for all the nice replies:-)

@Blackhawk.... when ever a lever bow dissapoints me, I think of you and keep on trucking;-). Its a very hard design to master....but ill get there some day, and I can feel im getting closer.

I like it...
So is the tiller off? Cause it looks like you are holding it wierd. I love lever bows, is it possible to splice in the levers?

Hehe....yeah, I am holding it wierd, and my elbow is high too I belive, but I had 10 sec from the auto timer to get into position (my wife who usually take the pictures was out).

The tiller is about as good as I can make it, and minimal set and no frets, tell me its not bad at all. But since the upper limb has more reflex than the lower it looks like its bottom weak, but I dont think that is the case.

Cheers

[ionicmuffin]

I have to say, this bow is so awesome! are the tips wrapped with something instead of cutting knocks?

[gianluca100]

Congratulations Holten101, very nice bow! Tiller is spot on from my point of view.

Only, very small, question mark is about the levers. I suppose that you could make them a tad thinner without losing stiffness... just my 2ct.

Regards,
gian-luca

[Holten101]

@ionicmuffin....yeah they are wrapped with tar impregnated jute yarn and satuated in bees wax. I prefer wrapped "nocks", and I belive that the lack of cut nocks on most of the danish mesolithic bows indicate that wrapped nocks were the norm......ah well, who knows...I just like wrapped nocks:-)

Congratulations Holten101, very nice bow! Tiller is spot on from my point of view.

Only, very small, question mark is about the levers. I suppose that you could make them a tad thinner without losing stiffness... just my 2ct.

Regards,
gian-luca

Thanks:-)

And you are correct about the levers, this and reducing mass at the fades are were my focus should be on my next attempt.....but sometimes you just have to stop when the result pleases you, even if there are still "issues":-)

Cheers

[blackhawk]

Ya know holten as with all things it took me several+ bows to progress where I'm at now,and learn firsthand just how far I can go...a critical area is the fade area into the lever and the first few inches past that...I usually see a lot of extra unnecessary bulk there...also string tracking plays a critical role in just how far you can reduce them...if the string is off to one side of a lever it'll tend to lose lateral stability and bend off to the side if too much material is removed,so it now has to be bigger to support it structurally than a lever who's string is right down the center of the lever...a string that goes right down the center of the lever can be very narrow...and its also super important to have the string tracking down center of the handle for the same reasons...so if all three points(handle and both levers)have the string down center thru all of them the most optimization you can go with your levers and get the most you possibly can with this design ....when I make a lever bow now I only try to use my best straightest wood possible to make it easier to achieve maximum results ..plus it makes it an easier build if the wood is straight  to begin with

[Zion]

sweet bow, i love how you make your bows. Really simple but it's obvious you aren't a lazyass lol they look great and effective 

[mikekeswick]

That bow is very nice indeed. 
If I were being super critical I would also reduce the levers thickness. I find a good starting point is to measure the limbs thickness just out of the (handle) fade. Use this as a guide to the thickness of the levers, I normallly rough them out to 1/8th thicker and reduce from there. I also leave them fairly chunky until I have got to virtually full drawlength. Then use a straight edge against them to check they aren't bending as I reduce away.

[Holten101]

That bow is very nice indeed. 
If I were being super critical I would also reduce the levers thickness. I find a good starting point is to measure the limbs thickness just out of the (handle) fade. Use this as a guide to the thickness of the levers, I normallly rough them out to 1/8th thicker and reduce from there. I also leave them fairly chunky until I have got to virtually full drawlength. Then use a straight edge against them to check they aren't bending as I reduce away.

I like super critical....it motivates:-).

I must admit I have been struggling with lever thickness. I made several lever bows were I though the levers were stiff, until I tested them with a ruler.....quite a few had a slight bend even at brace. This bow could no doubt be reduced even more as many of you notice.....but I suspect im closer to the bendy/stiff tipping point than you might think. I will defiantly take yours, Blackhawks and gianluca100 advice on my next project, and go even thinner:-)

On a more philosophical note....im not sure there are such a thing as truly stiff levers. Any piece of wood you apply force to, should bend or compress/stretch. Its only a question of out ability to measure and define what we think is negligible deformation. The deformation to thickness relationship should be a curve with increasing inclination of tangents as thickness goes down.....but with no truly flat tangents. So what point on the curve do we define as negligible deformation?

Ah well, im not an engineer, and I defiantly have had a beer too many last night....that must be it;-)

Happy whitling:-)

Cheers

[mikekeswick]

I like philosophy too....I guess for us lot then as long as it isn't visible to the naked eye and simple (ruler!) measuring devices can't detect any bend then it's....stiff enough!
Thinking about it the way i've made my last couple of bows like this is to have just a fraction of bend in the tips because that way I know the weight is as low as possible. I guess people might say that if they are bending then you aren't getting the maximum benefit from them but the way I see it that's fine but how do you KNOW that they are as light as they can be?? Almost by definition there has to be a little extra weight there. Anyway however these bows are made they are fun to play around with.
I've just made a 50 @26 ash flight bow with as narrow as I dared stiff tips and reflex/deflex limbs...i'll have to get it finished up and post some pics.

[gianluca100]

I do it like mikekeswick, just have them levers bending a really tiny bit, almost imperceptible. Otherwise you never know if you have reduced the weight to the max