Holmegaard build along

[adb]

Remember, when tillering a Holmie, you have to ignore the outer non-bending limbs. Take a piece of paper, and cover up the outer limbs, just looking at the inner limbs. It looks to me like it's time to brace it!
The outer, non-bending limbs are still quite thick. They don't need to be. The next step, before I do any more tillering, will be to lighten the outer limb thickness a bit. However, they should not bend! Obviously, you want them as light as possible, but non-bending.
OK, enough for today. It's Sunday evening... family time!!

[Ghost Dog]

I'm starting to drool. Is drool bad for keyboards?

[Badger]

One of the best most detailed descriptive buildalongs I have seen. Good job on that one. Steve

[Gordon]

This is an excellent build-a-long. There is much to learn here.

[adb]

I've been very lucky, so far, with this one. It's half tillered, and I haven't even started tillering it yet!! I don't want to get cocky... bad things happen when you don't listen to the wood. I have to continue proceeding with thoughtful purpose.

[jwillis]

Yes, it is a very good build along and the bow is looking really good.  Now I'm really looking forward to making one of these.  Jim

[juniper junkie]

great build-a-long, really learning some neat stuff about homies. (now I understand the songs better)

[adb]

Hi, Everyone
Well, I managed to make a little progress this evening. When we left off last time, I had just finished roughing in the pin nocks. Tonight, I wanted to slim down the outer limbs a bit, to lighten them some, but not to the point that they bend. When I'm removing wood with the rasp, I like to use a simple set of calipers, to keep track that I'm removing equal amounts from both limbs. This is not, by any means, a method of tillering, but it allows me to have a rough idea that I'm removing equal amounts of wood from both limbs.

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[adb]

I put the long string back on and worked the bow for about 50 pulls. Not too far, just to get it moving, and used to bending. Teach it to bend slowly.

Here is how I decide when it is time to go to the short string: if I have the long string on (and remember my definition of a long string), and I'm working the limbs to what I would brace the bow at, I'll measure the weight with my bow scale. In this case, the weight is 35# at what would be a low brace height. Perfect. Remember, our target weight is 52 - 57# @27". So, if we now brace the bow, we have 15# to work with, and we can exercise the limbs a bit and not pull it past target weight. If we measured the weight at what we thought would be brace height, and it came out to 50#, the moment we pull the bow, we will probably go past target weight, and cause needless set.

[adb]

Time to brace! First brace should always be conservative, at least an inch or two below normal. My final brace height is usually about 6.5" to 7". I measure this from the bow's back. Low brace = more cast, but the bow is usually noisy, with a lot of hand shock. More on this later. There is another consideration on brace height with Holmies, which we'll get to later.

So, first brace height is 5".

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[adb]

Looks like a Holmegaard, doesn't it. I love that Holmie profile! Nothing else like it.
As far as short string goes, I like to get to it as soon as possible. Brace it as soon as you safely can. It's hard to know exactly where you're at with the long string.

[adb]

Last time I had it up on the tree, I thought I needed to remove some wood nearer to the distal fades, to get it bending not so much at the first fades near the handle. So, I took a bit off the outer half of both inner limbs.
From low brace, it's now 50# @ 20". We've got lots of room. I usually work the bow for at least 50 pulls between wood removal. I also like to pull it to just below target weight, and see how much draw we have.

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[adb]

It still needs to bend a bit more at the outer portion of the inner limbs. Still looks pretty even. The right limb might be a little behind. I have not removed any wood from the first 3 -4" of the inner limbs, just past the handle fades. For the remainder of tiller, I probably won't, either. I'll try to get it to final weight by removing wood from the outer half of the inner limbs. We'll see.

Remember when tillering a Holmie, you only look at the inner limbs. With this picture, take a piece of paper and hold it up to the image, hiding both of the outer non-bending limbs, right where they start to thicken. What do you think now?

Certainly, we have to get the inner limbs bending in a more circular fashion, to distribute to stress over the entire limb. Because the outer non-bending limbs are long, it looks like the bow is doing all the bending right at the fades.

Look at the string angle. See how shallow it is? This is the main advantage of this design. Low string angle, no stacking, low finger pinch.

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[adb]

It has hardly taken any set, at this point. Maybe 3/8".

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[adb]

From here, I'll probably set aside the rasp, and remove wood with a scraper only. We're in the ball park, not the time to rush things.

That's it for tonight! More soon.