Yew holmegaard

[radius]

Here is my first attempt at a holmegaard bow.  I was inspired to try it for two reasons: 

1.  bought a lousy yew stave off ebay for $45...it was disgusting and full of knots...had to make it a thin flatbow to get rid of the knots.

2.  saw adb 3112's holmegaard how-to and was inspired.

[radius]

trimming the stave to eliminate a huge knot in center



You saw how thick the sapwood was...here I marked it down about a  quarter inch for thinning



These are my tools for treating with the bark (drawknife) and sapwood (belt sander with 36 grit, orbital sander---great tool---with 80 grit)

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Here's the sapwood after beltsanding and smooth sanding...perfect surface for laying out the bow!





Here is the outline of the tip



some knots i had to deal with

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here is an outline of the handle...notice the knots...one is the arrow pass in the completed bow



first pull on the tiller stick



next try after a little more work

[radius]

[radius]

so that's my first try at a holmegaard, and my first time working with yew.  Until now most of my bows have been of hickory, which is easy to get around here (Victoria, BC) and some white ash.  I tried red oak after finding Jawge's site, but for the life of me I can't see what he sees in that wood. 

The bow is underweight for me, at around 35#.  Notice that it's mostly sapwood...very elastic and a fast shooter, but it fell short of what it could have been.  I blundered with the bandsaw and cut too much away from the fades in the upper limb.  In the tillering pictures, the upper limb is the one which is nicely bent from the get-go...the lower limb was thicker, and tillering basically was a process of bringing the upper to meet the lower. 

I added fiberglass cloth to the back of this bow, as the sapwood was so soft.  Just look at it the wrong way and it took a dent!!!  The fiberglass (cloth) and resin seem to have added a few pounds to the draw, which is good.

I'm going to give this bow to my 13 year old son, once his arm gets out of the cast.  He broke it snowboarding a few weeks ago, right after he broke the old red oak bow i had given him last year.  I guess, he got taller and his arms and draw llength grew...and shnap! the thing gave way in his hands.  He'll enjoy this one, but i still have to put finish on it and some tip overlays....i'll post pictures.

[PK]

ya made that look easy, looks good to me congradulations, Sorry to hear about your sons Accident.PK

[juniper junkie]

interesting bow, how is the performance?

[radius]

pk...thank you sir!!  It wasn't all that easy, but then again...holmegaards have a strange mystique built up around them, that they are difficult to tiller.  I disagree.  I think that the transition to the non-bending outer limbs requires some careful work, but it ain't rocket surgery!

My kid broke one wrist and sprained his other badly.  He was hollering for help, "Help!  Help me!  My arms are broken!" he yelled at the people skiing and boarding past...nobody stopped to help!!!!  After 10 minutes he got up, managed to bundle up his board and hike up to the lift...where he proceeded to call out everyone for not helping him!  What a guy!

The bow's performance?  Pretty good.  It shoots fast and straight.  That nasty looking kink proved to be a blessing in disguise, because the arrow slides right off the string and doesn't have to paradox at all.  But like I said, I covered the back with F(*&(*&(*(*&%^S because it was such a soft sapwood.

[adb]

Nice job. I'm glad I could inspire you! I love Holmegaard bows.

[El Destructo]

Rad.....you don't have to follow one growth ring on the Sapwood??? I was wondering because I have never chanced Yew before....and I looked at the rings...and thought damn what a Pain this would be.....so you can just shape the Back and not worry about a Ring??? If so ....after my two Sinew Backed Bows I am working on....it's off to the Yew I have had in the Garage for 3 years!!!

[radius]

WEll, i read somewhere that since the growth rings on yew are so tight, you don't have to chase the ring...on the other hand, mickey lotz the ferret has a demo on his site where he does chase the ring on yew.  Or he says he does  anyway!!!

That was my first stave bow (rather than board bow) and I didn't chase the ring, instead i just decrowned it with the main goal of reducing the sapwood layer.

You've got some yew just waiting, eh?  How much?  Where'd ya get it?

[El Destructo]

I have one piece that I have had for 3 years...I got it from a buddy out in California....he got it from Oregon

[radius]

Well, have fun with it, man!!  It's very bendy wood, which still snaps back into shape.  Don't make the same mistake i did:  cut too deeply with the bandsaw.  I had to take off too much heartwood and this brought the poundage of the bow way down. 

It still shoots fast and straight...but imagine what it could do at around 50 or 60# of draw?