Holmegaard Grey Ironbark Selfbow

[GraemeK]

Hi All
Thought you might be interested in this attempt at a Holmegaard.
It is 70.5" NTN and 40#. Took about 1.5" of set which seems OK for a bow with this little working limb.
I have not tried a bow of this style before and there a few things that I would do differently if I try again
but in general I am very happy with the result as It is nice to shoot and seems fast for its weight. I will check the speed
when I have the chance.

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[DBernier]

That is a very good looking bow. You did a fine job on it. congratulations.

Dick

[Pappy]

Nice job,beautiful bow.
   Pappy

[GregB]

That one really look goods!

[Ryano]

Looks good but not like a holmegaard. More like a pyrimid bow.

[OldBow]

Great Lines and I bet its a smooth shooter. Ryan's comment makes sense, though.
We'll look at it again next week for June Self Bow of the Month

[radius]

yeah, it looks like a  holmegaard/pyramid hybrid.

[radius]

Graeme, it's got some nice lines, though.  A holmegaard has limbs which are parallel from the fades out towards the end of the limbs.  Then they abruptly narrow (over, say, 2 inches) from full width to about 3/4" or so.  For outer limb thickening, you have a couple choices.

 1.  You can abruptly (over the same 2 inches) thicken the limb to about 3/4" (giving you a roughly square cross section at that point). 

2.  You can gradually increase in thickness over the length of the "outer limb" until you reach about 3/4" thickness at about 2 inches short of the tips.  Then, the tips abruptly reduce to 3/8" thick.

I like your bow, but if you want to build a real holmegaard, go to the buildalongs and find adb3112's how-to on holmegaards.  You can also check out my hickory backed osage holmegaard in this Bows section, for a little variation.

[GraemeK]

I guess the description is not all that accurate -- It is actually a copy of the bow that Tim describes as an Anderman Island / Holmegaard hybrid in TBB4. Although it looks sort of pyramid shaped in the photos it is more an elongated tear drop with the first foot or so out from the fades parallel.
It is remarkably smooth to shoot and pleasingly fast for its weight. I tested it today and it shoots a 10gr/pound arrow at 165fps which is the fastest self bow I have ever managed.
I intend to try the same style again with a few modifications as I think I could reduce the size of the outer limbs quite a bit but I would need to add some material to the thickness of the transition to the narrow outer limb as this area on this bow is very highly stressed.

Graeme

[adb]

Hi, Nice bow, with excellent tiller, but it's not really a Holmegaard. More like a pyramid bow. Regardless, you should be proud, it's a nice bow. Is it a selfbow, or is it backed?

[cowboy]

Nice slick bow GraemeK - does resemble more of a pyramid. Like that handle, maple?

[GraemeK]

The bow is not backed -- the eucalyptus species I used has very high tension strength.
The wood on the handle is a good Australian bow wood called Alphitonia excelsa sometimes called "Red Ash" it always has that great stripy pattern that looks like sort of a shiny wave in the wood.

Graeme

[medicinewheel]

yeah, it looks like a  holmegaard/pyramid hybrid.

yes, i would say that, too! - the wood combo looks really great!
frank

[michbowguy]

 dont care what its named after, but i think its awesome.
great lines.
nice looking bow.
bet you can shoot it all day!
nice one.
mbg

[Justin Snyder]

It has great looking tiller.    It does resemble a homie a little in side profile, but where the limbs get thicker it needs reduced in width.  Ill bet you could reduce hand shock and increase performance by narrowing the outer limbs a little. Great looking bow reguardless of what you call it. Justin