Ozbow

simon, that is a little surprising. i would have thought a thinner limbed bow would do better. something like an andaman or holmegaard or cross between the two. i must try a pyramid bow one day. do you how many of the 5000 bows they made were full size? i have heard that most of them were small scal...

do they keep the tips of your bow warm... or protected?

which one which one

yeah, i've seen plenty of snake skin backed bows from the states, but i thought you were saying you weren't allowed to use shedded skins. i wouldn't think the shed would have a brittleness problem once glued in place with a thin layer of glue smeared over it. i would expect no colour on a shed. good...

john, are you sure you can't use a shedded skin? i think you can use a shedded skin, just not an actual skin.

safe trip back mate. keep us posted with your wattle staves!

awesome clint, well done!

now go and make a selfbow to throw those primitive arrows

yep, agreed.

i shoot longbows and like them, but couldn't tell you what a recurve was like.

handles on either can be made like those of the other sort (ie. a longbow can have a recurve style handle, and vise versa)

absolute nutter. but i wonder how he went? he survived!

some older ones...

here is one i made a month ago while sitting down by the lakes running the dog. not sure of the wood. knocked it down and roughed it out while down there. painted the back n ends and left it for a month before finishing. wood is pretty crap and ended up being 30#@28. nice few knots in it and a leath...

dave/darcy, i advise (though who am i to advise :D ) that you taper the bamboo in both width and thickness. in regards to its thickness, i go from 4-5mm thick at the handle down to 1.5-2mm thick at the tips. darcy i have a 62# @28" boo backed spotted gum bow and there is no sign of compression ...

really? i'm want to do the holding thing! i thought having a good 8' (sterdy) spear to hang onto with a large strong steel spear heah might help keep mr. piggy a few feet away. our ancesters did it with far bigger beasts than pigs, but the were a little more hungry than us. i may need to think about...

moreton,
throwing a spear from three meters?? don't think ben is looking for a throw spear. i think he wants a stab spear

i haven't used the wood, but have made light selfies with sapwood left in place. glenn newell has had good results leaving sapwood on. what do you think caused the fissures in the last one? do you think it wasn't fully dried? i have found a couple of wattle staves to be touchy and splint and crack, ...

looseplucker, trapping the back is what i do. i was asking if this would be done or if it would be left like a step from 30mm core to 20mm backing. mububban, i would be interested to see how th bamboo flooring handls the compression. without having tried it i can't know, but i wouldn't think it will...

How would that work? Would it just step from a 30mm belly/core to a 20mm backing? Would this make it more likely to give problems where the core was not backed? I do myself, and may suggest, a backing that is tapered into the belly. So I glue it on full width and then thin the width of the backing b...

i would be going for a wider strip. 40mm, so that you have a bit to play with.

sorry, didn't read that right. i was thinking limb tips...

i use areldite

techniglue from carbatec

great pics, thanks.

to stop the rising grain i will spray the wood with water, let dry and resand. do this step several times until the grains don't rise anymore.

this is done before a clear finish is applied.

works for me

my glass bows stay strung perminentely, my all woods/selfies get unstrung. not sure how leaving them strung affects them but some of mine have been strung for over a year and haven't dropped poundage of shown any obvious signs of damage. i see some people leave them strung for years. like jeff, i do...

looking forward to watching it progress.

your looking a bit wooly in that first pic thommo

grahame, you are mocking my abilities now

i'm on a salary so i'll give the extra shifts a miss too

what ever i get will out perform my photography skills anyway.

cave man

just may end up costing you a lot more when the other half tells you what new toy she would also like probably just another trip home to see her sisters new baby and to spend time with her nephews and ageing grandparents... i can handle that i think :) i will handle it better than she will handle m...