Ozbow

Glad to see you got a shooter with this one. It's remarkable sometimes what timber can be used to make a working bow. Your clean lines & simple approach have built a nice shooter I think anyone would be proud to shoot. Nice one, Bob

Any particular reason it's set up for a lefty?

Not bad at all for no tillering stick! Simple design, well done, by the looks of things. If you're using it to hunt, all that matters is energy into the prey from the arrowhead.

Good luck with the hunt! Bit warm up Esk way, come down south if you get a little hot

Cypress will always be damned hard to get flawless Timber, consider Splicing good Wood for a better Stave . Some sound advice there. I picked up a couple of 1.5" thick by 4" wide by 6' long boards where one half is usable, the other half has knots & heartwood one it. Cutting the board...

The contrast between the Silver Ash & B. Plum is beautiful. Very nice!

So if you make the next one around 3" wide at the fades it would come in around 45#? Would you trust it at 68NTN to up that poundage a little? The board was only 3" or so wide so you would be taking pretty much your maximum width with that - you'd want to make sure it was a very choice bo...

Thanks for all the kind words, everyone. The cypress is a really attractive wood up close. Do you reckon you could get a 40-50lber unbacked? Not sure, Hamish. The grain on this is wobbly with a fair bit of run-off, but it's fairly uniform through the length, if you get my meaning. Being a light targ...

Excuse the BBQ cover in the pictures - it was the closest thing to hand and I wanted a backing that would contrast the timber colours. When I made it over to Grant's Timber Mill in Narranderra I picked up a few boards with sapwood one side, heartwood the other. The board from which this bow is made ...

Outlets such as Bunning’s and Masters do not have much to offer. Really????? They're far more accessible for a large majority of the Australian population and stock large quantities of - - Pole Bamboo - Spotted Gum - Occassional Ironbark - Occassional Massaranduba - Red Oak, uninspiring but reliabl...

Red Oak from Masters should be a good beginners choice. As Bigbob said, it's all about grain - go through the entire stack and pick out the straightest-grained pieces, which shouldn't need backing. Building a Molle is on the 'to-do' list, so I'm not sure how hard that might be. Perhaps a standard fl...

I love how simple & clean it looks.

Very nice!

Just my 2 cents - that knot does look like a deal breaker. The knot itself won't want to bend in the same way the rest of the timber does, so it will localise stress around it, which will cause higher localised loading on the timber. You'd be looking at a hinge or a stiff spot with great care needed...

As Dave said, it got cut up into 4. Chainsaw 3.jpg First 4.jpg With the bandsaw I was also able to split the largest of these again, although one of those split off would be unsuitable for a selfbow and will require a backing. The timber is 'interesting'. Not like any Yew I've seen before. The pictu...

...the right limb is twisting clockwise when viewed from the tip. Bugger. I will check to see the limb thickness is even across the entire width. Twist seems to develop early in the limb so maybe needs some light scraping on the front side (viewed from the front as per pic) or left side when viewed...

Thanks for the input, guys. Much appreciated. I think - and I'm willing to be corrected or convinced otherwise - I'm going to saw off the knots/branches to 'smooth' the log and then, with the bow saw, start a cut from the split toward the base. When I've got as far as I can with that cut, I'll make ...

Fortunately, I do have a circular saw, so if you want to wait a few days, we can all gather round and watch while you do all the work! :biggrin: Then we can reliably expect a Monty Python-esque disaster! I was thinking of splitting down the fork before heading your way, it would make handling it a ...

I don't know about anyone else, but all those lines & arcs are a bit distracting to the eye. It would be good to get an untouched copy of the picture, too. Looks like the tillering is going okay, though. What is your target weight? I make a fair few light bows and for kids I usually aim for arou...

I was recently (incredibly) fortunate enough to be given the chance to trim some Yew trees in Victoria, including the felling of a 7 foot semi-dead stump. Tutto Yew.jpg Most of the branches will be a challenge to get a single billet from, but the larger log does provide some opportunity, I'm hoping....

Confirmed today that Masters are discontinuing Red Oak in favour of 'Australian Oak', which is undoubtedly the same general species as 'Mountain Ash' and 'Tasmanian Oak'. Anybody who thinks they might have a use for a little Red Oak down the line (for perhaps teaching simple bow making or even for b...

greybeard wrote:Buy one of their logs and you can go as heavy as you like.

With Colin's history of heavy warbows, that sounds like a challenge!

Thanks for the pictures, Daryl. They're something a little bit different, so they do appeal to me! I've played a little with the tiller, perhaps took a little bit too much off? New Tiller on CTP Hick Stat Rekerf.jpg I'm almost happy to call it done and get on with the prettying up - this being my fa...

Double Post, apologies.

Dropped into Masters the other day to see if they'd restocked the 18x42 red oak I've played with while on the steeper end of my learning curve; they'd restocked the rack - but with tas oak instead. Are they phasing it out due to the difficulty/cost of getting it out of North America? So I went to h...

Beautiful! Really like what you've done with that piece. Only a low poundage but it's a start. I'm very keen to see how we, as a forum, develop our understanding of this timber. I don't think it's the be-all and end-all, but I do think it could be a fair choice. I've got a lot of projects on the go ...

She was a bit of a beast, that one. It's impressive that you get these timbers stressed as far as you do! Better luck next time!

tiller comparisons.jpg For comparison, I placed these bows alongside one another. On Colin's thread it was suggested that hand placement would fix any tiller issues with that bow. Granted I need to get a picture up with a decent angle of the bow, but the left limbs on both would appear to have not ...

Daryl, I had a little bit of a panic when you raised the issue with the limbs. I took the unbraced picture and placed lines much like your own as a check method. Hickory CTP Rekerf - Unbraced - limb length check.jpg I've measured the working limbs several times - as a necessity for limb thickness co...

Have started next bow, still have apiece of spotted gum from the same board left over and was thinking about using some rock maple laminate strips for the backing. Will this work or should I use bamboo, I would rather use the maple because it is readily available in laminate strips. Rock Maple is e...

I was looking at an Osage stave earlier with the same 'wobble' and figured I'd end up doing just what's described, building bows from boards can get you so used to straight lines & clinical precision.

Onto the tillering tree next, might just narrow handle for a more traditional style.

Yeah, still a bit of tidying up to do and tiller adjustment, but for straight off the calipers I was really surprised. A bit of time & a few pairs of eyes on it can do wonders for a bit of tillering. I'm going to round out the tips a lot more, too, they've got a bit of weight to them. Was thinki...

yeoman wrote:Isn't Dacron and B-50 the same thing?

Good call, getting words mixed up - Dynaflight is what what I meant. Will edit the original post.