Finished Bows

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Graeme K · #1 Post by **Graeme K** » Tue May 09, 2006 8:50 pm

Finally got the last batch of bows finished. Hopefully I can get on with a few of the other jobs that need doing,around here now. And maybe even get in some practice. Probably be good to work out how to shoot the things now.

stace · #2 Post by **stace** » Tue May 09, 2006 9:03 pm

GreameK
Mate you got anymore pics of the new additions ,they look interesting and some details ??

Stace

#3 Post by **Stickbow Hunter** » Tue May 09, 2006 9:19 pm

I'll second what Stace said, some more photos?

Jeff

Graeme K · #4 Post by **Graeme K** » Tue May 09, 2006 9:57 pm

Hi Stace

Ive given it my best shot but I think taking a decent photo is more difficult than making the bows.

The two bows shown here are both 68" NTN both made fron the same length of natural bamboo. The one with the shaped handle is the bow shown in my previous thread. It was initially tri lam --Natural bamboo, flooring & Ironbark belly. But the ironbark cracked at 75% draw so I replaced it with a new belly lam of bamboo flooring. Ended up 35# @27".The Handle is Babinga with Safron heart lines and tips are Ebony

The other bow is a second attempt at above tri lam config where I made the natural bamboo as thin as possible ( 1.5mm at handle) tapered to about .5mm at ends. The center lam was reduced to 4mm at handle ( from 5mm) and the belly lam of Ironbark was made the same -3mm parallel. The bow is 28mm wide and is 27#@27' which is just about perfect as I was aiming for 25# because it is for my wife. Handle is a stack of 3mm Jarrah strips tips are also Jarrah.

The bow that is not on this group of photos is 66" and 30#@26". It is Sydney Blue gum with a Chinese Elm Handle. Made it for the kid next door and I gave it to him earlier tonight so I could not take any better photos.

Graeme

PS Had a bit of a shoot today with John McDonald when he brought over some wooden arrows that he made up for me. He shoots a really neat little Korean horse bow that is so small it looks like it belongs to a small kid but it draws 28" -- great to shoot .

Lou · #5 Post by **Lou** » Tue May 09, 2006 10:22 pm

Graeme, the bows look impressive, very nice designs and nice workmanship. Thanks for the pictures!

What species of bamboo did yuo use and what is the finish?

Lou

Graeme K · #6 Post by **Graeme K** » Tue May 09, 2006 10:38 pm

Hi Lou
The Bamboo is the "Bunnings" variety sub species garden department. The finish is vehicle paint (2K clear) it is a two pack material and I oven cure it for one hour at 60 deg C. Had heaps of trouble trying to paint them so I made a jig that I tie the bow to with wire that only touches on the nock grooves. Made painting easy --See Photo which his not very good.
Graeme

Lou · #7 Post by **Lou** » Tue May 09, 2006 10:49 pm

Thanks again, for the botanical names too

Lou

jindydiver · #8 Post by **jindydiver** » Wed May 10, 2006 7:18 am

I love your work mate

yeoman · #9 Post by **yeoman** » Wed May 10, 2006 9:50 am

So shiny! So slick! You've done well my friend.

Dave

Graeme K · #10 Post by **Graeme K** » Wed May 10, 2006 12:46 pm

Thanks Dave

Still rather be making self bows. Still no material.
When you going back to Tasmania to get me some Horizontal?

Graeme

yeoman · #11 Post by **yeoman** » Wed May 10, 2006 1:08 pm

No materials? I thought in Sydney you had spotted gum available?

Ironbark? Sydney blue gum? Brush Box? Common fruit trees?

Dave

Graeme K · #12 Post by **Graeme K** » Wed May 10, 2006 5:17 pm

Yeah Dave -- I thought it would be easy too until I tried. Have probably spent ten times as much time looking for timber as building bows. Spent five hours unstacking packs of spotted gum flooring at a place one day -- not one board with straight grain. Guys at the place tell me it is specifically selected to have " interesting " grain and that no one wants boring straight grain. Much the same story at specialty timber places where the customers are mainly cabinet makers and once again want fancy grain .Drove 100km to go to a bush timber mill where they saw spotted gum and spent the day standing around looking at logs as they were sawn and once again nothing straight. Have even resorted to begging the local tree loppers to look for suitable material but they have not come up with anything yet. Have even tried to get the forrestry Department to give me a permit to cut a tree since an old logger told me where I could find Grey Myrtle ( even though it was 200km away) but the answer was that it is a rainforrest species and there is a blanket ban on all such trees. Not sure what to try next but I know for sure that it is not easy.

erron · #13 Post by **erron** » Wed May 10, 2006 5:32 pm

Beautiful work Graeme, and best luck with the hunt for suitable selbow material. Have you thought of posting a BEG post in the Trading Post forum? Maybe some kind soul has more than they can use and will part with something suitable cheaply, especially if you pay the freight?

cheers,

Erron

Graeme K · #14 Post by **Graeme K** » Wed May 10, 2006 5:58 pm

Thanks Erron

That sounds like a good idea. A sort of alms for the bowyer concept, but worth a try since I have been giving serious thought to turning to the dark side --- carbon fiber with engineering grade plastic mid lams--- not a path I really want to go down as my life seems to be plastic enough already.

Graeme

stace · #15 Post by **stace** » Wed May 10, 2006 8:11 pm

GreameK
Very nice and thanks for the discriptions ,nice to see your getting a young bloke started as well.
The wife should be happy with her bow mate
Have you tried the Vertical Bamboo flooring? .I picked up a few boards from a Floor coverings store relatively cheap ,now all I have to do is stop the phone and get into the shed and to work at the bow bench
stace

AntMob · #16 Post by **AntMob** » Wed May 10, 2006 8:22 pm

Graeme, I have no materials suggestions, but wish to express my admiration of your work. Functional art. Where I am in Japan there are many acres of bow materials, but unfortunately the locals regard the species as Japonicus Choppemdownanburnem.

#17 Post by **Stickbow Hunter** » Wed May 10, 2006 9:19 pm

Good work Graeme!!! Learning to shoot them should be fun also.

Japonicus Choppemdownanburnem

Good one.

Jeff

Lou · #18 Post by **Lou** » Wed May 10, 2006 10:23 pm

Graeme,
Councils often cut elm and maple branches when pruning parks. Entire elm trees are often fallen when attacked by elm beetle. It could be worthwhile talking to the councils, thatÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s how I got my elm.

A couple of months ago during the lunch break I saw some workers pruning maple branches in the city of Melbourne. There were some straight 4 inch branches destined for the mulcher that I could not do anything about

. What a waste.

Talking to the councils or the Parks Victoria equivalent in your state could be productive. Another one is to get in touch with tree surgeons / tree loppers in your area, they prune the trees every day and would probably not shy away from getting some extra bucks.

Lou

yeoman · #19 Post by **yeoman** » Thu May 11, 2006 9:34 am

Mate, here's another idea for you if you ever go back to the sawmill.

Instead of looking for the straight grained boards, get the bits of the tree they saw off to make the logs square. Do you know what I mean? ie: the tree is round and tapered, so they cut off the outside bits in chunks. They are usually about 3-4 inches hick at one end, and taper to nothing over a 10-12 foot length. Just get a few of those, cut to 6ft long from the thick end, and each one should give you enough wood for several selfbows.

This has three good points:

This wood is normally thrown out, so will be cheap.

This wood will allow selfbows with natural tree surface as the back. Very nice looking!

These bits of wood, although crowned, do come from large trees, so will have much less crown than trees of the usual bow size: 4-8 inches diameter.

If there was a sawmill which processed suitable trees anywhere near where I lived, that's whereI would get my bow wood from.

Does that help?

Dave