Ozbow

Hi all,
Just want to show a bow that I've been working on for the past 2 years and is very near completion. I have no clue what the timber is (every wood-worker - haha, 3 in total - I've shown it to has been unable to identify it as well. Very tight growth rings, and a dense timber that is also a pleasure to work. The trees I've found grow to a maximum of 6 inches before they either fall over, or get their piths rotten out. Consequently, I glued on another piece of the same timber onto the handle to build it up to the desired thickness.

Shout-out to Rob (Flatliner), who kindly let me use his indestructible Techniglue for gluing the splice, handle and bone nock tips. Thanks once again Rob. When strung, however, the right limb appears to be bending more that the left. This is due to the fact that the bow was spliced from half billets, so one limb is reflexed where the other is deflexed. When the bow is unstrung, this is apparent. Dimensions:
Width at fades: just under 45 mm
Width at tips: 6/7 mm
Width at handle: just under 30 mm
Depth of handle: 50 mm
Length of handle and fades: 10"
Length of bow: 66"
Draw Weight @28": maybe 50#?

Had a bit of trouble with rawhide backing it (wasted 3 lots of strips, as I backed it in the summer and it just shriveled under the wrapping to 3/4 of its original width). And because the rawhide is such an ugly job, I think I'll paint a design on the back of the bow. Here's the start.
Will keep you updated,
Joe

Persistence always pays off Joe, well done Mate. Look forward to seeing the Patterns painted onto your Bow

Thick Rawhide like that is always a bugger to work with. I use Kangaroo Rawhide as it is most often less than 1mm thick. I buy it from Packer Leather at Narangba. Last I bought a Rawhide they where $57. The Hides are plenty big enough for Backing at least 3 Bows, maybe 4 and left overs for Knife Sheaths, cutting Lace and Patches. I keep all Offcuts as they can be Boiled into Glue.

regards Perry

Thanks Perry, it has been a relief to see the bow slowly develop from a chunk of wood to a thing with a life of its own.

The rawhide is in fact kangaroo rawhide, and was purchased from Birsall Leather. I would have gotten 4 lots of strips out of it if the strips didn't shrink in the heat.
The painting designs may be a cross between native American geometrics and Maori carvings. Something primeval.
The fine growth rings will be a lot clearer when its got half a dozen coats of danish oil on it.

Will post more photos soon
Joe

Had to postpone the painting for a bit due to the unseasonably wet weather up here.
It's not finished, but I already like it. Wish I could post some photos but the computer isn't happy at the moment.

Haven't oiled it yet, but thought I'd post some pics Paint job to hide the rawhide mess Just shy of full draw.
Joe

Excellent Paint Job Joe. Solid effort Mate you should be proud of yourself

terrific paint job there , Joe, in fact great job all round.

Nice work Joe, got a bit carried away with the paint job mate, looks great. How does it shoot?

Rob.

Thanks fellas.
Rob, so far I've only shot it with the light carbons, but it seems to spit them out pretty fast. The only issue is that it has a little too much hand-shock for my liking, and I attribute this to the dense timber. Its currently being oiled, so I'll post some pics when its done!
Joe

Actually to my way of thinking, the denser the riser material then the more unspent energy that escapes from the release is absorbed by said wood.

Hi Joe,

You have done a fine job on decorating the bow.

If the tiller has not changed since finishing the bow the limb timing is most likely out of synchronisation. Re-tiller the bow to around 3/16” positive tiller to see if there is a reduction in hand shock.

I have found that using a low stretch string material improves the feel of the bow in the hand.

JoeLethbridge wrote:.........so far I've only shot it with the light carbons.......

Try some heavier arrows if possible, around ten grains per pound of draw weight.

Daryl.

Greybeard,
the bow was glued from two wavy billets from the same length of timber, so where any reflex was in one limb, the same spot in the other limb would be deflexed, which made the tillering difficult, as the limbs were exact opposites of one another. The limb that is seen to be bending less actually has a lot of reflex near the handle, and the bendy limb has deflex in the same area. It did freak me out at first, but I've gone over it with calipers and its good. If you look at the full draw picture, the tiller will look more even.

BigBob,
that is definitely true, however, this bow had a small riser (5 inches with 3 inch fades), so the riser didn't end up with much mass. The limbs did have a slight concave shape (a little like the eiffel tower), so in theory the tips should have been really light (tips were 6 mm wide). The timber has a rather flexible-yet-dense characteristic, so its actually pretty hard to make a light bow out of this timber.
Looks really nice when finished though.
Joe