Australian Native timbers for self bows

[Mike-dy]

We can add to the list Cap-fruited mallet = Eucalyptus dielsii .

Timber description : Chocolate brown early heartwood, coffe/tan coloured late heartwood, creamy yellow white sapwood all in similar thickness layers, white cambium layer under new green bark aging to silvery / sometimes coppery coloured bark.
Straight grained timber, splits into billets or staves very easily.

Grows locally in the area I am now living in in WA, Had to try it due to the similarity with Brown mallet which is another suitable self bow timber endemic to WA.

Would be interested if others could post their experiences with Australian natives as selfbow materials.

Will post pics of the bow later if possible.
Cheers,
Mike

[perry]

http://www.timberdirect.com.au/Australi ... pecies.htm and http://cms.jcu.edu.au/discovernature/plants_t/index.htm Ok I'm lazy , here's links which should hold many Latin names of Aussie timber suited to Selfbow's

Generally speaking Aussie timbers are best suited to flat cross sections or lenticular cross sections. Personally I have not seen an Aussie timber I regard as suitable for Deep D section limbs

in no particular order

Brigalow
Mulga
Spotted Gum - Corymbia maculata
Soapwood / Pink Ash
" " / Red Ash
Carbine / Moreton Bay Ash
Grey Ironbark
Turpentine
Black Wattle
Jarrah

And a host of Wattle and Eucalyptus that grow sections long enough for billets or staves. Most of the bows I've made have been at least 64" long more often 68"and around the 45 # to 50# mark. One Jarrah Selfbow I made using a pyramid limb design and hunted with for years was 65# and shot like a demon. I destroyed it much as many of my bows by further experimentation, retillering to different profiles, cutting the limbs down etc until the point of failure

Aussie timbers are generally quite heavy but have good elasticity and compression abilities best suited to wider flatter designs that feature lighter outer limbs such as the needle tips common to African Paddle bows, Andaman Island Holmegard etc. The Soapwoods are my favorite for narrower lenticular designs. I have found Brigalow incredibly tough and durable, tough enough to club a cranky pig and be undamaged. I have a 54# that has undergone several incarnations that I made in 1997 that is still going strong, another Brigalow bow is 8 years old and it shoots superbly.

regards Jacko

[Brumbies Country]

Currawang-Acacia doratoxylon
I've been keeping an eye out for this one. One of the best shooting self bows I've seen is made of this.

Hickory wattle-Acacia implexia
Also keeping an eye out for this one. We have elm and hawthorn growing on our place and Black Locust nearby so haven't looked as hard for these natives as I might of, but I went to the Nationa Botanical gardens to identify Currawang