Information and Resources > Primitive Archery Clubs

New Zealand

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unkieford:
I stayed a night in Nelson, and when it comes to who lives in a better place... you win by a mile. ;)   I made it doen to Franz Josef, bagged a Tahr and a red hind. My new mate Nigel brought down a chamois. It was a trip full of win.

---Ford---

Crogacht:
Haha, awesome. Yeah it's great here. People who have travelled the world still rate it very highly, we have everything within an hours drive... plains, sea, river, mountains, anything you could want.

Sounds pretty sweet. Good to hear you got what you came for :D It's beautiful down that way.

rockynz:
Hi, I'm just new on these forums. I'm in Taranaki. I'm just about to get started on my first self bow. I have a Barberry log, 70" long and about 4-5" diameter. Its still green but thinking I will split it and rough shape and debark, then dry inside near the fire. Feel the need to start making something soon ;D Also have a large Lancewood log but will leave that whole to season properly in my shed. Good to know there are others in New Zealand into bow making

cheers
rocky

Crogacht:
Hi rocky,

I'm in Nelson, we also have shamusrobert, who lives down the west coast. There are probably others, but none on PA that I know of. I'm partway through my first couple of bows, but rob has done quite a few and puts out some real nice ones. If you do a search on his username you'll find a few posts.

I have no experience with barberry, but just make sure you seal the back and ends well with a couple of coats of pva or shellec after you take the bark off. I'd probably put it somewhere warm and dry, but probably not right next to the fire. I think the heat would be too extreme and variable.

Yeah, my advice is hoard wood whenever you can, so you always have a dry stave to work on  ;D

I'm making a lancewood bow at the moment, but it's from a very small < 3 inch tree, and I have no idea how it's going to turn out. Kind of going stiff handled longbow style. Rob discovered it's best to remove the ridges though, they focus the stress and end up cracking... which means violating the back of course, but it's really the only option.

Also, with the lancewood log, seal the ends and split it into halves or quarters depending on the size, leave bark on for now. A full log with bark on could take years to dry properly.

rockynz:
Hi Crogacht,

thanks for the info. I'm at work now but will post some pics of my logs tonight. Lancewood is strange stuff to dry. I started with a piece under 3" diam. I debarked it and sealed the ends but it split all along the length of it so I not too sure I want to chance that happening with my big log! Its huge so will take a long time to dry as is. The Barberry looks like nice wood, the growth rings are very close so will have to make the back just under the bark. It would be near impossible to chase a ring I think! I'm thinking Marnuka-Karnuka would be an ideal timber sort of like a Kiwi yew!

Anyhow I better get back to it, post some more tonight ;)

cheers
rocky

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