Greetings, Nice result with the red oak. What other Northern hemisphere timbers do your suppliers stock?
About 10 or 15years ago on here I was talking to another NZ bowyer. He had a local source for greenheart timber, large old cants used for building maritime docks. He also mentioned that Yew is growing in some churchyards.
Black Maire is the best native timbers that I have heard grows in NZ. I'm guessing its not the easiest tree to find?
I would keep a look out, make contact with arborists. Lots of pretty and useful garden trees from the northern hemisphere make excellent bows. Oak, ash, elm, apple, crab apple, plum and other fruitwoods.
Appreciate it man Thank You. I usually get my boards from a supplier here in NZ called BBS Timbers, they have a bunch of native timers here as well as the northern species. For northern species they have Black Walnut, Black Cherry, Hard Maple, White Ash, White Oak (Red Oak is included in these piles), European Beech, French Oak and Sapele Mahogany. They also have a bunch of exotic hardwoods from South America like Kwila, Purple Heart, Green Heart, Tonka and various Gums from Australia.
I've heard about Yew in some Churchyards though the trees themselves are quite large but rare. I've also heard about some Yew being found in nearby forests from seed spread by birds though this is even more rare. I would love to work with some Yew someday though I would have to update my respirator for the dust.
Black Maire is the best native I've tested so far though similar to Osage it can grow wonky if out in the open. Though if in a forested grove it can grow straight and tall as it reaches for sunlight. It depends where you look, I'm blessed to live on a large farm that backs onto a mountain range consisting of around 30 square kms. So far I've found around 70 Black Maire trees or so in an area of a square km or so which is quite rare as its not the most common tree. The majority of said trees aren't suitable for bowmaking but there are some great specimens in there, the real hard bit would be getting the wood out with the terrain their located in. Though I want to experiment more with board bows first before deciding whether to harvest one or two.
I will definitely keep my eyes peeled for some great bow species. There is one particularly large Oak at my friends place that I am currently seeing if the owner would be interested in a little pruning in exchange for a bow or two.
