Author Topic: Aus suspect bow wood stave haul  (Read 4783 times)

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Offline Hamish

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Re: Aus suspect bow wood stave haul
« Reply #15 on: July 04, 2018, 07:15:42 pm »
 Ah yes the dreaded problem of scientific reclassification, renaming things arbitrarily or unnecessarily. Pretty annoying for us woodworkers.

I wish they would just stick with the traditional names.


The best way to avoid bugs is to process, the staves asap. Take the bark off, work into oversized floor tillered staves whilst green and seal the backs and end grain. Store away from extreme heat or moisture.

Offline Rākau

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Re: Aus suspect bow wood stave haul
« Reply #16 on: July 04, 2018, 08:13:12 pm »
Cheers Hamish, that is definitely where I went wrong the first time. . . didn't seal them, left the bark on, didn't shape them, then put them under the house for a year . . young and dumb haha.

Offline NoShoesNoBlues

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Re: Aus suspect bow wood stave haul
« Reply #17 on: July 06, 2018, 03:48:15 am »
So is it better to take the bark off and sealing it rather than using the bark as a natural seal? or is that for bugs mainly?

Offline Pat B

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Re: Aus suspect bow wood stave haul
« Reply #18 on: July 06, 2018, 07:59:18 am »
The bugs generally come from eggs laid in the bark.
Make the most of all that comes and the least of all that goes!    Pat Brennan  Brevard, NC

Offline Aussie Yeoman

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Re: Aus suspect bow wood stave haul
« Reply #19 on: July 10, 2018, 06:29:39 am »
When I started making bows I was in Tasmania. I tried many times to make bows from tea-tree, though I never ever found one that would split straight - most of them would twist at least 90 degrees along six feet.

I tried what was known locally as Silver Wattle. It worked really well. Even a sapling just over an inch in diameter could make a nice bow of over 40 lb at ~28".

I made one from a young blackwood tree. It hadn't even fully transitioned from the classic acacia leaves to the older lozenge-shaped leaves. A sapling 2" wide decrowned and flattened on the belly. About 40 lb and shot reasonably well, though in retrospect was probably too green.

Horizontal apparently makes a brilliant bow. A number of years ago I managed to secure a small few half-rounds, about five inches across, long enough to make billets. I'm keen to make bows with them but owing to their rarity I fear a mistake. Horizontal has previously been used to make axe handles. I think woods that make good axe handles probably make good bows. Before I make bows from the billets I will do some scientific testing to find the mechanical properties and report back.

Three inches wide is pretty wide, but is also pretty safe. I reckon tillering a successful bow in the early stages is more important than making a bow ith superb performance. If that means making a bow wider than it should be with slightly less performance, then so be it. You'll still have something that shoots and you will still have learnt a great deal from the tillering process.
Articles for the beginning bowyer, with Australian bowyers in mind:

http://www.tharwavalleyforge.com/articles/tutorials

Offline Rākau

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Re: Aus suspect bow wood stave haul
« Reply #20 on: July 14, 2018, 06:50:38 pm »
Thanks Aussie Yeoman thats good info, silver wattle and blackwood both grow over in NZ as invasives so I'll keep an eye out for them.
I just visited a guy who makes longbows out of nz tea tree and loves it, he decrowns all his staves and does a lot of billet splicing to get strait staves.