Ozbow

Hi everyone, I am planning a trip to NZ in August of this year. I was wondering if anyone out there has any hunting experience in NZ? Which is the best island for hunting, north or south? I am headed to the south island for my trip and was hoping someone might be able part with some tips on which to...

Hey Joel, Great to see you finally sharing some of your great work with us. I can't wait to see the finished product.... make sure you post a picture. I love the profile. I hope the north is treating you well. I have been down south here for a year now. I've been chasing these dam deer the whole tim...

Cairns eventually got too hot for me to mate, kind of nice to feel the cold occasionally. Certainly looking forward to hunting in it anyway.

I made a bow from the sister stave of this bow when it was still slightly green. I used dry heat to form it, it was amazing it was almost like rubber.

Hey Nezwin, yep a little hot right now but compared to Cairns not too bad. Daryl, on this occasion I boiled the tips but I tend to prefer dry heat with oil, trick is just to take your time to heat the timber without scorching it. One thing is for certain, every time I make a bow or attempt to make o...

So I must apologise as I kind of dropped off the grid for quite some time. I have moved from Cairns to Esk and have been down here for just over 6 months now getting settled in, froze my ass of on arrival. Prior to leaving Cairns I was able to finish the self bow that I had set out to complete and c...

Hey Rob,

That is nothing short of fricken beautiful mate, awesome job. The effect that the end grain of that black palm gives is stunning, the combination of all the timbers is just incredible.

Scotty

Hi Joe, Your dad is right, it is also called Sally wattle. There are a few wattles similar in appearenec that are also called Sally wattle and a few other common names as well. As far as its resistance to compression I could not properly answer it. The second bow I tried building from it developed a...

Hey Colin, if you are chasing horn head down to your local pet store, some of them are stocking cow hoof as dog chews, it's made of the same stuff and is really cheap usually about $2 a hoof. Trying to by proper horn can be problematic and the hoof comes up beautifully.

Hey Joe, Great to see you went straight to it and had a look for sme. That particular species is very common in the area and as you have seen can offer some nice straight staves. I know that you will do some good work with what ever you harvest. The timber you will find is fairly stable when drying,...

Hey Colin, awesome work mate, it certainly looks the part. Would be awesome to crack off some arrows into the distance, my shoulder aches just looking at it though. I hope you get plenty of good use out of it mate.

Morayfield was heading that way before I left, Deception Bay was always the problem town up until then. I went to high school at Dakabin. Every town has a Moon St though, Murray St is one of ours and I'm sure you have heard of it recently. Tell yor daughter there are plenty worse things than cashed ...

Hi Perry, I think I may have viewed one of your previous bows or read a comment from you about leaving all the sap wood on once before and it certainly grabbed my attention. I still have another stave that is big enough that I may just split it in two yet and I am deffinitly going to give it a go. T...

Hamish wrote:Hi, What species of tree do you have there?

Hamish, I think it is Acacia Mangium. There are so many closely related acaia's it is hard to tell some times but from all the research I have done into it that is the best fit I have come up with so far.

So attached are some pics of my next stave “The one” that will hopefully leave me satisfied for a while. I thought I might kind of do a bit of a build along and get some opinions and so forth along the way. It will be a long process as time is of a premium but I will get it done. As you can see the ...

Hey guys, Sunday will work. Rob what is the clubs policey again with visitors? cost etc and what time will the shoot start and finish?

Hey guys, it is comforting to know it is not just me breaking good wood. There were a number of decisions along the way that led to the demise of this particular bit of wood, strangely it was kind of a relief when it broke as I was always just trying to salvage it and new that as soon as I had finis...

I think there is something wrong with me, today I learned yet another hard lesson in the world of self bow making, another bow explosion. So many hours of work destroyed in a fraction of a second and already I am thinking of the next stave and how I will make it. I think after today’s efforts I have...

Are any of those FNQ timbers available commercially up there? The grain in the timbers look spectacular. Yeoman, To be honest I am not sure if any of the timbers I used are available commercially. For me it was about being able to go out in my local area and harvest a log myself which I could then ...

I realise photos can be a little deceiving but the fadeouts on the recurve look a little abrupt, just my opinion. Hi Daryl, I have never used a forum before and I am still trying to figure out how everything works but it is kind of cool that I am now able to talk to everyone instead of just reading...

How many layers of sinew did you use and did it pull any reflex into the bow whilst drying?, also what brand of hide glue did you use? And did you soak your sinew in warm water before applying it? Hi Cameron, Cheers for your kind words. To answer your question, I used two layers of sinew. It did not...

Hi everyone, I am new to the forum or at least newly registered to the forum, I have been reading your posts for a couple of years now whilst learning how to carve out a working bow that I can use for hunting. A project that has taken me about 3 years now and finally I have been able to turn out a c...