This year marked 40 years on the planet for me and since my time living here in Australia is quickly coming to a close, I decided that the best way to celebrate my birthday as well as memorialize my time here would be a custom bow built by an Australian bowyer with all Australian timbers. There are many unique and beautiful timbers here in Australia, most of which get very little attention from bowyers, so I wanted to showcase some only found here. As many of you know, there are some fantastic bowyers here as well and after seeing Rob Nicoll's (Flatline Bows) post on the Great Storm build along, I decided to try and find one to shoot. A quick email to him lined me up with Paul Mayall, who lives kind of close, a mere 400kms east of Perth, and a date to shoot a Flatline and a Huntsman was made. After shooting both, I decided the Flatline suited me better. Now to figure out what timbers to use! After a trip to Albany where I saw some lacy she oak, I knew that was the timber I wanted to have to bow built around. A few emails to Rob later and some research on my part found me deciding to go with lacy she oak, purple gidgee, and false sandalwood for the main timbers with conkerberry, sliver ash and white phenolic for the details. Bamboo is the limb core material. I made a trip to Denmark (just east of Albany on our beautiful SW coast) to a place called Djarilmari Timbers and hand picked two pieces of lacy she oak, one for the riser and one for the limbs. After mailing the pieces to Rob, he said that the limb piece was too lightly colored and finely figured to use in the limbs, as the detail would be lost when covered with glass, so he turned the piece 90 degrees and got a bolder, more visible pattern to show, which looks pretty cool. I also asked him to foot the limbs, something he hasn't done before. Rob was fantastic to work with, he was very patient with me and answered all my questions, he also sent me pics during the build to keep me up to date. I can highly recommend him for those who want a custom bow! He is a true craftsman, an artist, and a genuinely nice bloke! Thank you Rob! Enough talk, here's some pics!
Austral Dreaming!
- IMG_2368.jpg (136.4 KiB) Viewed 4283 times
The riser, lacy she oak, purple gidgee, and conkerberry inlay.
- IMG_2353.jpg (199.27 KiB) Viewed 4283 times
Limb overlays, she oak with false sandalwood at the tips, reversed on the belly.
- IMG_2359.jpg (191.72 KiB) Viewed 4283 times
Limb tip, conkerberry, purple gidgee, lacy she oak, then white phenolic.
- IMG_2358.jpg (192.35 KiB) Viewed 4283 times
Limb bolt overlays (You might recognize these from Rob's Great Storm build).
- IMG_2350.jpg (135.36 KiB) Viewed 4283 times
Very fine detail work in the riser, conkerberry leaf inlay, silver ash accent lines, conkerberry and clear glass reinforcing curve.
- IMG_2352.jpg (153.22 KiB) Viewed 4283 times
Specs.
- IMG_2357.jpg (165.9 KiB) Viewed 4283 times
The business end.
- IMG_2367.jpg (111.43 KiB) Viewed 4283 times
At full draw.
- IMG_2373.JPG (139.6 KiB) Viewed 4283 times
Lacy she oak, looks like fire!
- IMG_2382.JPG (112.94 KiB) Viewed 4283 times
Email; robnicoll(at)bigpond(dot)com
Not only is she a looker, she's a performer as well. Hope to be chasing elk back home in a week or so with her!
.
Rob is a nice bloke as I have spoken to him quite a few times, but man can he build a bow! Glad I put a deposit in 
