New to forum - FNQ timber for self bows

[Old Soul]

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 couple of working bows, both of which I would like to show off to you all since a lot of you would have posted a post at some time that would have had some bearing on their production. There have been a couple of bow explosions along the way, no injuries thankfully, pretty scary and out right hart breaking when it happens though.

The timbers for these bows were sourced locally hear in Far North QLD, cut, split and seasoned by myself. The Red Ash which I have seen mentioned many times, Grey Beard I think you were one to alert me to its qualities. And the other being Acacia Mangium, also known as Hickory wattle, Northern black wattle and Brown Salwood. I have not seen this timber mentioned yet, I am sure it will be known though and I would love to hear your thoughts on it. This timber, for me at least, is so far the most successful and most beautiful.

The Red Ash is 66.5 inches n/n and draws 51# at 26 inches. I believe the tips could be thinned out a little yet. The nocks are bits of Acacia Mangium I had lying around and the pattern on the back is saw dust of Acacia Mangium with water blotched over it to leach out the tannins giving a natural stain. I like to keep things as natural as possible but continually find myself struggling with this and the amount of spare time I don't have, especially when it comes to making primitive arrows.

The static recurve is the Acacia Mangium, it is 63 inches n/n and draws 43# at 26 inches. I was aiming for 50# but learned the lesson of tillering for too long with the long string. Still a very smooth shooter, well at least I think so until I try some other bows. It is backed with hide glue and kangaroo sinew sourced from dog treats, not the best sinew around. The nocks are of hoof also obtained from the local pet store. The tips were bent using dry heat and the belly was heat treated prior to backing of course. It is sealed with tru oil and a top coat of bees wax over the sinew. The handle, as with the Red Ash bow, is wrapped in brain tanned shark skin laced with sinew. Definitely my best bow so far.

Anyway I have rambled enough and look forward to talking with some of you and hope that some day I may even be able to meet some of you.

I did just want to say a quick thanks to flat liner who lives not far from me as he has allowed me to come and hassle him on a number of occasions to measure the poundage of my bows and to sit and talk wood with. He also encouraged me to take a look at this forum as I initially thought that I was quite alone in my endeavour to source a local timber from FNQ to make a self bow, I now this is not the case.

[greybeard]

Hi Old Soul, welcome to the site.

The finish on your bows is first class and the tiller on the recurve looks spot on.

I realise photos can be a little deceiving but the fadeouts on the recurve look a little abrupt, just my opinion.

PA260280.JPG (24.08 KiB) Viewed 5150 times

Fantastic work please keep posting your creations.

Daryl.

[Stickbow Hunter]

Welcome to the forum. Well you certainly have done an excellent job on those two bows. Very well done and thanks for sharing your craftsmanship with us.

Jeff

[rodlonq]

Nice work Old Soul, welcome to Ozbow.

Cheers... Rod

[Gringa Bows]

They look great,welcome to Ozbow

[cmoore]

Im lovin that recurve mate! She looks beautiful
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?

Cheers
Cameron

[The Ranger]

Nice work Old Soul, I love the way you have stained the back of your selfbow. There's nothing like making your own bow to shoot with.

Ranger

[Flatliner]

Good on ya Scott, glad to see you finally posted some of your exceptional workmanship.
I must say these two bows are the sweetest shooting self bows I have ever had the pleasure to shoot and perform very nicely with arrow speeds of around 142 fps with arrow weight of 11 grains per pound of draw weight.

I realise photos can be a little deceiving but the fadeouts on the recurve look a little abrupt, just my opinion.

That's what I thought when I first saw it too Daryl but as you can see in the full draw photo there is no hinging at the fades and in fact the bow has a beautiful even curve at full draw.

Some close up photos and info on your locally sourced primitive arrows would be of great interest to many on the forum too.

Great work Scott.

Cheers, Rob.

[Hamish]

Some nice bows going on there. I reckon there are a lot of good timbers for bows In FNQ, virtually any of the hard, heavy acacias. Thanks for sharing.

[greybeard]

I realise photos can be a little deceiving but the fadeouts on the recurve look a little abrupt, just my opinion.

That's what I thought when I first saw it too Daryl .........

Thanks Rob, it was a little difficult to pick up the transition into the limbs in the photograph.

.... I reckon there are a lot of good timbers for bows In FNQ, virtually any of the hard, heavy acacias...

But be prepared to modify the bow design to accommodate these heavy timbers.

Daryl.

[yeoman]

I'll echo some of the above comments and say your bows look most splendid!

Absolute top notch.

Are any of those FNQ timbers available commercially up there?

The grain in the timbers look spectacular.

[mikaluger]

Ummm....Awesome!!!!!
Beautiful bows and great work! top stuff!.....love the Acacia........got to find some down here.....

[Old Soul]

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 pull any noticeable reflex into the bow but again the quality of the sinew was not very good. It would suffice as a safety backing but as far as adding any extra spring to the bow I would have to question it. The dog treat sinew is dried with fan forced hot air and destroys its integrity to a degree. I actually ended up throwing away about half of it as when I applied a sharp tug to test it, it simply snapped. I have harvested sinew myself and it was much stronger and more elastic than the stuff I used.

Yes I soaked the sinew in warm water first and then briefly soaked it in the hide glue before applying it. The hide glue is from U beaut polishes (http://www.ubeaut.com.au/hide.htm). The smallest packet is more than enough to do a few bows with.

[Old Soul]

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 their posts. Thanks to you and everyone else who posted kind words about my work.

I am just wondering with respect to the fadeouts, aside from possibly creating a hinge what other concerns would sharp fadeouts create? I ask because I am contemplating making another static recurve from a sister stave and I'm always looking to make improvement where possible.

[Old Soul]

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 use to make a bow to hunt in the local area. When doing my research I remember reading that they were looking at commercially harvesting the acacia so it may well be available.

Scott

[greybeard]

I am just wondering with respect to the fadeouts, aside from possibly creating a hinge what other concerns would sharp fadeouts create? I ask because I am contemplating making another static recurve from a sister stave and I'm always looking to make improvement where possible.

Hi Scott,

Imagine what would happen if you got a piece of timber about 40mm wide, 6 to 8mm thick and about 1000mm long and clamped it to your workbench so you have about a 900mm overhang.

Think of the bench as a riser/handle.

If you were to push the end of the timber to the floor it will most likely break close to the edge of the bench.

Fadeouts spread the load area, the longer the fade, within reason lessens the stress over that area.

I found the following photo on the internet, a prime example of abrupt fadeouts.

Bow_Grip_Hill.jpg (31.7 KiB) Viewed 4994 times

Daryl.