Not My First Choice of Bow Woods…But
Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2020 2:47 pm
Generally I would place Ironbark way down on my list of bow woods because of its physical / mechanical properties. Making a successful bow could be a bit of a challenge.
The debarked billet 8’ long and 3 ½” across the crown used for this project had been sitting in my storage rack for about five years and was harvested two to three years earlier.
Whilst working the billet I was surprised that there were no drying cracks.
*
*
*
*
Because of the nature of this timber I believed that a flat bow offered the best chance of success and I went for a design similar to that of a flat bow found at Vedbaek in Denmark.
The differences in the properties of Danish elm and ironbark dictated that the limb cross section be quite a bit thinner.
The plan view of the bow is not perfectly symmetrical and some tooling marks remain. I was endeavouring to replicate a bow made with primitive tools some 6,000 years ago.
*
*
*
*
The finished bow is 70” n to n and draws 35# at 26” dlpp. This was the ball park weight that I was after as it suits the re-enactors.
*
*
*
*
Presently the brace about 5 ¼” and has a Fastflite Flemish twist string. Two coats of hand rubbed carnauba and beeswax was applied to seal the timber.
Daryl.
The debarked billet 8’ long and 3 ½” across the crown used for this project had been sitting in my storage rack for about five years and was harvested two to three years earlier.
Whilst working the billet I was surprised that there were no drying cracks.
*
*
- 01 Ironbark Billet_End Compilation.jpg (61.19 KiB) Viewed 4276 times
*
Because of the nature of this timber I believed that a flat bow offered the best chance of success and I went for a design similar to that of a flat bow found at Vedbaek in Denmark.
The differences in the properties of Danish elm and ironbark dictated that the limb cross section be quite a bit thinner.
The plan view of the bow is not perfectly symmetrical and some tooling marks remain. I was endeavouring to replicate a bow made with primitive tools some 6,000 years ago.
*
*
- 02 Limb Compilation.jpg (239.18 KiB) Viewed 4276 times
*
The finished bow is 70” n to n and draws 35# at 26” dlpp. This was the ball park weight that I was after as it suits the re-enactors.
*
*
- 03 Bow Compilation.jpg (77.87 KiB) Viewed 4276 times
*
Presently the brace about 5 ¼” and has a Fastflite Flemish twist string. Two coats of hand rubbed carnauba and beeswax was applied to seal the timber.
Daryl.
