New Zealand

[Crogacht]

Do we have any New Zealanders on PA???

[unkieford]

Kia Ora!

I'm married to one, but live in the States. Planning to visit Aoteroa soon, though. Willing to bring reasonable sized archery stuff with, provided no laws are being broken.

---Ford---

[Crogacht]

Hello!!

Where abouts in NZ is he from? I'm in Nelson. I know of maybe half a dozen others making bows in New Zealand, but I'm sure there are a few more lurking around.

Thanks for the offer, I'm not sure I need anything yet, I'm still trying to get everything setup.

I'm going to be buying some b50 and/or fastflight+ for strings, but that comes cheap-ish on ebay, so no worries there.

I figure I might as well make use of native woods where I can, as we have no osage here, and basically no yew... although I am about to plant some osage seed, but I'll have a few more grey hairs before it's ready

[unkieford]

She's from Bay of Plenty, but currently living in Phoenix, Arizona. We're coming back home on vacation. Will be visting South island for a few days. I'm stoked to see the Southern Alps, and will be trying to bag a Tahr, weather permitting.

Whaka Yeah!

---Ford---

[Crogacht]

Aw sweet. South Island is by far the best island and the Southern Alps are very nice. Right up at the Northern end, where I am, we have the Mount Richmond Forest Park. People don't go there a lot with abel tasman and nelson lakes so close, but it's starting to get a bit more traffic with Te Araroa going through there now. It's pretty rough country, but it's a very nice area with little foot traffic. There should be a tahr or chamois or something wandering around in the alps somewhere for you

[unkieford]

I stayed a night in Nelson, and when it comes to who lives in a better place... you win by a mile.    I made it doen to Franz Josef, bagged a Tahr and a red hind. My new mate Nigel brought down a chamois. It was a trip full of win.

---Ford---

[Crogacht]

Haha, awesome. Yeah it's great here. People who have travelled the world still rate it very highly, we have everything within an hours drive... plains, sea, river, mountains, anything you could want.

Sounds pretty sweet. Good to hear you got what you came for It's beautiful down that way.

[rockynz]

Hi, I'm just new on these forums. I'm in Taranaki. I'm just about to get started on my first self bow. I have a Barberry log, 70" long and about 4-5" diameter. Its still green but thinking I will split it and rough shape and debark, then dry inside near the fire. Feel the need to start making something soon Also have a large Lancewood log but will leave that whole to season properly in my shed. Good to know there are others in New Zealand into bow making

cheers
rocky

[Crogacht]

Hi rocky,

I'm in Nelson, we also have shamusrobert, who lives down the west coast. There are probably others, but none on PA that I know of. I'm partway through my first couple of bows, but rob has done quite a few and puts out some real nice ones. If you do a search on his username you'll find a few posts.

I have no experience with barberry, but just make sure you seal the back and ends well with a couple of coats of pva or shellec after you take the bark off. I'd probably put it somewhere warm and dry, but probably not right next to the fire. I think the heat would be too extreme and variable.

Yeah, my advice is hoard wood whenever you can, so you always have a dry stave to work on 

I'm making a lancewood bow at the moment, but it's from a very small < 3 inch tree, and I have no idea how it's going to turn out. Kind of going stiff handled longbow style. Rob discovered it's best to remove the ridges though, they focus the stress and end up cracking... which means violating the back of course, but it's really the only option.

Also, with the lancewood log, seal the ends and split it into halves or quarters depending on the size, leave bark on for now. A full log with bark on could take years to dry properly.

[rockynz]

Hi Crogacht,

thanks for the info. I'm at work now but will post some pics of my logs tonight. Lancewood is strange stuff to dry. I started with a piece under 3" diam. I debarked it and sealed the ends but it split all along the length of it so I not too sure I want to chance that happening with my big log! Its huge so will take a long time to dry as is. The Barberry looks like nice wood, the growth rings are very close so will have to make the back just under the bark. It would be near impossible to chase a ring I think! I'm thinking Marnuka-Karnuka would be an ideal timber sort of like a Kiwi yew!

Anyhow I better get back to it, post some more tonight

cheers
rocky

[Crogacht]

If you debark a log/stave you have to seal that surface also, otherwise it will check all the way down it. I prefer to leave the bark on as it protects the wood from checking most of the time as long as the ends are sealed well, it will also dry slower, but it doesn't bother me. I definitely wouldn't debark lancewood, with those ridges all the way down it needs all the protection it can get or it will twist and crack pretty bad. Like I said, split it down the middle into halves or quarters, whatever is appropriate for the diameter of the log and seal the ends, but I would leave the bark on for sure.

It will be cool to see how the barberry goes, pretty much anything will make a bow, just depends if the width required makes it impractical or not. A quick search suggests Barberry is ring porous, if it has heartwood I would maybe chase a ring down to that or leave a few rings of sapwood, but if not may as well strip the bark and use that for the back.

Kanuka makes a very nice bow, I haven't tried it yet myself, but I plan to.  Very hard, strong wood, just need to design it right and distribute the stress evenly (as with any bow).

[rockynz]

I did not get the chance to take pics last night. Weather here not great just now but will get to it sometime today. I don't see any sapwood on the Barberry and I'm not sure what ring porous means to me? I shaved down an off cut and its nice and easy to work (green) and grain is nice and straight. When I searched for its use as a timber all I found is that wood turners use it.

I want to make a long bow of some sort, maybe i should start a build along or something so I get lots of input? This is such a great place. Can't stop reading all the posts, so much talent here!

[Crogacht]

Basically, ring porous woods are woods where the seasonal growth is very well defined, meaning the latewood is much better than the earlywood. Diffuse porous woods may not even have discernible rings, like many NZ natives.

Maybe just make a post that you're starting your first bow and post a few progress pics etc as you go along. You should get plenty of advice once you get into tillering.

[rockynz]

Managed to get a break in the weather to get some pics!

[Crogacht]

Nice, yeah I can't really see any heartwood/sapwood boundary. It could be that the sapwood is only a ring or two right under the bark, or the heartwood/sapwood are a very similar colour. Can see a few rings there, semi-ring porous I guess. I'd probably use the wood right under the bark for the back, like that as you said. Make sure to get it sealed on the ends if it isn't already.