lucky #7. Rawhide backed Kanuka Pyramid 55# @ 28" (pic heavy)

[Rākau]

Finally a hunting weight weapon that is holding together. I made the rawhide from a fallow deer hind, nice and thin. the bow is 1 3/4" at the fades tapering down to 3/8 nocks, the last 2" inch of draw is from the bendy handle, I can only just feel it flexing.
I stained the whole bow with cabots oak stain to darken the rawhide and wood a wee bit, and I used iron oxide stain to add the black tips. the nock on the top limb is goat horn and the bottom limb is just a self nock.
the handle area is built up with cork and wrapped in some bark dyed fish skin (almost tanned but i probably didn't leave it long enough).
Initially she was a bit hand shocky so i thinned the tips to their current dimensions and now she is a real nice shooter with very little hand shock.
string is 8 strand ffplus padded with b52 and possum fur silencers.
she has a natural set back in the handle and she follows the string about 1 1/2" which is something I would like to improve on. I had to do a fair bit of heat work to align the tips and remove some excessive propeller twist. Also the limbs had quite different side profiles when i began tillering but they seem to have evened out a bit now, which is probably an indication that I did something wrong haha but I tried to maintain some of the side profile differences at full draw (either i achieved that or i did a very poor job cause she looks a little wonky).
all in all she has had probably well over 500 shots through her and has spent two hunting days strung up with no loss in draw weight or increase in string follow. Plenty of room for improvement but Im pretty stoked with her   
As usual, any feedback would be much appreciated.
20180921_075019 by Zachary Press, on Flickr

20180921_075033 by Zachary Press, on Flickr

20180921_075100 by Zachary Press, on Flickr

20180921_075123 by Zachary Press, on Flickr

20180921_075137 by Zachary Press, on Flickr

20180921_075148 by Zachary Press, on Flickr

20180921_075154 by Zachary Press, on Flickr

20180921_075158 by Zachary Press, on Flickr

20180921_075222 by Zachary Press, on Flickr

20180921_075300 by Zachary Press, on Flickr

20180921_075322 by Zachary Press, on Flickr

20180921_075409 by Zachary Press, on Flickr

20180921_075528 by Zachary Press, on Flickr

20180921_075552 by Zachary Press, on Flickr

20180921_075605 by Zachary Press, on Flickr

20180921_075714 by Zachary Press, on Flickr

20180921_075817 by Zachary Press, on Flickr

20180921_075824 by Zachary Press, on Flickr

20180921_075835 by Zachary Press, on Flickr

and now the full draw pics

top limb on left

unstrung
20180921_080624 by Zachary Press, on Flickr

braced
20180921_080513 by Zachary Press, on Flickr

Full Draw
20180921_080301 by Zachary Press, on Flickr

[Bob W.]

Take all the advice you get and go from there. I have learned that know 2 pieces of wood are the same, you will be surprised what some staves wll do and just enjoy the ride!

[bjrogg]

Congratulations Zachary. Way to stick with it. Enjoy shooting that one. You earned it. Pretty sure we'll see more from you.
Bjrogg

[Dvshunter]

Congrats on your new bow! I like the clean lines on those tips.

[ohma2]

I hope you are successful with your new bow and keep at it .

[DuBois]

Nice work man!
Hope to see more from you.

[TimBo]

Nice work - that's a sweet bow! 

[silent sniper]

Great work! SS

[Rākau]

Thanks for the words guys.

Thanks bjrogg
Well and truly got the bug, i have a few more finished up too but this is the one I am most happy with so far. Just need to work on evening out my tiller.

Thanks DVS, a little masking tape goes a long way!

Bob W: I am an advice sponge, give it alll to me haha

[upstatenybowyer]

Very nice work Zack! The tiller looks pretty even to me. It must have been challenging cause the handle area does not run naturally straight (as you described), giving the bow an atypical look when it's braced. That can be tricky, but the FD looks like you did a great job finding the right balance. Congrats!

[Shamusrobert]

Nice work getting a good shooter.. Go the Kanuka.

[Rākau]

Thanks heaps Upstate! Your bendy sticks are absolute works of art, haha one day I'll make something bend that nice.

Shamusrobert, Chuuur bro, just got another eight staves from a beauty of a kanuka last weekend. Funnily enough one stave had 2 puriri moth caterpillars in it. Not often you see them outside of puriri trees.

[Hawkdancer]

Nice job!  Congratulations!  Sounds like you're on the way!  Keep 'em coming!
Hawkdancer

[Shamusrobert]

Shamusrobert, Chuuur bro, just got another eight staves from a beauty of a kanuka last weekend. Funnily enough one stave had 2 puriri moth caterpillars in it. Not often you see them outside of puriri trees.

The last lot of Kanuka staves i got had bug damage under the bark [ Huhu i think] , i only ended up getting 3 or 4 narrow staves out of it.
Have ya come across any Maire yet?

[Rākau]

Shamusrobert: nah havent come accross any yet, our place is mostly regen farmland from 30-60 yrs ago, but I'm keeping my eye out! Sounds like you rate it pretty highly?