Failure. . .Kanuka Mollegabet second attempt. 48# @ 28"

[Rākau]

After promising myself to get some working basic flat/longbows under my belt before trying another molle I found myself roughing out a wonky stave into another lever bow before I knew what I was doing. . .
the stave was a bit wonky but after seeing what simson produces out of gnarly bits of wood that is no excuse. tips didn't line up over center and the stave had about 60 degrees of prop twist. . . both of these things were studiously ignored by myself because I didn't have the patience to heat bend everything into alignment. on top of this, the area of the tree that coincided with the belly of the bottom limb has taken an absolute hammering from cicadas (an insect that lays its eggs in the sapwood of trees, see photos below) which resulted in some funky funky scaring in the grain which was really pretty but I was fairly certain would blow up on me. . . but it hasn't happened yet after 100+ shots, so here's hoping.

The result was a close to center shot bow, my 4th bow that actually works and my first hunting weight bow that has lasted more than 10 shots!
Tiller probably isn't great but it was all I could wrap my brain around. I know I need to work on getting more bending closer to the handle fades, but i get uncomfortable seeing the bow bend in that area for some reason.
here Is a 20second vid of full draw and a shot
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cd7gvosGtR8&feature=youtu.be


Screenshot_20180730-112353_Video Player by Zachary Press, on Flickr

Screenshot_20180730-112651_Video Player by Zachary Press, on Flickr

Screenshot_20180730-112733_Video Player by Zachary Press, on Flickr

Screenshot_20180730-112831_Video Player by Zachary Press, on Flickr

20180730_102459 by Zachary Press, on Flickr

20180730_102350 by Zachary Press, on Flickr

20180730_102239 by Zachary Press, on Flickr

20180730_102030 by Zachary Press, on Flickr

20180730_102121 by Zachary Press, on Flickr

20180730_102418 by Zachary Press, on Flickr

20180730_102141 by Zachary Press, on Flickr

20180730_101857 by Zachary Press, on Flickr

20180730_101756 by Zachary Press, on Flickr

20180730_101824 by Zachary Press, on Flickr


And I've started making arrows too!
20180730_100927 by Zachary Press, on Flickr

[Danzn Bar]

Not familiar with the wood type, but the tiller looks pretty good.
DBar

[M2A]

Grats! Unbraced photo seems to show bow is holding up well. Looks to be shooting well for you too. Good job. Mike

[StickMark]

excellent.  my first was a Mollie.  good shooting. 

[PEARL DRUMS]

Looks like a winner to me. Tiller looks good. That style bow has its own shooting characteristics.

[upstatenybowyer]

Nice job! 

[simson]

Well made bow!
Never heard from this wood ...

[Rākau]

Thanks guys,

Dbar and Simson: Kanuka (Kunzea ericoides) is an endemic to New Zealand and seems to be what other NZ bowyers favour which is nice because it is super abundant. gotta make do with what we have around, some of our exotics are well known bow woods, black locust, mulberry, the very occasional yew or even osage, but there isn't a heap of that around. On the other hand, Kanuka grows like a weed all over the place, as I improve I'll attempt some shorter/more stressed designs.

M2A; haha I am stoked with unbraced profile, I deffinitly think that this woods loves a heat treat. This stave started with about 2" of reflex which was pulled out by the time i got it to 20", then i heat treated and it didn't budge after that.

Pearly: thanks mate, definitely Has me smiling. What do you mean by special shooting characteristics?

[Rākau]

well I am building up my collection of half bows. . . I'll give the next one 500 shots before I feel safe 

20180731_131832 by Zachary Press, on Flickr

[bitterman]

Dooh sorry to hear That sucks

[simk]

hi nzuka, my heartfelt sympathy for you. already in a earlier thread of yours i mentioned that you do rather extreme designs. i have to repeat that at this point. how long are your bending sections? i was thought that for a "normal" bow the lenght of the bending sections should be about your draw length to stay safe. i'm also beginner, also like the short ones and also suffer from fails therefore. i think you have good wood but do the levers a little bit shorter. let's carve again! cheers

[Rākau]

hi nzuka, my heartfelt sympathy for you. already in a earlier thread of yours i mentioned that you do rather extreme designs. i have to repeat that at this point. how long are your bending sections? i was thought that for a "normal" bow the lenght of the bending sections should be about your draw length to stay safe. i'm also beginner, also like the short ones and also suffer from fails therefore. i think you have good wood but do the levers a little bit shorter. let's carve again! cheers

Haha thanks Simk, appreciate it. And yeah we all know what the problem is  I don't know what made me do another molle, impulsive nature i guess haha next one will be 72" or more I promise. . . 
I've got a couple bending and shooting well, but they are underweight and over built, next one will work!! 

[Marc St Louis]

Too bad. 

I think the problem most make is in making the levers too long

[Hawkdancer]

Opps!  Bad break!  That is exotic wood up here!  Might try to splice some of those half bows together, you might hit. The. Right combination! 
Hawkdancer