66" Kanuka lever bow. 47# @ 26"

[Rākau]

I am pretty stoked with how this one (number 8 I think) turned out considering I have snapped a couple of mollies already in my short time building and she shoots pretty sweet to boot!
I cut this tree down probably September last year and promptly roughed out a few blanks to get drying, the cleanest of which I shaped into this 66" stiff handled pyramid/lever bow. She's 2" at the handle fades tapering to 1 1/4" at the lever fades, tips are about 1" tapering to around 1/4". The tip overlays are two halves of the same crown from a red deer I got a while back.
Bit of a heat treat on the belly around 20" and then rawhide backed with nice thin fallow deer hide on the working limbs once I hit 28 on the tree, ends of the rawhide are wrapped with sinew.
The wood is Kanuka.
She pulls 47# at my 26" with 1.5" of follow.
The back is painted with acrylic to break up the glaring white of rawhide and wood as she will be used in the scrub.
The belly was stained with some steel wool/vinegar solution that I made ages ago which had dried out, I just rehydrated it with water and slapped it on, I quite like the soft grey result.
Finished with 6 coats of minwax polyacrylic, which wasn't the greatest stuff to work with, will try an oil based next time.
Temporary handle wrap is bark tanned fallow deer leather that I made as an experiment with bark from some Kamahi (another NZ native, which has massively high tannin contents in the bark, much higher than the best quality oak apparently).
Silencers are possum fur.

Man and just a general acknowledgment of all of the amazing people on here who so willingly share their knowledge, there are very few days that I don't jump on here to see what the newest questions and discoveries are (I'm glad there are so many people who can ask more insightful questions than I could ever think of)

Anywho, here are some pics, I hope you enjoy, and as usual any feedback from you lot is greatly appreciated.
(spot the pet kunekune pig)

20190504_130408 by Zachary Press, on Flickr

20190504_130356 by Zachary Press, on Flickr

20190504_130515 by Zachary Press, on Flickr

20190504_130758 by Zachary Press, on Flickr

20190504_130536 by Zachary Press, on Flickr

20190504_130440 by Zachary Press, on Flickr

20190504_130549 by Zachary Press, on Flickr

20190504_130642 by Zachary Press, on Flickr

20190504_130726 by Zachary Press, on Flickr

20190504_130729 by Zachary Press, on Flickr

20190504_130625 by Zachary Press, on Flickr

Screenshot_20190504-154013_Video Player by Zachary Press, on Flickr

Screenshot_20190504-154003_Video Player by Zachary Press, on Flickr

Screenshot_20190504-153944_Video Player by Zachary Press, on Flickr

Screenshot_20190504-153915_Video Player by Zachary Press, on Flickr

Screenshot_20190504-153847_Video Player by Zachary Press, on Flickr

Thanks for lookin!

[Del the cat]

cool bow 
Del

[bjrogg]

Very nice Zachary. I like your tips and artwork to.  Very nicely done bow. It looks like your bark tanning experiment worked to. Keep up the good work.
Bjrogg

[dratera]

Neat bow, I like the profile. I have tried the vinegar stain too, on a elm bow once , but didnt look turn out too good, dull grey-blue ish, so i fumed it for a couple of days. Turned out better than the ones i just fumed, just a tip if you want to try on next bow no idea on how kanuka would react to fuming though

[0ri9ine11]

Beautiful Bow with sharp looking needle tips.
Never heard of Kanuka (in germany) what is it like? is it better eith tension or compression? how well does it perform?

[PeteC]

Very nice.I really like the thin tips and your paint job on the back. That soft gray dye job reminds of a bow I built about 20 years ago I had forgotten about. Good job. God bless

[SLIMBOB]

Nice work!

[hoosierf]

Love it

[PaSteve]

Great looking bow. I, too like the artwork on the back and the skinny tips. Agree about all the knowledge shared on this site.

[DC]

Very nice!

[simk]

Finally....a very nice bow with beautiful artwork. May it will enjoy you a long time! cheers

[Rākau]

Thanks guys! I really wanted to see how skinny I could go with the tips, it was fun!

Bjrogg yeah I had a couple of fallow skins I was turning into rawhide and one was just too small and beat up to get any decent strips from so I chucked it in a bucket of shavings that had been sitting in the rain, haha waste not want not.

Dratera, If I stain Kanuka with a full strength solution it turns almost pitch black, this re-hydrated stuff wasn't nearly as strong, I will definitely try fuming one of these days!

Ori9ine11, To be honest I couldn't really tell you what Kanuka is like haha, in that I haven't worked with any of the woods that are more commonly mentioned on this site so I don't have anything to compare it to. It is diffuse porous and the books say it has an SG of 0.76 but I don't know how representative that is of the pieces I have worked. It seems to take a fair amount of set, although it does like a heat treat and it responds to heat corrections very well. I have blown a few up and they all failed in tension, although that is probably more indicative of my poor newbie tillering than anything else as others don't seem to have that problem. it does love a rawhide back though.

[Stixnstones]

Great job... love everything about it

[peacefullymadewarbows]

Bow of the month? Great job dude that's a top shelf bow in all respects.

[upstatenybowyer]

Very cool. Put that one in your winner's circle for sure.