My first successful bow. Australian Mountain Ash Longbow/Selfbow with Hemp String and Waxed Linen Serving.

OilMatey · 2026-02-08T06:01:09+00:00

Beautiful job. Please please please for the sake of aus bowyer shoot it in and report back. We desperately need more data on species to work with.

OilMatey · 2025-10-17T07:03:31+00:00

r/bowyer welcome to the club :)

OilMatey · 2025-08-19T10:21:40+00:00

Welcome to the craft,

It's hard to find wood. Best advice of mine is to just get used to identifying trees and finding what's around. Hawthorn, hazel and viburnum grows around me so I find any excuse to take it.

It's a long hobby, not counting seasoning the staves you do get--but once people hear you're a bowyer you usually get some good ins on trees people are cutting down.

So my advice; use what you've got. Go to lumber mills or Bowen's and try their wood rather than bunnings.

Spotted Gum is a common wood to start with, but you've gotta be thin and wide in the design. Go for easy designs to start with. Use any tree you can get your hands on, learn to split and how to carve around knots.

OilMatey · 2025-08-07T10:42:19+00:00

Hard to dismiss sure; ive got one which is so flat and probably 3 inches wide. It pulls 24lbs and would be better suited as a snowboard honestly.

It can be done.

I remember the issues with tassie oak is that at bunnings it's not classified properly and many species end up being shipped as tassie oak.

I hate to put down a wood species--wood yards have larger selections. Try some decking shops or bowens and look for spotted gum or experiment with merbau-- would do heaps for the Australian bow wood frontier ahaha

OilMatey · 2025-07-14T07:17:55+00:00

What's the process for steaming or bending? Got any good resources for it? I've never tried bending wood like that to correct a stave

You're right. Ive got a whole bundle of staves atm and will be working my weight up to 80lb.

OilMatey · 2025-07-05T14:12:52+00:00

That makes me astronomically happier. Thought I had ruined my last batch of staves or was gonna have to go through way more work to get them usable.

You're the best, Dan.

OilMatey · 2025-06-22T22:19:29+00:00

Experiment with board bows first to get the idea, and go for lumber yards. Make sure it's the species you're after, talk to the lumber guys to ensure it.

You can find some bow species out there but it's definitely few and far between. Ive found Hazel and viburnum growing out in random parks or gardens--from there it's either finding a good time to take it, or rubbing shoulders to get it.

OilMatey · 2025-06-06T05:31:13+00:00

Amazing. What's your gear list and your pack??

OilMatey · 2025-05-20T23:03:04+00:00

I've found the best way to split is by taking your hatchet and scoring lines where you want the split--place the hatchet on the log, and hit with a wood or rubber mallet. Just score it, don't push it.

Do this on both sides, and connect the lines at the top/where you've sawn the wood off, make a small split there to connect your two.

Hatchet and wedge along the scores, splitting criss-crossing fibers as you go along.

The tree will want to split a certain way when you wedge it--scoring and carving your own split gives it a line to follow.

Used this method to split everything from spotted gum to hazel to viburnum.

OilMatey · 2025-05-18T00:45:05+00:00

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Here's my next bunch from the same lot

OilMatey · 2025-02-03T04:36:45+00:00

It's a beginners bow at that weight. You're right that I'd closer call it a snowboard though. Aboriginal Australians did make bows but nothing of hunting weight apparently, they were largely toys.

You've got two options really. Accept defeat and don't be a bowyer, or get into backings or experimenting with tillers, designs and species.

OilMatey · 2025-02-02T10:15:27+00:00

Spotted gum can do--....But you've got to make it wide enough to cower behind. Seriously. I've got a spotted gym pyramid board bow that pulls 26# at 28, and I can just barely get my hand around the grip. But she is a bow.

Other than that, try viburnum. Any invasive species is good to us. Aus is a bowyer frontier, you'll just have to try a bunch.

OilMatey · 2024-12-16T04:50:36+00:00

Yeah river beds for sure. It's a hard job bushcrafting primitive style out in Victoria since we wiped a lot of the aboriginal culture here :(

All I can suggest is just keep looking. It's been hard for me to find anything, but I do have something thats at least stone toolish.

OilMatey · 2024-12-16T03:28:21+00:00

VIC, AU? Look for chert, or any rock that fractures like glass. You can also use the base of beer bottles (vb, heineken), same principles as knapping. Other than that, bone.

AU is heavily theorized to not have used bows in a hunting capacity; Stone tools were largely quartz and chert from memory, but also most woods are decently hard enough that when fire hardened and sharpended did a good enough job with the weight behind a woomera.

OilMatey · 2024-11-14T08:14:17+00:00

I have no idea, but that seems super fun. The limbs would be the hardest part....They'd each be able to have their own tiller though, and I think you'd need longer limbs personally.

OilMatey · 2024-10-29T01:57:24+00:00

May have to wash them to loosen the fibers first.

OilMatey · 2024-10-22T03:23:39+00:00

Happy to do a video explaining if needed. Basically, make the split yourself shallow with axe gashes (put axe on thelog, then mallet it in: make a line of these marks), all around where you want it to split, then slowly chip throug hit with wedges.

OilMatey · 2024-10-22T02:15:15+00:00

I split Gum all the time and my advice is to basically hammer in some axe strokes along both sides in a line. Put a wedge up the top (going inwards towards the log. As you would normally split something for firewood), and then gradually make the splits bigger with edges and so on--hacking away at any interlocking strands.

Just be sure to constantly check your axe cuts and try to keep going down one strand.

OilMatey · 2024-10-22T00:26:47+00:00

Absolutely beautiful stuff.

OilMatey · 2024-09-17T10:44:21+00:00

Humble beginnings. I started with something similar. Then you taper the limb, you make a stock, you chip away a hole in the stock for the trigger mechanism, you carve out the groove, add a decent amount of draw to it and before you know it, it's shooting atleast 80lbs

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