Wood to use for first gun?

[aussieben]

Hey everyone, so I'm deciding to go down that road of building my first wooden gun. First thing first is ofcoarse what wood to use.
From what I've read teak is the #1 to use but still can seem to source it anywhere. Any other alternatives in Australia to use.

Anybody tried Tasmanian oak?

Any tips and thoughts welcome

 

[sharkey]

Teak is readily available in Aust at any good timber supplier (not at large general hardware outlets though). Iroko is also readily available as a substitute, but its not as nice or easy to work with. "Tassie oak " is just a generic term & could be from a few different species. Typically its heavy & dense, light in colour & blackens quickly when exposed to salt water. Still, one of its species is on the list of timbers I'd use in a laminate & it contrasts nicely with Iroko or teak in laminates.. Have you also considered huon pine? Huon is one of the best timbers for use in salt water & although on the soft side it's creamy colour nicely contrasts in a laminate. Some of my favourite guns are laminates of huon & Qld maple.

Cheers Sharkey

 

[aussieben]

Thanks for all the info there sharky! I'll hopefully head down again to the timber yard this arvo and see what they have available

 

[foxfish]

There is not doubt that teak is a great speargun wood but one of the reasons is because teak has a high natural oil content that repels water!
However, in my mind this is not really important anymore, perhaps 50 years ago a one piece teak supergun was the best option.
Now we have modern glues, coatings & laminate construction.
So if I want to build a very low profile lightweight gun I would use a light, buoyant wood, if I am going to build a 5 band 1.5m long bluewater gun I would look for a high mass less buoyant wood.
In conclusion most hard wood are good for purpose.

 

[aussieben]

Yeah I'm more looking at building a 1m gun with single 18mm rubber. Only my first gun so wanna keep it pretty basic and in the next guns will be more adventitious.