Wooden speargun

[Steven Rawles]

Hi every one I've just started spearfishing and I'm really interested in making myself a wooden speargun.
I'm a professional joiner of about 25years and I've also made quite a few longbows, so I'm quite sure i could make the gun . I'm just a bit stuck on the trigger mechanism??? Does anyone have some advice???

 

[foxfish]

Hi Steve, yes buy one!
Plenty of choice reverse mechs are popular...

 

[Steven Rawles]

Thanks I'll have a look

 

[foxfish]

Building wooden guns is a great thing to do, if you get it right you should end up with an perfectly balanced, low recoil and accurate gun!
There are hundreds of building threads on this forum if you can find them! Using google and adding deeper blue is a good way to search.
As you are already a skilled woodworker you could try out a multi lamanate mid handle gun, there are some examples in my signature link ....

 

[Steven Rawles]

I've had a look at the examples of wooden guns , very inspirational!
I'll start digging out some of the more oily species and get started
I'll post some pictures as I go and look forward to getting some feedback.

 

[foxfish]

I wouldn't worry to much about oily wood but if you can sort out some quarter sawn hard woods then you are onto a winner!
You might not of used epoxy glues & the associated powders , they require a bit of carful application to work well but it is all great fun.

 

[Steven Rawles]

I was thinking of epoxy I use it a lot on my longbows it's unbeatable for strength, I like to use a little foam roller to apply the epoxy to to both pieces it gives you I nice even coverage and you get very little oozing
As for timber i have many different species in my stores teak, Iroko, ipe, padauk, etc lol.
I'm spoilt for choice really but I see a lot are made from teak , but I think I might go with your suggestion laminate.

 

[foxfish]

I like to use pigment & micro balls in the epoxy, black looks good but I often use red, green or blue.
Teak is popular but it is not the most exciting wood to look at.... looking forward to more details about your build...

 

[Steven Rawles]

Pigment Sounds cool! thanks for all your advice.

 

[foxfish]

I recently built these guns for competition prizes (the forums annual Guernsey spearfishing event) they all had multi coloured glues & mutable laminates. I forget all of the woods but Maple, Walnut, Mahogany & teak were used.

 

[bobdonny]

Mart... those guns are amazing!
Would love to build one, but after moving out to the middle east I no longer have a workshop I tempted by riffe woodies but quickly slapmyself
You building many atm?

 

[foxfish]

None at the moment but I will build some for next years comp.
Funny thing was, the same guy that won the mid handle gun ( first prize) also won the 85cm carbon wood composite gun in the raffle!
So he went home with two guns....