Rakau

On monday the Kapa Haka Rōpu boys had the opportunity to make ourselves a Rakau. Last term we went to Mrs Lindsays house, first we had a karakia to ask tane mahuta and his brothers if it was alright to take from their trees. The tree we used was Totara. We used hand saws to cut them down. Mrs Lindsay kept them at the house to try and dry them out because they were still wet. When the rakau came to school we had to hand sand it first. After that we could use a belt sander and a finish sander. To make our Raku smooth we used the finish sander with p80 sandpaper, to make it finer we used p120 sandpaper. To finish it off we used a smooth black sand paper and also oiled our Raku to make them look good. We are going to be using them in the Kaikohe Cultural Festival but first we need to get them blessed. I really enjoyed this and so did my friends.