hickory backing qestion

[Hermann From Bavaria]

hey folks.

i want to try a hickory backed white oak. has anyone of you guys experience in use of white oak with hickory? i guess the heartwood would work fine on belly. what do you think?

thanks for tips...
greets

[Pat B]

Only time I used white oak it was a selfbow and it makes a good bow. A thin hickory backing should work fine. Maple, ash or elm might be a better choice.

[Jason Jelinek]

I think if you toasted the oak on the belly it would work well.  I've made white oak longbows before and they work, just take a little more set than osage.

[Hermann From Bavaria]

thanks for feedback guys,
perhaps i should do 2 hick backed bows?
one wiht maple or ash on belly,
and one with toasted oak!

[Pat B]

Hermann, I was referring to the ash, maple and elm as backing strips. Toasting the oak belly is a good idea also but do it before glue up.

[Hermann From Bavaria]

but how should i treat the maple, ash, elm strips? can i glue them up with violated rings like hick? or with standing rings?

greets

[Pat B]

I think biased grain(/////) or flat grain should work. I haven't tried any of the three but I have seen others that have. The hickory should work fine also. That is hat I always used...just not with white oak, I used it successfully with red oak many times.

[Hermann From Bavaria]

thanks pat. i think its time to try now.

greets

[dutchwarbow]

Hermann, Hickory is likely to overpower both white oak and maple. Cherry or Black Walnut would be a better choice, but really, hickory is best suited for heavier woods; ipé, massaranduba, osage.

backing lighterwoods is ideally done with, indeed, a lighter wood aswell. Maple and Ash give excelent backings for these woods.

But, why back white oak? as it's very tension strong already. It's smart to back Cherry, B.Walnut, as they're tension weak, but not white oak.

Nick

[Hermann From Bavaria]

why white oak? cause i have some hickorybacking strips and tons of white oak. but thank you for your tips. i am not so experienced in wood-backings. i´ve built only selfbows, glas r/d´s, and one try in boo-backing. my thoughts were: now its time to try wood backings. in my opinion it is a very interesting thing for build bows from non-selfbow-suitable woodpieces. -->this means: MORE BOWS!