red oak lams?

[Dick in Seattle]

What would your opinion of red oak lams on a glassed bow be?   I happen to have a couple of nice pieces of red oak, and of hickory, that I could make some lams out of once I get some practice at making tapers.   I think the oak would look very good under clear glass, and the hickory would be a nice white contrast in the middle.  I'm thinking of a .110 red oak taper, a hickory parallel maybe also .110 and another .110 oak.   I know it'd be pretty, (under clear) but would it make a good bow?...  maybe about 40#?

[Pat B]

Dick, I saw a bow that James Parker was making that had figured red oak lam under glass on the back. That is some beautiful wood!    Pat

[greyhawk_39]

Hey fellas from my bow building experience has been that oak has to runny a grain and might fracture under pressure.What I would do is use the red oak as a veneer at about .20 or .30 just for looks and use the hickory for the inner core wood.Hickory is more suited for the stress and riggers on a bow limb...I am assumming this is a longbow if I read it right...just a segestion thanks for reading...hawk.

[tim-flood]

hickory would make a bow with out the glass!!  use woods with little mass.  you need to space out the glass some use foam now, heavy is not conducive to speed.  Yew or Red Cedar, bamboo.  Hey Dick ever hear of Howard Hill Bows!!!;-) they have been doing this for a long time follow their lead and you will NOT go wrong.  Use heavy wood the the riser, hickory, osage or some exotic.

[Apex Predator]

I like to keep my heavy limb woods pretty thin, and let the majority of my limb stack be bamboo or maple.  If your outer lams are fairly thin, you can use pretty much whatever you want.  There are a lot of really fine custom bowyers using osage, cocobolo, and bocote in their outer lams.  They work just fine.

I recommend you find some maple, elm,  or walnut for your core lams Dick.  They are readily available and make really fine core woods.

[greyhawk39]

My reply to Dick on the hickory inner core was because this is what he had on hand...lol.The hickory is durable and stable and will last.They make baseball bats out of this wood, so what does that tell you....if you want fast go by a compound...lol...Hawk

[soopernate]

All the bats I own are made of ASH....wonder what tree alluminum comes from though

[greyhawk39]

Like I said this was just a suggestion not a debate.He said this is  the type's of wood he had on hand.

[Apex Predator]

Greyhawk is right.  Hickory will make an acceptable core if it's what you have.  We are talking minor differences here.

[greyhawk39]

Thank's man and you are right red elm,walnut,maple,and even ash.I have made a few bows with ash as a inner core wood and on the flat grain and have had great success fast and recovers fast.But over all I like the red elm for inner core wood it go with all types of veneers that have a dark texture to it.My next bows are going to have action wood core with a nice veener of tamo ash,juniper,quilted maple,emitoe...Merry Christmas and have a nice 2009....Hawk.