live oak?

[bbs383ci]

Anyone ever use live oak for a selfbow?

[mwosborn]

As in still growing?

[rmorris]

Hahah... Don't think that is what he was meaning by "live oak". Live oak is a type of oak that grows down here in the southwest. I know nothing about the bows you all make so I can't help except for the clarification...

[bbs383ci]

No not still growing lol,   I don't know how it would work it is a real gnarly grain and doesn't split well at all even when dry. Just wondering about it because it is very plentiful round here

[AZ_Shooter]

Read the paragraph here on live oak, it appears to be a great wood for bows:

 http://sites.google.com/site/onemississipp/bowwoods

[bbs383ci]

According to that its non-ring and porous, I'm guessing after u take the bark off and seal it and get the deminsions roughed out and dry it, you wouldn't have to really worry about what the back looks like as far as grain is concerned.  I'm very new  to bow building so I may not have made sense then.

[Living_waters]

Live oak is wonderful bow wood for both self bow and board or backings. A stave split off of the top of a limb makes a good self bow.

It is not as elastic as swamp white oak, but its density can be as high as osage.

[bbs383ci]

well i just got through cutting down a nice piece of pin oak couldnt find any live oak that looked good, but i found a very straight grain pin oakand got 4 good sized staves out of it gonna put one in the hotbox for a couple of months and then see what i can do with it.

[psychmonky]

I dunno if it will work or not, but apparently those pin oaks are tough sons o' guns! This was one of the first pics I found when I googled pin oak.

   

[Pat B]

I guess that is what you call pay back! d;^)

[bbs383ci]

Lil I hope they are tough it wasn't to hard to split into staves but it did let me know that I am severely out of shape since I haven't been on my tools in over a year lol