All I see are bows

[Steve Milbocker]

I just got a shipment of 500 oak 4x4s that I use here at work for dunnage and shoring. I've been looking at the end grain on some of them and there looks to be a boatload of bows there! Just how good do these oak bows shoot?

[Josh]

A properly designed oak bow will shoot just as good as any other wooden bow.  I have made a bunch of those from boards.  I would rather shoot a well designed oak board bow than a poorly designed osage, yew, or ipe  bow any day.   

[NTProf]

Josh, I agree.

[George Tsoukalas]

The end grain doesn't tell you a whole lot except the type of cut of the board. I look at the edge grain and want straight tip to tip on the grain. I allow 2 run outs or run ups per limb.  Jawge

[walkabout]

oak will make a decent bow as long as the grain is good and you build it right, shorter bows made of oak can take a bit of set, but between 72" and 65" they take to bending well. of course my experience is with 1x2's so if you go wider with say a pyramid design you wont get so much set. oak makes a fine light in the hand 72" longbow, as long as you keep the tips narrowed . im still amazed at how light my longbow is