Beginner at bow making...

[StickMan47]

Oh, BTW, if that is free wood I would cut it and season it and give it a try. Those photos showed some good looking staves. I have some oak that I cut and letting cure at the moment. Sometimes oak will have hidden knots in it that will not show up till you start scraping away wood. I think these spots was caused by damage when the tree was young, either by a lost limb or perhaps an insect or bird and the tree healed itself as it grew older. I have found these "hidden" knots in one of my oak staves where there was no apparent knot when viewed from the bark or outside of the tree. The ones I found are fairly small, about dime to nickle size. One of them appeared right on the edge of my limb on the belly side right at mid-limb. I don't know if all oaks are this way or not though.

[spyder1958]

Hey stickman, your not stepping on any toes here. I didn't do any research on the photos. Just took a guess as the leaves look similar to my tree. But after your post I looked again and you are probably right, as the leaves do have more of a oak shape. No tree expert here, for sure.

[StickMan47]

Thanks Spyder. I'm no expert either, thats why I went and bought the field guide. I did forestry judging back in high school and tree identification was a big part of that. However, that was many, many moons ago! Lol. Since I have joined here I noticed a post comes up every now and then about tree ID, so I figured since my bow building skills ain't where I feel comfortable giving advice, then perhaps I could help in another way.

[Barefoot_Jake]

Thanks For all the info guys it really helps