Live Oak

[Bayou Ben]

A couple questions.  Have any of you made bows from live oak?  It is very dense and I've read in a couple places where it's supposedly good for bows, but haven't seen anyone who has worked with it. 
For those guys who are cutting your own lumber for bows, how would you prepare those 2" slabs that I have?  I obviously will not be able to use the curved pieces but there's a few in there that are straight.  Is straight flat sawn boards good enough or should I try and quarter saw pieces from the slabs? I plan to try some backed bows with it after it dries (bamboo, maple, or hickory backing). 

Thanks for any advice,
Ben

[JWMALONE]

Not sure, a Paddle style bow would be cool though. LOL

[Bayou Ben]

Ha.  Ha.  Ha. Ha.   Ha.  I’ll give you a piece and you can make all the paddles you want. Get it out of your system. 

[Springbuck]

  If you can find a way to pull out a stave with an intact ring, I'd do that.  Otherwise, just carefully trim what you have there to find the best "board" grain you can and go for it.

[Bayou Ben]

Thanks for the response Springbuck.  I have very little selfbow experience, so the curvy nature of the limbs are a little intimidating.  Most of my experience is with bamboo backed bows, so I just planned to cut some lumber for that purpose.  This is my 1st attempt at cutting my own for bow making, I just wasn't sure if it's worth the trouble to get quarter sawn grain or if any straight grain is good. 
I'm very excited to try this out....It doesn't seem like many have access to live oak. 

[willie]

the curvy nature of the limbs are a little intimidating.

when visiting live oak country, I am amazed that such a huge tree can have so many twists and turns. I would follow springbucks advice about an intact ring.  If your boards are two inches thick you should be able to chase a ring some. I would be tempted to look for two shorter sister billets, maybe curving into some reflex? A little deflex can be accomplished with the handle splicing if needed.

[Springbuck]

  Straight flat sawn is better, I think, but whatever you can get with the best grain is best.  Quartersawn bellies are slightly weaker than flat sawn in compression because you have more winter rings making up the surface, but the difference usually isn't huge.  I ignore it on tropical woods, for instance.  But, it's possible to cut QS boards that look perfect, but violate the radial grain.

Your curves may not be as bad as they look, at first blush, for one thing.  In your top pic on the right, a little planing on a couple of those long flat-sawn slabs should get you a ring you can follow or a perfect flat sawn back.  And I don't see why you couldn't back with bamboo.  For that you still want good flat grain,but it doesn't have to be as "perfect" as a board stave.

I once found a flat sawn RED oak 1x6 board where the entire thickness at the middle was TWO growth rings, really one and a half.  The face had barely exposed the biggest ring, so I chased the big ring, literally 1/2" thick, which was barely crowned at all.   It was WAY heavier than any oak I've ever held and made an absolutely awesome 55 lb pyramid bow, 2.5" wide, that took like 3/8" of set.

[Bayou Ben]

Thanks guys.  I'll look through my pile and see what I can find.  It would be fun to try some spliced billets.

Red oak from the box stores is currently on the bottom of my bow wood list.  I don't know if it's the humidity in my area or what, but I can't build one of those and have it survive more than a couple hundred shots.

[willie]

big box stores buyers drive hard bargains with their suppliers and often sell seconds. I think you should do much better, as live oak is a white oak and you are not kiln drying

[Springbuck]

  Agreed.  Live oak should be much better bow wood to begin with, and with you controlling the process, even better.

I mentioned that bow BECAUSE it was such a stand out among oak bow.   I gave it to a young man who is now married and has kids and it's still shooting.