Red Oak and hickory dimensions

[Kegan]

I bought a 1x4 of red oak today. The grain is perfectly straight (to the point I was drooling over it) and want to try and get most out of it. I was wondering if I could cut it into three 1 1/4" wide pieces, back them with hickory, and still get strong 80# longbows out of them? I was thinking that just leave them full width longer, and also planned to put a stiff handle on them (thereby shortenning the limbs and making them stiffer). Would this work, or should I just cut two at 1 1/2" wide?

[El Destructo]

                              You are wanting to Push Red Oak to 80 Pounds............good luck
                                                                         

[CutNShoot]

Better back it with raw hide in case it blows.    Man if you do make it to 80 lb be sure and post it .
 My best is 58 lb to date,which is about 8 pounds more that I can shoot anyway. If you have a short draw who knows it may work   go for it.    I don't know about ripping it,but  I think probably not

[Kegan]

I made a 73# one before (posted it here) and it was backed with a paper bag. I figured with a hickory backing, it could go up to 80#. But the 73# was much wider (1 1/2" over most of the length), and these would be 1 1/4" for most of the length.

[1/2primitive]

As much as I like narrow bows, I think that it would have to be at least 1 1/2" wide to get an efficient 80lb bow with Red Oak.
     Sean

[shamus]

You're asking too much of the wood with a design like that. You're probably asking too much of red oak, period. But if you managed a 73# bow, and there will be density variations within a wood species.  I won’t say it’s impossible.

Jim Fetrow made a high weight longbow outof a army surplus pine tent pole, iirc. That was a hoot.

If going for a D bow, make it 1.5" wide. But you want a stiff-handled bow. In that case,  I'd make the limbs a full 2" wide.

If it were me, I’d go for long D bow. I’d want every ounce of limb working.

How thick is your hickory backing? Too thick and it’ll overpower the red oak.   

[Kegan]

We're cutting the hickory, so any thickness. Being denser than red oak I was thinking 1/8". As for the stiff handle, I was going to tiller it as circular as I can, like a D bow with a thick spot in the middle.