Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: dragonman on November 12, 2013, 06:36:07 pm
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Hi everyone..this has probably been covered many times before....but never having used or even seen red oak before, I didnt take much notice.. Not an indigiinous UK tree....didnt know it grew here..
I just managed to get a log of red oak from some local forestry work...slipped in at night and found tons of the stuff already cut and stacked to about the length of my long car...handy. Anyway, took one lovely dead straight, 7'x15" log ...got home and it split near perfect into 8 staves 4 of which are near perfect
My question to red oak bowyers is ...do I use the white sapwood or not? and..it feels like it is similar to our ash wood...is it better or worse than ash as a bow wood?
thanks..
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we have red Oak :o where abouts are you? i wan't some! :laugh: as far as ive seen all the board bows seem to be heart wood
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I am in Wales....the forestry people started planting it in uk some 30-40 yrs ago apparently...I have only just noticed it when they started cutting down some woods round here...had to get my tree book out......there are probably other plantations in the UK though
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Ill have to look around. Nice haul by the way. How about some pictures. :laugh:
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I would bet the sapwood works completely fine. It seems almost every red oak bow I've ever seen was made from a board it would be nice to see one from a stave
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The wood under the bark is what you want to use. ;) Nice score!
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Yes, take off the bark and ther is the back. Easy does it. Get close with drawknife and then use a scraper. Jawge
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Sap or heart wood either is fine , just easier to peel the bark off and start there !
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I've got two dry staves of red oak, locally grown here in the Netherlands. I've removed the sapwood from one, just because the heartwood seems a bit denser. Not sure if that is the case, but I like the color of the heartwood over the sapwood. I have yet to start a bow from this wood, though. A friend of mine made a nice flatbow from the other half of the log. I rate red oak higher than European oak. But European ash might be a bit better still. But not necessarily, as European ash is very variable.
I remember Tim Baker stating something like: "if the boards weren't so darn cheap, every bowyer would be thrilled with a red oak stave."