Wood backing for red oak

[sleek]

I'm helping a guy make a red oak bow. He has a crack across the back that hasn't broken yet. I'm thinking a hard wood backing like ash or maple, maybe hickory. I don't want it to over power the red oak. What would you guys recommend? And where can it be sourced from?

[Pat B]

One of my best red oak bows was a hickory backed pyramid bow, 63 1/2" t/t, about 2 1/4" at the fades with a straight taper to 3/8" tips. 53#@26". I glued it up with about 3" of Perry Reflex. I think I used TBIII for the glue up.

[mmattockx]

The red oak I have tested has all been very similar in stiffness (modulus of elasticity) to the hard maple I have tested. Other people's data I have seen for hickory have it being 20-30% stiffer than the red oak or hard maple. I would say hard maple would be an excellent match to the red oak and will not overpower it in any way. Hickory will want to overpower the red oak some and should be used in a thin backing (1/8" max I would think) to avoid raising belly stresses too much.

I have had good luck with maple boards from our local Home Depot, there are usually a couple in the pile with decent grain that will make a bow. Hickory I have no idea where to get, the small amount I have came from a friend who cuts hickory trees for axe and hatchet handles.


Mark

[Eric Krewson]

I have backed several red oak bows with bamboo, these were bows I saw people shooting at tournaments that were as badly tillered as possible with 5" of string follow. I should have kept my mouth shut but commented on the bows, I knew the bow owners. They all asked me if I could fix their bows, of course I said yes.

I used very thin bamboo; I did complete rebuilds and retillering with glued in reflex.  The bows came out really nice and held a little reflex,

It was a lot of work to fix these bows, I vowed to keep my mouth shut in the future.

[George Tsoukalas]

Is this a board or log stave?