Red Oak "curse"!?

[Eastman]

Good day all 

To get to the point: I bought a Huge red oak board about a year ago. In total it delivered about 7 staves.
It's pretty much all i've got to work on (since im still just beginning out and i don't want to ruin my tree cut staves)
So far all 4 of them that i've worked on have either broken or cracked...

I am a firm believer that you learn more from a bow you break than a bow you make. So could you guys please help me identify what i was doing wrong? (not that i was doing that much right )        ...Thanks

First pics are of a 70# bendy handle desighn that broke above the grip area about first time i tried to string it. (dense board,pretty straight ring lines on the back, 74'' long)

[Eastman]

I'm guessing it was too dry and thus very brittle?

Next is of a stave that i heat treated and backed with linen. it was then left in the bathroom to rehydrate for about 6 days.
It broke during floor tillering..so i'm guessing it hadn't rehydrated enough and the backing applied was too weak.

[Eastman]

Damn... I really hope things start taking a turn for the better soon

These pics are of yet another bendy handle bow i attempted to make. Backed with cow rawhide and 76'' long, i was aiming for 40# @30''.  It cracked on the side of the limb when i had it tillered to about 30# @20'' on the tillering stick. It's in the hinged part of that limb. Before i saw the problem, it was already too late..

[Eastman]

but wait, there's more....

This one cracked today. Prompting the thread. It's a pyramid style flatbow that's 72'' long and 2'' wide at the fades with a slight eiffel tower taper at the tips.Backed with 2 layers of jute fabric. I was aiming for 45# @29'' . the one limb developed a crack in a slightly overstressed area in the limb. Yet again, before i could fix it, it was too late.
I saw the crack and lifted it out with my scraper, so it broke a piece of wood off( don't ask me why i did this) i think the crack is deep into the limb.

[fishfinder401]

i could be wrong, but mabey dry rot, from my experience with red oak, the breaks usually don't look like that, i could be wrong, just me 2 cents

[Tom Leemans]

That looks incredibly dry and brittle from the pics. If it were me, I'd go with a plain sawn board if it were red oak. I think that board is just not for bows.

[Patches]

I agree with TL.  It looks awful dry and brittle. I made a red oak board bow two years ago and shoot it on a regular basis (48# @ 28 in) and not cracking or breaks yet (may have just jinxed myself).  I would suggest trying a new board.

[PEARL DRUMS]

Start on some of your staves and build a good bow for yourself.

[fishfinder401]

Looks like a bad piece of wood. Here's a pic of a test break from a good piece of red oak for comparison.

yah, that's what i remember it looking like

[bubby]

you got all those staves form the same board, the breaks are all the same, dont waste any more time with those, i build a ton of board bows but i'm with pd, if you have good seasoned staves break one out, no pun intended, and make a bow, ya cant worry about screwing up, just do it, you'll get all the advise you need here, weather you want it or not, post pics and ask ? and get after one of those staves, Bub

[DarkSoul]

As said before, get rid of that board. It's faulty in some way; a red oak board should never break like that. It's not your fault, there's something wrong with that board. You could do a density test on a left over piece; I guess the specific gravity will be low.
The rings in that board are decent, perhaps even great. That's not your problem. Buy a new board with similar rings - I think you might be amazed by the first bow you make.

[k-hat]

Yup, agreed.  That's bad mojo in that there red oak.  "if you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always gotten".  You can't make a bad board good.  I've had good ro, and bad ro, and yours looks just like the bad ro that went kapow on me.

Get after one of your staves.  I'd even say pick out the best looking one, and post it here and let the guys here help you through.  As you develop your skills, you'll learn better to work with the lesser staves in your stash.  I thought i'd never leave boards.  But now that i've done some staves I'm hard pressed to do many boards (cept i love hickry so stinkin much!). 

[1Brotherbill]

I had two oak board bows break in a similar way.  The wood at the breaks was kind of like sand when I was inspecting the breaks. 

I have a feeling that the board might be kiln dried.  I read somewhere that that was a bad thing.  Might be true. 

I picked up a piece of oak 2 x 2 the other day that felt like it was made out of iron.  Grain looked good, nice and straight.  But the problem with my two other oak board bows made me put it back on the rack.  I haven't slept well since that day. 

[Pappy]

Looks like dry rot to me,I would fine some more wood.
   Pappy

[dwardo]

That oak Looks like its made of crumbly white stilton! Burn it.