Marketing and board bows

[Hrothgar]

This topic may need to be moved to another department, but I'll post it here for starters.
Yesterday I was skimming through an older publication (2001) of Missouri Woods, published by the Mo. Department of Conservation; the purpose was 'to help identify major commercial wood species...native to the state'.
The guide is a fairly comprehensive layout of various trees, including growing range, bark ID, wood grain, wood properties, etc. What caught my attention was the comment that several groups of trees are lumped together by the industry, including oaks and hickories, that no separation is made between the two, and that without laboratory equipment or other evidence from the tree, its often not possible to separate the two.
Maybe this is common knowledge to some, but since I use staves rather than boards, this was new info for me. It also caused me to wonder about inconsistent performance and results from using boards. Any thoughts?

[Pat B]

Separating red oaks from white oaks is easy. Separating the different reds or different whites is more difficult and separating the hickories in board form would be very difficult also.

[Jim Davis]

Did you mean what this seems to mean,"several groups of trees are lumped together by the industry, including oaks and hickories, that no separation is made between the two, " that hickory and oak are indistinguishable from  each other? I can't agree.

[Jakesnyder]

As far as commercial logging goes in price per foot there might not be too much difference. But wood properties and bark id there is a pretty distinguishable difference.
I guess if they would have to categorize them it would be more accurate than say hickory and juniper.

[Badger]

  White and red oak are sold as distinct species, pecan is often sold as hickory. As far as I know hickories are lumped together. Varieties of oak are also lumped together as red or white oak. It shouldn't affect the performance of your bows once you learn how to monitor the set and densities of your wood as you build the bow. If you are doing them cookie cutter fashion it might be best to err on the side of caution and build them a bit wider from the start.

[Hrothgar]

Jim, that's how I read it, and I agree with you. Although I don't know of any lumberyards that keep hickory boards in stock, I think I could tell the difference between hickory and oak. The booklet also noted there are over 240 different species of oak in north America, and something like 50 different species in Missouri due to easy hybridization between oaks. that could make identification a little more difficult.