Backing with white Oak

[rossfactor]

I had a quick question.  So far I've only made self bows, but I've been considering making a cherry / white oak laminate.
My question is: does that baking strip need to have perfect (i.e no violations) grain pattern, as a self board bow should?  Or is some violations acceptable? 

I guess this could depend on the species of wood.  so, for white oak?

Thanks,

Gabe

[Kegan]

White oak is normally a pretty tension-strong wood. But I think that if you treated it, if violated, carefully, it would be fine for a cherry belly.

Worst comes to wrost, you can just glue a cotton backing on it and forget about it

[rossfactor]

Isn't cherry pretty compression strong? 

I thought it was and so that was why I was backing it with White oak because White oak is tension strong. That and the fact that they're both available.

Thanks Kegan.

[Kegan]

Oh it is, they both are exactly what you thought. But the difference in SG is still something like .25 or something. Either way, it should make a good bow

[DanaM]

Black Cherry is stronger in compression than tension but its still not real good in compression either.
It will fret on in a hurry if your tiller is off, get lots of limb bending eh

[rossfactor]

Thanks Dana and Kegan.

I forgot about the density differences as being an issue.  I'm thinking I'll just keep my belly thick. 

[adb]

If you can get a cherry bellied bow to not fail or chrysal, it is a fantastic bow. Some of the best shooting bows I've made. I've done several hickory backed cherry bows, and they turned out very well. Make them fairly wide (>1.5"), flat, long (>66"), and not too heavy (<50#).