What does White oak like?

[Russ]

so im on my last "good" stave. good meaning i have a good chance to make a bow out of it and its white oak. i was just wondering what do you need to do to white oak to make it a nice shooter. Im gonna put static recurves on it but should i heat treat it? put reflex in it? how wide do i make it? thanks!

[Pat B]

Russell, treat white oak like hickory. Heat treating would be good as would reflex. You can do both at the same time.  1 1/2" to 2" wide.

[Russ]

ive never worked hickory... can you explain a little more???

[Pat B]

1 1/2" to 2" wide at the fade and out about 8" then taper to the tip or a straight taper from the fades. Depending on your draw length I'd go 64" to 68" for 28" draw and 62" to 66" for 26" draw for either the semi-pyramid or pyramid style.

[Russ]

ok thanks!!

[bownarra]

Forget recurving, reflexing etc until you have made a handful of good straight bows
Make a heat treated pyramid, straight side profile to start with.
tillering is hard enough to learn without adding diffficulties.
To answer your question - just tillering it well, going slowly and not ever overstraining any part of it will yield a good shooting bow. No need for fancy stuff yet

[Morgan]

Forget recurving, reflexing etc until you have made a handful of good straight bows
Make a heat treated pyramid, straight side profile to start with.
tillering is hard enough to learn without adding diffficulties.
To answer your question - just tillering it well, going slowly and not ever overstraining any part of it will yield a good shooting bow. No need for fancy stuff yet

This 100%! If you are starting out or have few successful bows under your belt,  A good shooting straight limbed stick bow is infinitely better than a beautifully recurved piece of firewood. I’m my experience; With a sound clean stave, if you take you work slowly and never over stress any area of the wood, disasters are rare. The more stressed a design and bigger hurry you get in, increases probability of failure.

[bushboy]

I would go
..4" handle.
..1-1/2 long fades...2-1/4 wide.   Parrelle taper for12"...and 64" long.floor tiller it...
Heat treat...

[Russ]

i cant get a 2 1/2 wide bow out of this.... its gonna be hard to get 1 1/2 even

[Pat B]

Then make it a little longer, Russell.

[Russ]

Sounds good!!! just drew out the basic rough sketch of the bow. gonna go back and make it more precise later

[bushboy]

If the stave is narrow then I would go with a D bow.

[Russ]

yeah, my only concern is that there is a good size knot otherwise i would do a bend in the handle D bow. ill get a pic up when i can.

[Pat B]

You can have a stiff handle that only gives when you hit full draw. With a bulbous handle the actual handle center is rigid and the fades work barely at full draw.

[Russ]

ahhh, ok that makes sense.... ill give it a go.