English Oak

[Brody]

I have a piece of English Oak in my shed and I was wondering if anyone knew its physical characteristics. ie. whether or not it'll be ok for my longbows, how resilient it is etc. I tried a search on it and found nothing. Are there any sites that contain this info?

[DaveInOz]

try Tassie timber site (http://oak.arch.utas.edu.au/tbia/default.asp) it is construction focused but it may point you in the right direction

[John Saxton]

Hi ,Quercus robar L. English Oak as descibed by "Wood in Australia" by Keith R Bootle.
Heartwood Pale yellow-brown,darkening with exposure,Sapwood,to 50mm wide,creamy and usually distinctive.
Texture coarse and rather uneven.Grain usually Straight.
ADD (air dry density) about 700 kg/ cubic metre.
Drying is slow and uneven:forcing the rate can cause considerable degrade.
Glues Well,very good for steam bending,has corrosive effect on lead and iron.
Advisable to use only non-ferrous metal in contact with wood to avoid black iron tannate stains.
Employed in Furniture,decorative veneer,cooperage,flooring,carving,joinery,vats.

With the the description above I cannot see haow you would have a problem using your timber in bow making.

Cheers:) Good luck

[q9]

I would guess that bows require woods with good flexure charachteristics on the outer most layers with an inner (from the view of the curve of the strung bow) layer made of a wood with good compressive charachteristics.

[Neil]

Think you'll find the English made their boats of Oak and their bows from Yew.:D

[q9]

I'd be inclined to make a fibreglass/wood composite bow myself...

Actually some of the laminating resins with good flexure properties could be useful to bond the wood laminates together - Araldite LC3600 comes to mind. Quite runny, and sets reasonably quickly. (downside is even smallish volumes of mixed resin in a tin can catch fire if you aren't careful)

[grahame_a]

The English Longbow was usually made from Yew (but not exclusively) and from a baulk that was split so that it included both Sapwood and Heartwood. The two different forms providing a single piece of timber that had good compression in the belly with the back able to stand the stretching. The x-sectional shape of the bow is in the form of a D and the aim is to get the are where the two type merge to follow the neutral axis.

I seem to remember that English was not the best stuff to use and that Yew was imported from Spain and Italy for the making of bows. The English suffered due to the damp climate.

[JackoH]

In the good ole USof A, the Osage indians used to make their bows from Osage Orange(maclura pomifera) hence it's common name. This is grows in various parts of Oz. Ask Neil, as he seems to have cornered the market for this variety of wood here in Victoria.

[BrianR]

Oak is not a good wood for bows. The Wood Explorer says that the modulus of elasticity is low and the bending strength is medium. It's good for nearly anything else though...