I have a love/hate relationship with Red Oak, but I recently found a 1x4x8 with beautiful grain and had to take it home.  For my trade bow I was wanting to build a Hickory backed Cherry but after two attempts coming up light I am moving on.  

I have a couple of options....  I'm thinking of a simple Hickory backed Red Oak with glued in reflex and flipped tips (would be a pretty safe combination).  Or, a tri-lam with Hickory/Cherry/Red Oak built on a R/D form from Binghams.  

What do you seasoned bowyers think would be the best combination?  If I go with the simple HBRO, would I need to trap the back so the Hickory doesn't overpower the RO?  With the Tri-lam, what layout dimensions would be good for a bow over 50#?

I have a super sweet hickory backed red oak I love. I glued in 6" of refex and 2.5" of deflex. Its 1 1/2" wide at the fades and 63" long o/a. Its probably one of my quietest, smoothest bows I own. If you choose this combo, make sure the hickory is extra thin .100" or slightly less, or the oak on your tips will be thinner than the back. I trapped mine slighty and left the belly flat as a pancake.

One more thing...Im not a seasoned bowyer. I just enjoy building them.

Thanks guys.  VB...not a bad idea on the heat treating first.  Since I mainly use TBIII it may release if I heat it after the glue up.  Although thinking back I have heated a few bows and haven't had one release yet... Hmmm...  

I have made some nice hickory backed red oak bows. One in particular is a 66" pyramid, 2 1/2" at the fades and a straight taper to 3/8" tips. She pulls 46#@26" and is an excellent shooter.
 I have let lots of different folks shoot this bow. Some have pulled it to 30" with no ill effects. I don't suggest letting others over pull a wood bow but I wanted to see if it could take it and it has. It still holds a bit of it's original reflex.

Thanks Pat, what thickness did you start with on the hickory?  I was figuring 1/8" but PD had a good point with probably going thinner to begin with.

1/8" hickory backing