I have never seen Oak used as lams in a glass bow. I have not used it myself, but thinking about it. The weight of White Oak is on average slightly heavier than Hard Maple. Have anyone here tried it?

Oak has that funky open grain...  I would be wary of that...  Especially when cutting thin lams...

I just finished a red oak lam bow but it didn't use fibreglass lams. I agree with Shredd that the open grain in some of the rings might be an issue, depending on how it is oriented. I would try it with good quartersawn wood but probably not with flat sawn.

FWIW, the power lam and tip underlays on my last oak bow were 0.100" thick tapered down to nothing on the ends and I had no issues with the grain. I think down to 0.075"-0.080" thick would be no problem with careful selection of the wood for grain pattern.


Mark

It should be fine under glass. While red oak has an open grain structure, white oak doesn't. I have read that white oak is a better bow wood than red. Quarter sawn white oak should look good under glass too.
Dave.

I made a 58" longbow for my boy years ago. It pulled about 50lbs at 28".
He took a mule deer with it. It is still in use today. 22 years later. All oak under clear glass.

  Them guys got a good point, quarter sawing it...  I say give it a go...  Look for something with nice grain...

I agree with Woodcarver -- White Oak is a much better bow wood than open grain Red Oak.    In either case, behind glass, it should make no difference.

I was thinking...  Make sure you saturate that grain good with resin so there are no voids or dry spots after glue-up...

I was also thinking that you may want to cure your bow at room temperature for the first hour or two until the resin begins to set up before you add heat...  Any change in temperature could cause the grain to either suck in or expel air which will cause voids and dry spots between the lams...

Bue, did you get the oak lams done and glued up?  If so how did it turn out?

Sorry, have to put it on hold for some time.

I have built over 20 bows using red oak. I actually get equal performance using red oak as I do using maple. I build a mild reflex deflex 62-66" with two tapered limb cores, two straight veneers and 0.04 glass. 16-18" risers.