According to EC5, the shear resistance of a structural timber element should be determined on the basis of the characteristic shear strength of the material, along with classical beam theory. For glulam, the characteristic strength values are given by the European standard EN 1194 [3], which assumes a direct relationship between tensile strength and shear strength of the lamination. As an example, the characteristic shear strength of glulam class GL28c, consisting of inner laminations with characteristic tensile strength ft,0,k = 14.5 MPa, would  be fv,k = 0.32·(14.5)^0.8 = 2.9 MPa. However, recent investigations both on glulam members [4] and on timber members [5] have shown that the shear strength of spruce is higher than the shear strength obtained by means of the model proposed by EN1194. Moreover, the studies show that the shear strength is nearly constant, regardless the strength class of the timber material.