As for hickory backing, you can use flat sawn. Look for a really straight-grain board(and no knots) and follow the grain while bandsawing strips. Stay away from any heartwood(darker colour, vs white) when it comes to hickory. Make it 1/8" thick and belt sand flat/smooth. I have a coupla hickory d/r bows done this way and working on a third now. After working with bamboo a bit, I'm leaning towards hickory for the ease of use.