Thank you all for the comments. In the end, I don't think this is a bad bow wood--just the first couple of staves I tried were diseased, which may have tainted my opinion. On those the wood felt almost spongy. with this stave the wood is really sound, and has a nice musical ring to it when you knock on it. the wood itself is really hard, and hard to carve. This process has taught me more about bow making than the easier staves (osage). I suspect when I do my next osage bow, it is going to feel almost too easy.
