" It is twisted and bowed." I'm not griping, but this stave is way better than most that I end up working. The twist and warp are not minimal, but certainly moderate, and I almost always both heat temper the bellies, AND have minor corrections on every bow I make. What I mean is, this is just barely not par for the course. You will have some little problems inside problems to solve and learn on, but this isn't going to be too bad.
Carefully remove the bark and see what you have. Hickory is great stuff, so don't be intimidated. Success is likely.
If it isn't degraded by bugs of fungus, pick out the best section as tall as the tip of your nose, give or take, longer if you have lots of inconvenient knots. Place knots where they will give you the least trouble, mark out the handle area, establish preliminary fades, etc.
Mark the peak of the crown all down the back, and rough out the limbs by taking down the point of the triangle so the belly flat side to side, and 90 degrees to the crown-line you marked. Get the limbs down to a fairly consistent 3/4"-1" thick and start deciding how to straighten the stave; steam or dry heat.
Meanwhile, as PatM says, look for some nice straight little trees for the next round. Do some cutting, splitting (or sawing in half, etc), sealing, sometimes clamping (to resist warping), and waiting. Keep it dry and off the ground. Big trees can be saved for later, and VERY small trees present lots of challenges.
Let us know how else we can help.
