Here's my lame answer for u; I think whichever is most plentifully available near you is the best Elm,
that’s not lame at all. it allows sleek to look thru lots of elm and figure out what makes one better than the other. growing conditions? age? density?
This is what TBB, other books, helpful bowyers online and the Bowyer from my village who taught me, made me think good bowwood is. In no particular order, for this weird Dutch fella here any good/suitable bowwood has these qualities;
- There is latewood enough,that we may chase the back ring easily. (for whitewoods, we can use what's under bark directly to save effort in finding suitable ring)
- There is enough heartwood if it's a species where u discard sapwood and use only heartwood (like Black Locust tree)
- For species that u want to utilize both sapwood and heartwood, it has good balance of sapwood and heartwood
- The piece has specific gravity that's ok. I'm no expert, I suck at maths like really bad so take with some salt
- U want as much as possible straight grained, knotless, straight shaped (like no doglegs, snaking or rollercoaster) piece of wood. Unless you're one of the bowyers who love character bow ofc (:
- It has enough amount of width and depth for design, base design ofc on properties of ur piece.
- it has enough size in length, to allow for mistakes always.
- Has preferably with some natural reflex, or recurve even.
To my simple brain, whichever type of tree species is plentiful (cheap or free also) and gives you bow staves with the above qualities, that is the best subspecies or species for u. I'm sure this is all super simple way of seeing this all still, hopefully it can aid a bit.
Ps;
As a last handy tidbit with elm trees also; Which might be good news to some Bowyers who've seen this disease take it's toll on local elm population:
Bowyers in NL found out that
wood from trees, that have Dutch Elm Disease, is still able to be made into bows * So u can take Elm wood others maybe don't want that has D.E.D. and you'll be able to make bows out of it.
*Jan van der Veen, in the book "Houtkoorts" ("Woodfever" in English)
These are the factors I'd select for.. keep in mind ofc do things like it easiest for you. What makes one piece of bowwood, or a "species of bowwood "better than others, is having things from that list above of the top of my head, so be sure take it all with some salt. A piece of bowwood which has these things, it is easiest to make into bow for me I guess.
- Michael