Opinions on Bow Wood

[bow101]

Some say white oak is comparable to hickory even better in some circumstances. I have yet to work with hickory so can't say my opinion. At any rate how would you guys rate the woods in order of prefrence for building, say a self-bow or board bow..I left "Number 10 as a question mark" for some other wood you may prefer. These are only a hand full of species ~I know~ just thought I would throw them out there for starters.. Funny thing becasue many Canadians may prefer Yew because of its Availability up here. In the States it would be Osage.

(1....... White oak
(2....... Osage
(3....... Red Elm
(4 .......Mulberry
(5....... Yew
(6....... Red oak
(7....... Maple
(8....... Ipe
(9....... Walnut
(10 ...?...

[osage outlaw]

(1....... Osage

[BOWMAN53]

Outlaw, I never thought you would choose osage as your number one wood choice lol.

I like hickory a lot for selfbows. But that's in my limited experience with only hickory red oak and ash(which sucked).

Everyone is going to tell you osage is the best over all.

[spyder1958]

10. Cypress

[Bryce]

I wouldn't say everyone here in the lower 48 prefers osage orange. 
My preference:
Yew
Juniper
Plum
Oceanspray
Vinemaple
Cascara
Osage orange
Pacific dogwood
Oregon white oak
Hazelnut

[H Rhodes]

1. Winged Elm - produced my strongest, fastest bow to date....  70lb. draw @ 29", 64" ntn, zero set, and shoots fast as hell.  Once heat treated, winged elm is as good as it gets. 
2. Hickory - tough, durable bows that won't break...  one of the woods I would use if I were making a bow for someone else.  It is a little harder to work than the elm, or I might have rated it number 1. 
3. White Oak - if you heat treat it, it makes a fine bow - steam/heat bends easily.
4. Pecan -  like hickory but not quite as hard to work.
5. Osage Orange - I would rate it higher if I enjoyed chasing rings!
6. Hackberry - I would choose hackberry if I were making a recurve - you can steam bend it  real easy and it makes a good bow. 
7. Red Oak - will do in a pinch.  I have made some red oak bows from staves that I was right proud of.
8. Persimmon - I made a bow from it....  shot good till it blew up!  I think I got it too dry and it seemed brittle to me.  I have seen good looking persimmon bows posted on here, so it was probably my misuse of the wood that caused the explosion, which was quite spectacular.
9. Sassafrass - it smells great and will make a bow, but mine took a lot of set.
10. Honey Locust - will make a bow and the wood is beautiful, but I think you have to overbuild, since it is sort of weird, brittle wood.   

That's my order of preference on the types of wood that I have tried so far....   

[Pappy]

Osage, HHB,Winged Elm, Yew,Hickory,Hackberry. Never used any of the oaks.
   Pappy

[blackhawk]

Osage is number one,and anything else is a distant second. But I do like black locust,hhb,yew,and those are prob my top woods although I will and have used many many others. Most folks not in osage country won't list it as there number one because of its lack of availability.

[lesken2011]

I recently worked some massuranduba (bulletwood). The bow turned out pretty nice. I would add it to the list.

[MWirwicki]

1. Osage  2. Yew

Then maybe but not in order:  HHB, Hickory, Black Locust, Red Cedar and I would really like to try some of Misslemaster's Buckthorn!

[toomanyknots]

I like osage just as much as the other guy, but because of it's weight, it just does not make the best shooting bows. It makes great shooting bows, yes. I think white woods may sometimes take more work and more care to equal the performance of a freshly tillered snappy osage bow. But in my opinion, osage is not always the best choice. Especially if you try something other than the typical shorter flatbow design with it, like a cherokee longbow, or especially an english longbow. Or even if you were to try a west coast native bow. If you were to compare a west coast native bow made of yew or juniper/cedar, to a west coast native bow made of osage, I am sure the yew/juniper/cedar would out shoot the osage, just because it is such a wide flat design, and wide and flat just doesn't go together well with "heavy". Osage has many merits that other woods do not live up to, that I believe we are all very aware of. We all know an osage bow has a better chance of outlasting alot of other white woods. I absolutely love naturally reflexed osage, and how alot of the time it won't even give up a fourth of an inch of that reflex for me. I think the best way to take advantage of osage's properties is to use highly reflexed staves, staves that would otherwise fail in compression. But although density might equal compression strength, it sure doesn't equal fps.

[robby]

I'd put Osage and Yew on a par, but give the edge to Osage because of it rugged nature. It can take a lot of abuse in the field and still get the arrow down range, but Yew is a joy to work with, hmmm.
Hickory
Hop Hornbeam
Ash
locust
Lemonwood, though its hard to find anymore.
Oh heck, if I do my part, their all good!
Robby

[George Tsoukalas]

Osage, hickory, BL, white oak,  HH, red oak, maple. Yew is great, too, but it doesn't make my list for a hunting bow. I'm not convinced it can handle the extremes of heat and cold the hardwoods can. I took a hickory bow out for a hunt and stump in -5 F. Never used ipe, red elm or walnut. I almost made a bow from walnut but it didn't split out well enough. Hazlenut shoots make great arrows. Never made a bow from hazlenut. Jawge

[dwardo]

Cherry is my favourite at the mo. Yew is nice but it always a compromise with knots and sapwood thickness.

[PEARL DRUMS]

I wouldn't say everyone here in the lower 48 prefers osage orange. 

Sure, say that now hater!