Harvesting your own wood can be a lot of fun.
Building a bow for yourself is much hard work. Starting with the right wood is very important.
Some people think they automatically have to be looking for osage or yew, or one of the other “first string” bow woods. Well this can lead some to frustration as even if you are lucky enough to find these woods in your area of the world, finding the right piece can be daunting.
People over look the white woods, and may feel that because the wood isn’t rare and valuable that somehow it will make lesser of a bow. Its true wood like yew can be the start of some of the finest bows, but as the saying goes a average yew longbow will shot worse than an above average white wood bow.
I would suggest using what you can find easily in your area and concentrate on that. Look around at the kinds of trees you have access to and start looking up the characteristics of the wood. Lucky for you most of the information is already out there, almost all woods have been tried at one time or another.
Find the most plentiful wood you can get your hands on easily enough and find the perfect design. That way you can make many bows, and you are not so upset when that dream yew bow stave doesn’t turn out right.