need help with a list of good bow wood

[Alpinbogen]

Osage
Hickory
Ash

[osage outlaw]

Sorry for my preference for osage.   I am blessed to be surrounded by it, so I might be a little influenced by that.  HHB just might move up to #3 on my list depending on how the bow I am working on shoots!

[adb]

You guys are very lucky. I live in a bow wood desert, and I have to import (or purchase as boards) all my wood.    I found the Trad Bowyers Bibles (Vol 1 & 4) very helpful for me in developing a useable bow wood list.

[jackcrafty]

Juniper
Ipe
Osage/Mulberry

Hickory was one of my favorites but I think I'm going to start making arrows from all those hickory staves I've got laying around.  Hickory makes GREAT arrows.

I didn't like osage all that much until I got some stuff from Yazoo...wow, what a difference good quality osage makes.

I'm also liking red oak quite a bit because of it's availability...and I don't have to wait until it's dry. 

Ipe is great stuff and I love working with it.  The dust doesn't bother me and I actually like the smell of the wood.  I think the quality is going downhill though.  I'm glad I bought a bunch of it several years ago when it was cheap and very straight grained.

[Cacatch]

Black Locust
Osage (I know, I'm unique)
Hickory
Cherry
White Ash

These are all woods I have tried and have successfully made good shooting bows out of at least once. The order is not necessarily my order of preference.

CP

[Hillbilly]

Not necessarily a top five list, but here are some of my favorite woods I have used that I consider to be excellent quality bow wood well worth cutting/buying any time you can: osage, mulberry, black locust, elm, hop hornbeam, hickory, dogwood, white ash, ipe. I have the oily heartwoods like osage, mulberry and locust at the top of my list because they perform better here in fogland where the humidity is constantly high. There are many other woods that will make a good bow, but any of the above are good proven woods that are relatively easy to get in the southeast.