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Cheap wood for bow making practice

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TheDukesArchers:
Ok, so I have a really fine piece of pacific yew that I want to (hopefully) turn into a warbow/heavy longbow. Nothing too crazy, maybe 75-80lb at 30 inch draw.

My bow making experience is mainly with Native American/First Nation bows, but I want to fully concentrate on English Longbows from now on out. I have made a yew longbows before, but the wood was pretty wet and didn't come out with a great tiller.  Bought the wood from a right Muppet! To be honest it was a flat bow/longbow hybrid type thing.

I really need some much needed practice on cheap woods going for my second yew bow. I can't make laminates as I don't have power tools, just my few trusty hand tools. I'm personally thinking of either hickory or ash? Really need to make a few cheap longbows before having ago at this stave. It would be a sin to waste it.

Edit
Why do the majority of Ash elb's have a rectangular cross section, as opposed to an oval or d cross section?

Del the cat:
Hickory... IMO
But both will benefit from heat treated belly, squareish section (or trapped back) rather than a high arched D.
Del

TheDukesArchers:
Hey Del,

I was thinking of hickory, too. The price of yew I have needs to work as it was quite expensive. Needs to be given 100 percent effort.

Was also thinking of pine wood. Not to actually turn into a working bow, but just to practice shaping cross sections.

Joec123able:
I think hickory or ash are a pretty good choice for practice for sure

TheDukesArchers:
It just ca. Be a right pain in the ash when all you have is a knife, few scrapers and some files. I have a draw knife and an electric saw, but they're back home.

Have to make do with basic tools right now. Good thing about yew is it isn't too bad to carve using just basic hand tools.

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