Hey fine folks,
My name is Lucas. I've been surreptitiously sucking up your knowledge and expertise for a while now, so I figured it was time to de-lurk, and introduce myself.
Couple years ago I had to cut a mature shagbark hickory that was leaning over my driveway. I got a bunch of billets to carve into tool and axe handles which was my hobby before ever building a bow. When I decided I should try to build a bow, I started googling around, and was often brought to threads here. I took half a dozen staves from the stump log of that tree, and with your unknowing guidance and that of the Bowyer's Bible Vol. 1, I proceeded to mangle three of them and make three moderately functional hickory selfbows. Not much artful or graceful about them, unlike much of the work done here, but they shoot in the general direction I point them, and one of them doesn't even rattle my teeth too badly.
Anyway, I've recently taken another hickory and a bunch of buckthorn from my woods. When googled info on buckthorn bows I again ended up here, so I figured I better actually join up instead of merely leeching in the dark corners. Not that I have a lot to contribute in bow building after three bows, but maybe someday I will.
Cheers!