How to spot the right tree

[hglucky13]

Hello everyone,
I am attempting my first bow so i dug thru a pile os logs i had set aside for firewood and found a piece of western larch. After i split it i found it to be really twisted.  
So since i had some birch on my property i went out and thought i found a decent tree to cut. brought it home and split it and
   
So obviously my spotting skills suck.
Does anyone have any suggestions on how to pick a better tree to start with?
thanx
alan

[hglucky13]

so i obviously don't know how to post pictures either  
     http://s282.photobucket.com/albums/kk279/hglucky13_album/?action=view¤t=IMG_1223.jpg
 http://s282.photobucket.com/albums/kk279/hglucky13_album/?action=view¤t=IMG_1225.jpg
this is the best i can do right now.
the first picture is the larch that i had and the second is the birch. as you can see both are rather twisted.good thing i need some extra firewood.
later
alan

[Pat B]

If you study the bark on most trees it will show you if the trunk grew in a spiral(twisted) or not. The larch isn't twisted too badly for a bow but I'm not sure about larch as a bow wood.

[hglucky13]

Thanx for the reply Pat,
I am trying to just use wood that is available around my house. I know that their are yew trees around but i haven't found any that were big enough yet. I have a lot of larch and birch on my property, so i was gonna try to start out with one of those until i figure out what i am doing. hopefully by the time i figure out what i am doing i will have found a better suited wood. So if the larch shown is not too twisted should i just cut out the rough blank with a saw instead of trying to split it anymore following the grain?
thanx
alan

[Pat B]

If you saw a straight stave from a twisted stave you have violated the grain and this could cause problems. For selfbows from staves you want to split the wood. You can correct some twist with heat or as you tiller the bow and a little twist is not necessarily a bad thing with a self bow.
   Study the vertical striations in the tree's bark. If it is twisted the striations will be twisted also. With some trees you will have to look really closely to see the twist but it is there if you look.
  I would suggest the birch over the larch as bow wood.

[hglucky13]

thanx again Pat,
I think that i am gonna spend the next couple of days looking over the birch stands at my house and see if i canfind something suitable. in the meantime i am gonna try to do something with this larch stave i have. that way if i mess up to bad no loss.
thanx
alan