Supreme Bow Woods?

[Robinofdahood]

Hi everyone.       This is my, well... second post as I posted this in the shooting section but was told it might get more publicity over here.  I'm still learing my way around.  Nice to meet everyone, great forum you got here.

"Hey everyone. My first post. I've been out of Traditional archery for a while, but have the fever again. I've only shot factory bows. I have Bear Montanna longbow, Bearcat, and Grizzly and used to shoot quite a bit. I think what inspired the fever was the desire to get a new bow. Anyways, I'm looking into a custom 50s style recurve or a longbow. I'm overwhelmed with the wood choices. I'm thinking about bamboo lams 'cause I like the way they look and they make sense to me.
I guess my question is: How big of a difference do riser, power lam, and limb materials make to a bamboo backed bow provided that the bow is well made, etc. Is it largely cosmetic? Are there woods to stay away from(like high oil content or something which tend to delam, etc.?) Thanks for humoring me. Great site by the way. I'm feeling very inspired."

Sott J. Williams, in the shooting section, told me he thought that bows were like women:  some prefer blondes, some brunettes.  Which I thought was very funny.
-Dave

[Tim Fishell]

All woods have different chartaristics that make them unique.  Every bowyer has their own preference of which wood they like to work with for one reason or another.  I have never heard of any one wood that would cause a bow to delaminate.  I would think that if a bowyer offers certain types of wood they are familiar with the wood and have worked with it in the past.

I think like Scott said it is mainly personal preference.  I like Bocote and Zeabrawood because I like big pronounced grain.  I think it adds character to a bow.  Find a wood that you like the looks of and run with it.