mandOralen... I'm not an expert, that would be Craig Ekin at Howard Hill Archery. However, about three years ago I was exactly where you are. Since then, I've built maybe 30 plus basically Hill style bows, pre-stressed, straight and string follow, forward and reverse riser and I've learned a thing or two. I was pretty careful to keep pictorial web records of everything, even the gross mistakes, and it's all posted on my web site as build alongs for beginners... everything from forms and oven to tooling up and arranging the shop.
Go to
www.dickwightman.com and click on Archery Activities.
You'll also find all the old background pages on Howard and his bows there under the very clever and original heading "Howard Hill Bows" :^) These are the old pages from the Howard Hill Longbowmen site.
The bows I'm building now are basically Hill style, but I've found ways to make them more easily and I like to think that what I'm doing is finding a balance between performance, looks, and ease of making.