OK, here goes.
there are some woods everyone knows: osage good in comp and tens, yew good in comp and tens(w/ sapwood), bamboo best in tension, etc
Now, how about some of those other woods? What is good in tension? Compression? Which wood pair well? well documented is bamboo and osage, hickory as a backing for almost anything. what else is there?
Bamboo or hickory and Ipe, for starters.
I have a hickory selfbow that ZINGS! It is a flatbow configuration with a rectangular cross section---which is supposed to be the design that gets the best performance from the wood.
Look here www.gilalongbowcompany.com (http://www.gilalongbowcompany.com)
Jeremiah has some good stuff about the different woods.
anyone else?