Well, I have read a crap-ton of posts from my recipient as well as a monumental stack of photos of bows he has posted.
The decision was easy to make considering how he spends plenty of time dressing up his bows and making them look pretty fancy. I'm gonna do him an osage stave bow that's just a bit short of being a bendy handle, slight flip to the tips with horn nock overlays and a very simple leather sewn grip. The idea is to make this bow very simple, but also as absolutely fast and clean shooting as possible.
I have long admired my recipient as a pretty steady sort of guy, never jumps in to stir the pot but always has encouraging words for others. He builds very nice bows that look to be very good at their intended purpose. Gotta respect that kinda guy. I'm not so nervous about it now that I've put some thought into it, in fact, I really feel happy that I get to send this guy a bow.