Hickory vs Elm vs Dogwood

[Drew3]

What do you think has the best properties for a 64" "long" bow? Any differences with humidity? More comfortable to shoot?

[Dictionary]

Hickory is the king of bow wood, period.

[loon]

For very humid climates, compression softwood is the best I think

Hickory has to be good hickory

so is dogwood or elm better with moisture since hickory sucks with moisture?

[PatM]

 Elm and heat treating  is really hard to beat.

[Pat B]

IMO, as far as whitewoods, you can't beat hickory...humidity or not. One of the most used bow woods by the Eastern Woodland Natives was hickory...and they didn't have A/C! Just keep your your bow in your climate controlled house and you'll be fine. I've sat on stand in pouring down rain with a hickory selfbow an never lost performance in my bow, me yes but not the bow. It's not the water, it is water vapor, humidity.
 I've only made a few bows with elm but was very impressed with this bow wood and will use it when the opportunity allows. 
 I've only made one bow from dogwood so I don't much to say about it but it seems to be a good bow wood.
 Choosing the appropriate design for the characteristics of the given bow wood is the secret to success so investigate the properties of the bow woods you have available and improve your bow building by using these woods and using them with the design that is appropriate.
  Belly tempering positively affects all whitewood bows for sure and other bow woods from my experiences.

[PatM]

I  do think that it was the splitting characteristics  that made Hickory the dominant wood used in the East over Elm.

[osage outlaw]

I have a terrible time splitting elm with steel wedges and a sledge hammer.  I couldn't imagine trying to do it with primitive tools.

[Badger]

  I have about 65% humidity where I live and don't do so well with hickory. Very hard to beat hickory in dry climates with any wood. I like elm where I am at doesn't seem quite as sensitive to the moisture. Have only done a few dog wood bows and I do like it.

[FilipT]

Dogwood is good wood for longbows / warbows, but its knots seem to have very different structure then rest of the wood, so bow can easily be broken on that spots if not careful with tillering. Bows up to 150# are possible.

Elm, superior wood from all that I am told, but impossible to find healthy around my place.

Hickory, I heard all good things about it, but its not tree that grows in Europe.

[Eric Garza]

I made a bow from dogwood years ago. It was okay. Hard to say if it just being okay was due to the wood itself, or my relative lack of experience back then.

I've made a few bows of elm. Sometimes this wood is great, sometimes not. There was a thread on this recently started by Marc St Louis. Like him, I haven't learned to tell a good elm from a bad elm before I invest the time turning the wood into a bow. I don't like that, so don't gravitate towards elm very often.

As for hickory, I think other folks have characterized it well. Of the white woods, the only one I'll choose above hickory is eastern hophornbeam. Hickory is relatively easy to find as a nice straight stave, easy to split, and very tough. It takes tempering very well, and especially when belly tempered it makes for a nice, durable bow. I'm working on a shagbark hickory bow as we speak, and just finished tempering its belly last week. Tempering also helps with hickory's hygroscopic qualities.

[BowEd]

 Guess the saying goes a good piece of hickory is pretty useful is'nt too far off the mark in my area here.Although I'd take a good piece of good elm or dogwood for bows anytime too.All take heat treating very well.Really changing the woods charcteristics for the better for bow wood.Probably none so much as hickory in my experience.

[Drew3]

The average humidity for my area is 68

[nsherve]

i've only made a couple bows myself, one from hickory and one from mock orange. the hickory one is nice, but when it's really muggy (which is the majority of the time in west central alabama) it slows down. i've not heat treated it, but i will the next time.

[Pappy]

I have made a lot of Hickory and several winged Elm and both are great bow wood, as Pat said just take a little more care in my experience, I would say dog wood is the best of the 3 as far as taking on moisture after being finished, all are a good choices for what you want to build.
 Pappy

[nclonghunter]

I like hickory!!!! it has all the good characteristics mentioned above!

I tried two failure elm bows but believe it is a good wood. Many have made great bows.

Dogwood is very dense with knots and hard to find a 6 foot piece of straight stave, at least in my area.

American Hophornbeam (reminds me of dogwood in density but grows straighter) and Black Locust are two other excellent choices in the east.