some thing i have wanted to try(thinking out loud)

[Blacktail]

you know how some people are kind of a freak with certain woods...like Gordon with vine,timo with Osage,Keenan with yew...well,if i had the money...i have all way wanted to get yew from differant parts of the world to try them out...and to stay with a certain size of tree too compair them all..of course i would need keens help for studying the pieces...but,i thing i would be a cool little project...i have even thought about doing this with vine maple from differant areas and maybe soil to see any difference...i don't maybe i am weird...SO,have you thought about projects like this maybe Osage from differant states..john

[PatM]

States and countries are just arbitrary lines drawn by man. You would have to go more by climate zones and lattude and soil type/elevation to get a meaningful comparison.
 I really doubt that  you would get absolute numbers that say one area is the absolute best as a good outlier for a poor area could skew results and vice-versa.
 You would have to have a huge number of samples made to ultimate potential to establish superiority or inferiority.

[Cacatch]

Yeah, like Pat said. Fun to think about and maybe even try, but more trouble and expense than it is worth.

[Elktracker]

I have wondered the same thing about Vine Maple and Ocean spray as I have collected staves from about 50' above sea level and also collected staves at a couple thousand feet in elevation as well and I always wondered if one was better than the other I am guessing it depends on the the type of wood as with yew they say higher elevation yew is more superior to low lying yew because it grows slower thus leaving rings tighter, but you would also think if you found Yew that was in low lying areas on deep dark north faceing slopes with less sun light (where it likes to grow) it would also grow slow. I will be makeing bows from both high and low elevations of vine maple and ocean spray but it will be hard to get accurate results on wich is superior due to not being able to make all of them them the same in deminsions among other differences in the wood. But who knows maybe one will be obviously better than the other, will have to wait and see.