Title: Longbow
Content: back, whilst still falling into the definition of a longbow) and has been the main wood used in European bows since Neolithic times. More common and cheaper hard woods, including elm, oak, hickory, ash, hazel and maple, are good for flatbows. A narrow longbow with high draw-weight can be made from these woods, but it is likely to take a permanent bend (known as "set" or "following the string") and would probably be outshot by an equivalent made of yew. Wooden laminated longbows can be made by gluing together two or more different pieces of wood. Usually this is done

Title: Longbow
Content: normally removed entirely. Longbows, because of their narrow limbs and rounded cross-section (which does not spread out stress within the wood as evenly as a flatbow’s rectangular cross section), need to be less powerful, longer or of more elastic wood than an equivalent flatbow. In Europe the last approach was used, with yew being the wood of choice, because of its high compressive strength, light weight, and elasticity. Yew is the best widespread European timber that will make good self longbows, (other woods such as Elm can make longbows but require heat treating of the belly and a wider belly/narrower

Title: English longbow
Content: weapons, but astonishingly stiff, large and strong, and equally capable of use for long or short shooting". The traditional construction of a longbow consists of drying the yew wood for 1 to 2 years, then slowly working the wood into shape, with the entire process taking up to four years. (This can be done far more quickly by working the wood down when wet, as a thinner piece of wood will dry much faster.) The bow stave is shaped into a D-section. The outer "back" of sapwood, approximately flat, follows the natural growth rings; modern bowyers often thin the sapwood,

Title: Flatbow
Content: resilient timbers can make an effective and powerful wooden longbow. In most parts of the world, common hardwoods may be used to create excellent bows. Suitable and easily available timbers include elm (used in ancient Europe, as evidenced by bows pulled from European bogs), maple, sycamore, hazel, and ash. The flatbow design also lends itself to very dense, high strength woods such as hickory and especially osage orange (a wood favored by many Native American tribes for bow making). Good quality yew wood is still much more expensive and difficult to find than woods suitable for flatbows, and beginning bowyers

Title: Flatbow
Content: This research was expected to explain why the English longbow's "D"-section was superior to all other extant designs. Instead, it showed that the best cross-section was a simple rectangle. The American longbow was developed by applying these research findings to the English longbow. The result was a more efficient and stable bow which can be made from more common woods. Because of its coincidental resemblance to some Native American bows, the American longbow is also known as the "semi-Indian" bow. The American longbow was popularised by Howard Hill and quickly displaced the English longbow as the preferred bow for target

Question: The best longbows were constructed from which wood?
Answer: Yew