As my moniker says, longbow, for a good reason. I've much experience with trad. archery and fact is its the only type of archery I've ever done. Hunted whitetails and bear for years. Kind of got out of it and golf when best friend past. If you can get your hands on any of the books written about archery like from Hill, Massey, etc.etc. do so. Wealth of knowledge contained within. For a start try and score a copy of the Traditional Bowyers Bible, go to the Leatherwall wedbsite too and look around. I don't know if Tradgang website is still around either. But search that one out too. Traditional Bowhunter magazine is an excellent source too.
I just scored a proto type longbow made by W.C. Matlock off ebay. I remember when he experimented with the bow design and he wrote about it, an almost full parabola longbow. C shaped limbs but they are backset. Bamboo and carbon limbs. Hunting the Hard Way by Howard Hill is very well written too and he explains how he made his American semi longbow and how it came to be. The fella seemed to be supernatural when it came to shooting a longbow. Look on YouTube for some of his vids, extraordinary skill with the longbow, he used very heavy draw weights too. Back in the 80's it took me a few years of serious training to work up to bows of 80-100lbs at 28" of draw. John Scultz was a protege of Howard Hill and he put out an excellent video on Hitting them like Howard Hill. In it he demonstrates how Hill shot the bow, held the bow, and and how he aimed. That is on You Tube too. I could go on and on.
I'm not much on self bows though, have owned lots of them but to me they were to inconsistent for me. That and had one break on me at full draw and cracked me goo on the noggin. What I did like was a bow made by Craig Ekin of Howard Hill archery in Montanna. It had a heat tempered bamboo core, with a single piece of glass on the back with coco bola riser with tip wedges. That was 74#at 27" and 66" long. Should have kept that but like I said my best friend died so kind of lost interest in it along with golf. If I was't hunting or shooting I was playing golf and practicing when I could. I've also carried over from shooting a longbow instinctively to my handgun practice. Square up the outline of my .45 in my vision, up and down and side to side and pull the trigger. Not great for targets passed 10yds or so though. Mostly what I was consider combat distance's. So there ya go, the tip of the iceberg. keepem sharp
PS as for books and building primitive or all wood bows look for:
The Traditional Bowyers Bible, 1,2, and 3 versions. 3 separate books on thoghts and techniques from different makers.
Hitting'em like Howard Hill, Hunting the Hard Way both by Hill
A Thousand Camp Fires by Jay Massey
In Search of the Osage Bow by Dean Torges. He is the godfather of osage bows and might be the best builder that ever lived of high performance osage and bamboo bows, but I am sure that could be argued.
The Witchery of Archery by the Thompson brothers after the Civil War, outstanding book on there adventures.
Bows and Arrows of the Native Americans by Jim Hamm again in the same class as Torges.
