That's a really hard question for me--I get to see lots of woods and wood combos, and some of the plainer woods look really nice when matched right with another wood. The accents and how the riser is put together in general makes a difference too.

Some of my favorite riser woods (in no certain order) are cocobolo, bocote, Bolivian rosewood, chechen. Some of the nicer combos to me are osage/greybark, bubinga/autumn camo, bubinga/purpleheart, andbocote/Bolivian rosewood.

For limbs, especially in a longbow, I love yew for the smooth draw and performance, but for looks/veneers I like the figured maples, bocote, Tamo ash, and beeswing eucalyptus.

True snakewood is expensive. What I've seen is nice, but not nice enough to justify the price (to me anyway). Ebony (Gaboon ebony--the solid black type) is expensive, and can be tricky. Large pieces can have cracks inside, and it can be a pain to work with. It's drab looking to me. A nice piece of Macassar ebony has a lot more color and figure, not quite as expensive, but I haven't seen a piece large enough for a riser.

If I had to choose right now, I'd say cocobolo for the riser and Japanese Tamo Ash for limb veneerwould be my picks--classy, fancy, and beautiful--even in a simple design. Oh yeah--affordable too--at least moreso than more rare woods.

Chad