I think you forgot to mention why??
How tight a bend is tight?
A rug beater? Tennis racket? What?

  Given both choices I would go with a vertical sapling.
Limb wood tends to warp over time.
All wood is a crap shoot, but take any odds you can get.  hahahaha

   You will find it difficult to sever any dowel shaped piece of wood 
into 2 perfectly equal 1/2's, if that is what you meant.
Saws want to wander and so do splits. Better cut several blanks while 
you are out.
   Hickory does indeed bend. Depending on how tight a loop you are 
trying to make.
...................  Steaming the bejesus out of it and some kind of 
"cheater" up to several feet long to help bend it, a brace or cover or 
whatever you call it, to support the outside of the bend to reduce 
splitting as its being bent,
then placing it into a solid pre-prepared jig to hold it for at least a 
week.

  Even then, whatever bend you make will spring back once released, so 
you have to bend tighter than you want the finished project to be or 
have a prepared joint of some kind to snap it into.
yours, just another scott

-- 
*******************************
    Scott Grandstaff
    Box 409 Happy Camp, Ca  96039
    scottg@s...
    http://www.snowcrest.net/kitty/sgrandstaff/
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