Copper Bow

The bars are worth more in armor than in this. Bows cut from boreal, mahogany or palm wood match it exactly and cost nothing but a tree, and the two evil biome woods beat it outright while still costing no metal at all. If any of those grow within walking distance, put the ore in a chestplate.

If you already built one, it is fine. A bow at this point is defined by the ammunition you feed it far more than by the bow, and a stack of flaming arrows closes the gap between any two starter bows. Just do not go mining specifically to make it.

It has no knockback whatsoever, which quietly deletes an entire family of modifiers from the pool it can roll. In practice that means fewer wasted outcomes and a cheaper chase to the roll you want.