Low dencity yew.....bow wood or fire wood?

[Ryano]

A guy from our archery club cut some large limbs off a yew tree in his yard here in northwestern pa. He brought them to me and wants me to make him a bow but the limbs have probably almost 1/8" growth rings which would be great if its was anything but yew. What do you guys think? Maybe its no good for English longbows but how about a wider limbed flat bow type design? Do you think it will need a backing? Any suggestions on width/length would be appreciated. Thanks, Ryan.

[Rich Saffold]

Ryan, I'd make it wider and longer ELB or flatbow style.  This is where Badgers mass formula can help a bit.. A 74"60- 65#@29" is about what I would be thinking of for this...

Rich-the town is a little hot right now

[Ryano]

Thanks Rich. Thats what I figured, I was hoping to find someone who's worked alot with thicker ringed yew wood. The sapwood rings are just under a 1/8" I'd say and the heart wood is closer to a 1/16" I'm hoping for a flat bow type design no longer than 66" ntn since he wants to hunt with it not shoot at frenchmen. What do you think for a width? 1 1/2" enough or more like 1 3/4" ? to mid limb?

[Ryano]

Oh, and does anyone know if you need to seal the back on yew after removing the bark? Is it very prone to drying checks?

[D. Tiller]

I usually leave the bark on till its all dry. Takes one year to dry properly and up to two years to season well. So, if your going to take the bark off and the woods still wet, definitely seal it! Hope this helps Ryan. I've got a small stave I'm going to turn into a sinew backed NW style bow and will be taking all the sap wood off of it for that. You can make some really short sinew backed yew bows this way with some shorter draws and higher weights. Dont worry about cutting through the growth rings if your going to sinew it or back it. Doesn't seem to matter. Steve Allelie told me about this type of bow and he loves them. Some are as short as 32"-36" long! They draw shorter, around 20"-24" but still maintain a high poundages.

[Ryano]

Tiller, the bark was sluffing off so I just peeled rest right off. Figured it be way easier than trying to fight it later on after it drys down tight. I got 6 decent spit staves out of it and a couple of small branch staves.... I plan on putting most of them up for seasoning and force drying one to work on now. I had heard yew drys pretty fast compared to some other woods. I've made a couple of yew bows but never actualy worked it up from a log before. It splits harder than I figured it would. Its real stringy.

[D. Tiller]

Yeah! Splitting the suckers is fun!!! 

I'm pretty new to it all but on some of the smaller ones I would give a NW sinew backed bow a try. You saw Jesse's sinew backed ossage last year? You can get one just like it or another design from yew too. I like the Pyramid designed shorty Modoc style bows some of the others from that area. Hard part around here is keeping the moisture from the rain from getting to the sinew. The Humidity might be a problem back East. I'm thinking I might try for a shorty arround 40# for hunting turkies with and making it draw ony 20 to 24", about to the chin for me and canting the bow parrallel to the ground. That way I can hold the draw just about forever and wait for that whilley Turkey to get just where I want him!

[Gordon]

If you took the bark off yew while it was green better seal the back. I learned that the hard way.

[Ryano]

OK, I sealed the backs with polyurethane.