I've had really bad luck with staves from standing dead, or staves from downed trees. I've found it's better to cut live trees, and take the time to season them slowly. I also cut all my trees in the winter now... sap is down. I now it's harder to remove the bark, but I prefer that to checking cracks and longer drying time. The wood is somehow not as strong from dead trees. Anytime I hear "rot in the sapwood," I shudder. JMO.
i'm with ya, adb, at least for stave wood. i've taken standing dead, and it was crap. I actually pushed that tree over in about 30 seconds, just pulling back and forth on the stub of a broken branch! got rid of it. but i think that the heartwood could be good as compression wood, belly wood, if milled into laminations.
next spring i'm gonna start hunting yew on the mountainsides here, and see what i can find. Lucky me the wife is into it!
