hey i'm back...and NOT empty handed! English Yew Pics

[radius]

Hi guys...

I've been in England the last couple months and haven't made any bows.  But i have collected a number of staves of taxus baccata, English Yew...In england, yew grows everywhere (for a country with only 6 trees in it, anyway!).   My new wife took me to a nearby graveyard where i saw many overgrown yew trees.  The vicar's phone # was posted on the sign at the gate.  A quick phone call later, i had permission to "take as much as i wanted".    Guess he didn't know what that means to me!   

It's all branches...so i'm going to try my hand at asymmetrical bows for awhile, with longer upper limbs than lower limbs.  Hmm...now i just gotta ship them home to Canada...

Scott

[Josh]

welcome back Scott!!!!!!!!!    You gotta lotta catchin up to do...     -josh

[radius]

I know, Josh!  i was just cruising through the threads...been about 25 pages worth since i posted anything...man i am dying to scrape some wood...

i gotta get some pics of my father in law with his yew recurve...he LOVES it...

[Kviljo]

Brilliant way of getting yew

Let them season well. Even branches like to crack. I've got a few myself. Looking forward to seeing what you get out of them branch-bows are not the easiest kind.

[radius]

the vicar said, "If anyone stops you and asks what you are up to, just tell them you and i have spoken and you have my full endorsement."   Englishmen love yew bows, no way around it.

I had thought that branch bows were the original bows?

[Blacktail]

hey scott,good to see you guys are welll.great to hear about the yew...so,did you meet any bowyers over there...i bet it was a fun trip...i would love to go some day..john

[George Tsoukalas]

Welcome back, radius. Got some pics of yew? Jawge

[Dane]

Radius, you hardly are empty handed if you got all that graveyard yew. Getting it home though should be an adventure. Suppose the wood is haunted? Trees that grow in graveyards are darkly nourished

Did you hook up with that Pip fellow? I recall you talked to him about working in his shop. Did that work out, or at least you meet him and see his shop?

Dane

[Parnell]

Welcome back.  Just how are you getting those staves back?  I visit England from time to time with family there...

[dwardo]

Bloody Canadians coming over here and stealing all our yew 

[Del the cat]

Bloody Canadians coming over here and stealing all our yew 

Made I larf...
Maybe we should go over there and steal some Moose , Mooses? Mice?
Oh, yeah Radius, some pics would be good, just so we can see if your idea of a good stave is the same as ours. (I sometimes think I'm too fussy)
Del

[VenomBOWslinger]

Ahoy Radius... been awhile for me as well I have been working like I do and just now are getting some time to catch up with bows and my kids.  I owe a couple of people on here yet and are almost embarassed to say so but if my circumstances were different it would have been done already.  Anyway would like to see some of that haunted yew u got lol....

[Rich Saffold]

 Radius,
So you got to pillage a bunch of Yew from the Graveyard   Bravo!

[radius]

i actually don't think i'll take it back with me...i'll leave it here to season in the inlaws' shed, and make a bow every time i come back.   Also, if any of you english guys (or Parnell!)want a piece, PM me and i'll hook you up...provided you go to York to pick it up.  Several of these staves are 'experimental' at best:  shortish branches which are fairly knotty and which i hope to make into asymmetrical bows.   One of them is destined for me mudderinlaw, which has to be very light...but fodderinlaw was very happy with his recurve and i think he's joined an archery club already.   Mudderinlaw actually came to the graveyard with me and helped me carry the short ladder, tools, staves, etc.  in the wicked snowstorm the UK suffered this winter.

I've got a shitload of yew back home, if you remember...but i better talk to Mar to see how it's been working...either way, since i love working with yew, and love spending time in the bush, i'll be going back out to the forests of coastal BC to collect some more.  Meantime i'll get some elm and make holmies and mollegabets...try some carving like half eye...

haunted yew!

[Dane]

Yes. Check the graves near the trees you harvested the limbs from. Bodies tend to migrate, so that is not a sure way, though, when you need and exorcist. You may find yourself speaking in some weird country dialect, dressing strangly, eating things you always hated before, and go into some long dead trade like a wheelwright or cordwainer or gong farmer. But if you get possessed by a medieval bowyer, count yourself lucky.

Dane