Got a load of pacific yew, now what?

[Weylin]

Thanks to Elktracker, I got a load of pruned yew off of craiglist for $15.  They had a huge yew tree in their yard and these are branches that were pruned off of it. They have been sitting out on a pallet for a year. There is a 8 1/2', a 6' and two 4' pieces. The 8' branch is 3" at one end and 5" diameter at the other, it has one sizable branch cut of of one side of it about a third of the way up and a good bend in it. The 6' piece is about 4' in diameter and is straighter and cleaner than the long one but it has a small Y at one end. One of the 4' pieces is straight and clean with a 4.5" diameter, I'm guessing it will be good for billets. The other 4' piece is 2.75" on one end and 2" on the other end, not sure if it will yield anything. Here are some pictures. I'm mainly wondering how many, if any, bows I can get out of this lot and also what me next step in preparing them should be. will they split easily with a hand tools or will I need a bandsaw? should I get the bark off now? Thanks in advance for your input. 

[bcbull]

for yew use ur band saw thats the only way i do it brock...ps i do see a few bows in there 

[Del the cat]

Hmm, not the best Yew I've seen.
Don't risk trying to split 'em.
I'd say there is probably only 2 bows in the whole lot being pessimistic (dunno what you are supposed to do with a 4' length? Maybe one of your V short native American style bows? Or it may do billets like you said, but there's not a lot ow thickness to play with). The fattest one may saw and give two staves, but I doubt it.
My advice is to choose the cleanest straightest face of each piece, and chop/bandsaw away the oppsite side, to try and get one really good stave from each piece, much better than two bad ones.
I've made nice bows from small diameter stuff, so it's not a problem as long as you don't get greedy and try to squeeze out more bows than is sensible.
Even if you can only get 2 decent staves, for $15 you've done ok.
If it's been sitting for a year, chope 'em into staves get the bark off and slowly start working them down, the bark will have slowed the seasoning, but I'd think that if you work 'em down to roughed out bow size they'll be seasoned in a month maybe or two tops.
(You'll get a feel for how well seasoned they are when you de-bark 'em.)
Del

[blackhawk]

Glad to see someone snagged those.

Ill double your money and pay for shipping and take em off your hands .....lol

With the small diameter short one id plane it down and make a short sinew back west coast bow out of it. The other one should have enough meat to splice.

The one that Y's you can make a split tip bow....ok...joking about that one. Looks like you can get 4 bows IMHO pending how they look underneath and how good you are.

[Lee Slikkers]

Glad to see someone snagged those.

Ill double your money and pay for shipping and take em off your hands .....lol

With the small diameter short one id plane it down and make a short sinew back west coast bow out of it. The other one should have enough meat to splice.

The one that Y's you can make a split tip bow....ok...joking about that one. Looks like you can get 4 bows IMHO pending how they look underneath and how good you are.

You dirty lil' wood whore    (I was thinking the same thing though...LOL)

[blackhawk]

     yup..I sure am Lee. Im not afraid to admit it. Early bird gets the worm. And its a eat or be eaten world on this forum and id rather be the one eating 


Looking forward to seeing what you can do with those staves. Good luck

[Lee Slikkers]

I am too...got some new bandsaw blades in the mail yesterday to I don't need to go buy a hatchet 

[crooketarrow]

   You know the old saying there's a bow in every peice of wood if you want to let it out. How bad do you want to let them out. I'd take blackhawks offer.

[Weylin]

Thanks for all the advice! And thanks for the offer, Blackhawk, but I think I'll see what I can make of them.  I appreciate the honesty Del, I was pretty skeptical about what I could make from them but I don't have the eye for wood that you do. Heck, if I can even get one good bow out of the lot, it will be worth it. so, just to clarify, the two longer pieces (8 and 6') will be lucky to yeild one stave each? If that's the case I probably wouldnt need a bandsaw, I could just chop away the other side with a hatchet, right? It seems the only one that might be worth trying to split carefullly would be the fat 4' piece. I've never made a billet bow before, is that some thing I could get useable billets from?

[Elktracker]

Weylin I think you can definately get a bow out of the 6 and a bow out of the 8' piece also the bigger around 4 foot piece I would saw in half and splice it. I agree its not the best Yew staves I have seen but dont let that discurage you, you only paid 15 dollars for this wood and if things go wrong the learning experiance from working with the wood will easily be worth that but I have faith you will get a couple of bows from that Yew. Plus if you are going to buy a premium Yew stave on e bay or from a seller of Yew bow staves you will easily pay $150 to $200 dollars in most cases from what I have seen on the net so you did good. I agree get the bark off and rough out your bows and let them dry.

Josh

[Elktracker]

hold on to the other 4' piece too you may be able to use it sometime, or you could make a flute or Atlatl or kane. Did you tell him if he ever cuts down the tree to give you a call? Sounds like you could sell staves through pm and double your money JK

Josh

[Del the cat]

... just to clarify, the two longer pieces (8 and 6') will be lucky to yeild one stave each? If that's the case I probably wouldnt need a bandsaw, I could just chop away the other side with a hatchet, right? It seems the only one that might be worth trying to split carefullly would be the fat 4' piece. I've never made a billet bow before, is that some thing I could get useable billets from?

Yup, that's exactly what I mean. I've not done billets either, so I can't really advise.
I shall be interested to see what you manage to get out of them.
Del

[Weylin]

Cool, thanks again. I will go slow and see what I can squeeze out of them.

[Gordon]

You could probably get a good bow or two out of that lot if you're willing to work with billets.