Need advice on a couple of old yew staves

[Weylin]

My dad gave me 2 staves and a mostly worked bow from some yew that he cut 30 years ago in the california coastal range. The sapwood is fairly thick on them, (around a 1/2 inch). The worked bow has unfortunately lost alot of it's heartwood because of this but there is not much to be done about it at this point because it is close to target weight already. For the other 2 staves I wanted to explore my options for reducing the sapwood. Chasing a ring seems tough as it seems very hard to see the rings in the sapwood and I have no experience with chasing rings. I'm willing to give it a shot if that's the best method though. Could I just reduce the sapwood to a uniform thickness and back it with rawhide? Are there any other possibilities that I haven't considered? Here are some crappy pictures. 

[Pat B]

Thirty year old yew would be a pleasure to work with.     You can reduce the sapwood and even violate the rings some with yew and still be OK. Backing with rawhide should give you complete confidence. I'm not an expert with yew but I believe you could take the sapwood down to about 1/4" to 3/8" thick and you will get a nice combo of sap/heart wood.

[Shaun]

You can reduce the sap wood without worry about ring violation. 1/4 to 3/8" gives you some heart wood at the tips and still makes the tension plane in the sapwood. Rawhide backing is mostly for protection from dings afield on the soft back sapwood, but it will also give you some peace of mind. Beautiful staves! My limited experience with older staves has been explosive. I would rough out the bow to floor tiller and then allow it to hydrate up to some reasonable moisture content in a humid environment. The older stuff I've tried to work was too dry.

[druid]

What a beautiful things..I wouldn't spoil that with backing.

[Del the cat]

As others have said, following a ring is nice and a worthy aim, but not essential with Yew.
Do try to keep violations to a minimum and where you do have then , try to have them running along the limb or at an angle or like flames (like you see on the belly of a bow).
If you leave the back a little thicker than planned at first and then clean it up slow and steady one the bow is floor tillered, theres less work in following a ring.
My last bow here gives an idea of what I mean.
http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,28324.msg376269.html#msg376269
And here's a pic of the back of my big old Yew ELB (75# @28"... 90# @31.5")

I followed a ring over most of the limb, but if I hadn't gone down about 7 rings I'd have had all sap and no heart where there was a sudden dip in the heartwood. (See below) Ithink the two pics aren't the same way round, but it shows why I reduced the sapwood at that point.

It shows that you need to make compromises from the ideal.
BTW the sapwood is thinner along the other edge as it isn't even across the bowalong the whole length.
Yew is beautiful to work but can start to tear as it follows the grain or near knots, if this happens go to a spokeshave or rasp rather than the drawknife.
Del

[Weylin]

Thank you for the input, fellas. It's good to know that I have options and that yew can be so forgiving. I have a question about the moisture content of old yew. I have heard several people say that old yew is especially dry and therefore in more danger of failure. My (admittedly limited) understanding of wood in general is that all wood will eventually match the moisture level of the air around it. Is it that old yew is actually drier than other woods? (which seems to contradict my previous assertion.) or is it that old yew becomes more brittle with age? If it is drier than the air around it, how does that happen, and how would it retain the moisture from artificially raising it's moisture level? And if instead that it is simply a matter of yew becoming more brittle with age, is there truly anything that can be done over the long term to counteract that quality? It doesn't seem like temporarily boosting the moisture level in the bow would solve the problem. 

[Blacktail]

i would reduce some sap to a 1/4 like others have said..i did this on my first yew wood bow and violated every ring on the sap and it holds 50 pounds at 25 inchs to this day...i once got some good advice that only GOD could chase a ring on sap...i love shooting it...pat nailed it on the head.. i would love to work on some 30 yr old year...i wonder how many rings an inch it has....just jump on that thing....what does the heart wood look like...i needs some pics i have yew fever and haven't touched a piece in a month...LOL...john

[MWirwicki]

Geez, I don't know.  I really think that I could tell you better if you sent the yew to me!   The pics are nice but, a "hands-on" evaluation is definitely the only way to go here.   

Seriously, it looks like nice stuff.  Follow the advice the rest of the fellas sent and you will be very pleased.  Don't forget to post the finished bows when they are completed!

[Keenan]

nice looking staves. Great advice given

[crooketarrow]

  I'm with driud why back it you don't need to with yew. PLUS I think any bow backing just dosn't look good. I like the look and fell of wood.
 The low weight bow if you wish to up the poundage sinew it.
  You like to do a little tradeing for one of those staves. I'll let you take advange of me.