A couple years back I found a live edged board of pacific yew with few knots and what seemed like a good rpi count. I tried a longbow with the live edge and quickly found out the grain twisted a fair bit (30 degree angle to the orientation of the board). The longbow exploded through a thin cotton backing. The rest of the board was ripped up for a bamboo backed job (this bow) and two short sinew backed recurves.
This bow, like many others spent years as a floor tillered blank till I finished her up a few weeks ago. Got my hands on a cheap camera and had a couple pics taken.
She is 67½" nock to nock, 1 1/8" wide for most of the limb and 50lbs at 28". This was my first bamboo backing, at she is thicker than the yew from the midlimbs to the tips. I wasn't too sure about the quality of the yew so the backing is trapped to about 2/3 its original width. It's a straight glue up, took 1" of set. Total weight is 367 grams with an 8" non bending handle.
Nock overlays are bloodwood, handle is birch bark secured with sinew. Finish is linseed oil (natural stuff, no drying agent) rubbed in with steel wool.
