Slightly ruined the sapwood of yew stave

[poplar600]

Hello, I was gifted my first ever yew stave last week, though the sapwood varied between 3/4 and 1 inch. I did a lot of reading online about how yew rings don't mater ect, just getting an even thickness is the key to making a yew bow. I'm an osage/ash guy, so this was quite hard for me to understand. Well I went for a nice looking thickness the whole stave over. I've got a nice thickness all over the back, but I count 57 ring violations everywhere! The back of the bow just looks appalling!! Tried to leave knots proud like with osage, but looks like I've rasped through some real tiny pins that I could not really see. Now I'm not too sure about not violating yew rings as the back just looks an absolute mess, but I've got my even thickness for sure.

Joined up as I'm in dire need of advice. This stave was a gift and it looks like it's no ruined before tiller.

It's a British Longbow by the way with an intended draw weight of 90lbs. Wanted to use it for flight shooting.

At this point in time, I'd pay money for help.

[wizardgoat]

Post some pics.  I've violated plenty of yew backs, but I haven't made a bow over 70 pounds, and even that one was in violated. There's people with heavy yew bows with violated backs, and plenty guys who've blown up heavy yew bows with violated backs.
Backing with rawhide would be a good option

[Blaflair2]

Could you rawhide back it? I'm not a yew guy.

[Blaflair2]

Ahh, ya beat me to it goat

[poplar600]

Want it to be a self bow as all the originals are self bows. It's about 24rpi and European yew.

Will try and post a pic tomorrow.

[wizardgoat]

Have you built a bow before?
90# is a tough bow to build,

[poplar600]

Built up to 130lb. Just find bracing tough them tough.


So yew wood rings matter then? Looking at the stave, if I chased a single ring, I couldn't have even sapwood anyway as it itself is uneven.

[bowandarrow473]

Ive never worked yew but I understand that the heartwood has plenty of tension strength so if the back is that bad and you dont want to put rawhide or something on it and you cant chase a ring then mabye you could use the heartwood. I dont know, but I think I have seen yew bows with uneven sapwood before so I dont know if that is a problem. Good Luck!

[poplar600]

All my research has led to two different opinions. One is chase a single ring, the other is damn the rings and get an even thickness. Went with the latter and an even thickness all over, but massive violations and some small pins have been cut.

How you get an even thickness with a really knotty piece of wood is beyond me.

[bowandarrow473]

My best geuss is that you dont!

[Badger]

24 rings per inch is not very fine ringed, I would give it a thin rawhide backing, very traditional to rawhide back a yew bow. I am not that familiar with euro yew. Maybe some of our euro brothers will chime in.

[poplar600]

I'm in a real 'scratch my head' situation.

[Weylin]

Show us some pictures and we can help you better. chances are you'll be fine and can rawhide back it like these fellas have suggested if all else fails.

[Del the cat]

Lets have some pics...
You don't have to clean it all up at once.
Get it flexing a bit and tidy the back as you progress.... it's much easier done a little and often rather than in one go.
I'm still cleaning up the back of a longbow well past the getting it bending stage.
Del

[LittleBen]

Pics are necessary. What I call violated the next guy calls nearly pristine.

There's also always the option to build it in a more sane draw weight. I do like the idea of rawhide in this case though.