How did bowyers harvest so much yew?

[JW_Halverson]

That may be true, but yew is still an enigma!  It can tolerate serious ring violations, ridiculous knots, bad tillers, splinters and cracks across the grain... Crazy stuff.

For all we talk about the toughness of osage and hickory, NEITHER will let you get away with half the foolishness of yew!

[WillS]

It's quite ironic in a way.  Yew is the ultimate beginners wood.  It can be treated extremely badly by complete novices and still give a great result, and yet for some reason it's considered hard (which isn't actually the case) to find so beginners use every other timber they can get hold of. 

[joachimM]

It's quite ironic in a way.  Yew is the ultimate beginners wood.  It can be treated extremely badly by complete novices and still give a great result, and yet for some reason it's considered hard (which isn't actually the case) to find so beginners use every other timber they can get hold of.

Well said 
That's what I always say to these osage and yew adepts. Wood for beginners 
No seriously: it's a LOT easier to find other bow wood. Simply because there are so many decent bow woods.

joachim