Reducing Yew rings

[DC]

When you reduce sapwood from the back does it have about the same effect as removing wood from the belly?

[penderbender]

Tiller wise yes I think so, as sometimes with small diameter yew, you have to reduce the sapwood some otherwise you won't have any heartwood left. Yew can take ring violation, it just has to be even, and smooth. I have had to do this before, with the last third of the limbs. Cheers, i'm sure someone else will chime in soon.

[wizardgoat]

Maybe, but it's much better to finish your back to whatever sapwood thickness you want, then tiller the belly from there

[penderbender]

It is much better to start out with a good back. Ikm just saying it can be done.

[DC]

I was just curious. I got a bit ahead of myself on the ELB I'm making and got close to my weight before I tiddled up the back. Just wondering if I could get away with taking off a few little islands of sapwood. I gave it a bit of a shot today and I was having trouble telling the islands from the surrounding seas. I can't tell which is higher. I don't know if it's an island or a lake. I'm going to stop scraping on the bow and practice a bit on some offcuts.

[penderbender]

Probably a good idea! Don't want to get too carried away.

[Del the cat]

Yup, a bit of tidying of the back won't make much difference to draw weight.
I generally do it by degrees as the bow progresses, after all, you don't want to be trying to chase a ring (or clean 'em up) on a half a log!
I rough out the stave, reduce the sapwood to about 1/4" trying to roughly follow a ring, or at least down the centre line. Then tidy up as I progress. It gets fine tuned and cleaned up as work proceeds. Sometimes you simply can't follow a ring.
When fitting nocks I may well go through rings on the back as I blend in the last 5" or so from D section to circular for the nock.
Del

[penderbender]

DC what part of the island you from?

[DC]

Campbell River. You're from Pender Island I'll bet

[penderbender]

You betcha! Haha I like the comox area.