Yew stave; Please help

[Tom_Brone]

Hello all,

my name is tom, and I just bought a yew stave from ebay. After a long time looking for yew, I jumped the auction and just bought it. The stave came in today, and I have a few questions. The goal is to make a 80 pound bow, at a 31" drawlength. The stave is 80" long.
How should I best saw this log?
I have made soms bows in the past, but these were all laminated. I don't want to ruin this piece of yew.


















Thanks,
Tom

[Dano]

If that big knot is close enough to the end to leave good length, I would cut that off and split it into two staves and hope that that check doesn't run too deep to ruin a second stave.

[juniper junkie]

I agree with Dano, if you can get rid of that big knot then do it. at 80" you have plenty of length there. next concern is the big check crack, get rid of it asap, if you leave it it will get worse, by either sawing down untiil you get past it or pulling it to finish the split depending on where it is headed and how deep it is. I would try sawing first, but it looks like it is going to run the edge so should cause no harm to where your bow will lay. the next concern is the chainsaw mark in the sapwood, depending on where it is and how deep maybe you can work around the deepest part, but if not, it looks like you could reduce the sapwood some and maybe get below it. I bet the shipping cost on that was a bunch good luck with your project.

[Tom_Brone]

stave cost me about 66 pounds, the shipping 18. That's, i don't know, 33 dollars shipping?
I want to make a warbow out of it, so i can't cut it down;
Since the middle of the stave is free of knots, I'm thinking of sawind it in 3.

1 stave big and clear of knots for warbow
1 stave a bit smaller with that saw mark in it
1 stave a bit shorter because of the giant branch sticking out; The branch is situated at about man's height (my height). Thats about 178 cm.

Tom

[Pat B]

Tom, If you already haven't, check out the war bow thread here on PA. You might get better answers about a war bow there. Looks like a lot of wood there. You should be able to get at least 2 bows and maybe 3 out of it...not all war bows, though.      Pat