Knotty Pacific Yew sapling on tiller tree- please scroll to bottom for update!

[Thunderlizard]

Howdy y’all.


I’m currently working on a very knotty yew sapling that I found in the woods several weeks back. I’ve cut it to 70” tip to tip, and laid out the handle. It’s about 1 1/4” diameter on the narrow end and
1 3/4” on the thick end.

I’m not positive how wide I want to make it mid limb and at the tips, but now that I’m looking at it again, I’m hesitant to try and make it a bow on account of the branches/knot stubs on the side of the upper limb. If you notice, there are some checks in these knots (maybe I was too careless taking off the branches).

In any case two questions?

1. Do you think I can just whittle the branch stubs down beyond these cracks? Maybe the bow will be narrow enough at those points on the upper limb that I can just carve them away in to side of the bow...? Or Should I try to leave them somewhat proud?

2. Reccomended width mid limb and at tip?

At the end of the fades (the lines I have laid out just past the handle) they are 1 1/2”.

Thanks so much for all of the help! Y’all are truly a special community.

- Pat

[DC]

That's going to be a challenge unless there is a clear strip. When I'm doing sapling bows like that I let the crown dictate the width. Put another way I keep the thin end(top of tree) as wide as I can. As you tiller and the bow gets thinner it will also get narrower. As you work your way along just keep thinning and narrowing the fat limb to match the thin limb. You don't mention your draw weight but I've made 40#Yew bows with 1" wide limbs. Keep it as wide as you can to about halfway out the limb and then taper to your tip width which I make about 3/8" plus or minus.

[Thunderlizard]

Thanks for the response DC!

When you say clear strip, do you just mean a portion of the sapling without knots/stubs?

My plan is to try to work around them, but if I can't, do you think that carving into them will jeopardize the bow, even if those stubs are more on the SIDE of the limb than on the actual BACK?

Thanks again! 

[DC]

Yes, that's what I meant. As long as the back has as few knots as possible you have a chance. Knots are pretty good in compression if they are solid but they aren't much use on the back. Soak the knots in thin CA(crazy glue). I've found that Yew knots usually have a split across them. The split will compress a bit so I soak with CA.

[wizardgoat]

You should let the stave season for a while before removing any more wood. Yew can warp really bad if you rush it

[Del the cat]

That looks pretty good to me.
Cut off the excess from the belly side and leave it to dry for a bit with the ends painted.
Leave the back untouched with the knots about 1/8" - 1/4" proud... leave 'em longer if you want, it's mostly cosmetic. I think it's better to leave extra width , let the grain flow round the knot, try to preserve the width of the sapwood as the knot is not much better than a hole in tension!.
Just have fun, yew can take a lot of abuse....
Del

[Thunderlizard]

You should let the stave season for a while before removing any more wood. Yew can warp really bad if you rush it

Right on. How long do you recommend?

I’ve had this and another similar sized but much cleaner yew stave sittting inside for about two months. Their moisture content has gone down more rapidly than a larger (~7”) diameter stave that I have.

I’ve already hacked away at the belly, into the sapwood. Do you recommend painting/coating the length of the exposed belly?

[DC]

I live on the coast and I don't seal Yew at all. Arizona would be different. I bandsaw the belly off except for the handle area. I leave it outside under cover for a couple of months and then move it into the garage where the RH is about 50%. Leave it there for a few more months, reduce it to closer to rough size and then start to weigh it. Write the weight on the belly. When the weight stops going down for a week or so you can start. I try to weight it at the end of every work session(day) and then again before I start working on it. If it's lost any weight in that time don't work on it for a while. Keep in mind that if the humidity has gone up the stave weight will go up and vice versa. Bow making is separated into three sections- gathering, waiting and making. It's not a continuous thing.

[Thunderlizard]

Finished laying the bow out - at this point, it’s laid out to be 1 1/2” from fade to mid limb, and from mid limb, tapers to 1/2”.

If you can see in the first attached photo, with it laid out to 1 1/2”, the two knots in question are intersected by the sharpie line, so would be firmly on the SIDE of the upper limb.

Is this fine or should I try to narrow the fades/mid limb to, say, 1 1/4” to try to get the knots just on the outside of my sharpie?

I started to take away the belly even before I laid out the bow, to flatten it to sit on my janky bench...

By the way, my moisture meter says that humidity in my house is at 75% right now...

I rent. If it was my house, I would sure as hell have a wood stove and it would be drier in here... the poor fools who own this house somehow don’t understand that they’re slowly rotting it to the ground. Oh well, I won’t be here forever...

Thanks again DC, Goat, and Del

[George Tsoukalas]

I love character bows. For saplings bows I leave them a few inches longer than the usual stave length to counteract the crown.
Jawge

[DC]

75% is not very good. Look at this chart http://www.csgnetwork.com/emctablecalc.html

You want the MC to be 10% or so. At 75% you will be up at 14%MC. The bow will take more set. See if you can figure a way around that. Check different spots around the house. Maybe a heater in a closet would help.

[leonwood]

You layed it out fine, like george said a little extra length is safer on these bows but with yew you can get away with a lot! If you have 68 or 70 you can even go as narrow as 1 inch if those knots on the side become a problem, although I think when you start working on the bow it will be fine.
The humidity is a problem though, like DC said try to place the bow at a place where you can get it below 12%

[Thunderlizard]

75% is not very good. Look at this chart http://www.csgnetwork.com/emctablecalc.html

You want the MC to be 10% or so. At 75% you will be up at 14%MC. The bow will take more set. See if you can figure a way around that. Check different spots around the house. Maybe a heater in a closet would help.

Yep. I’m aware it’s not good. Haha. According to my wood moisture meter, a black walnut bow I’ve laid out and carved down quite a bit is hovering around 13-14%MC.

I want to heat treat the limbs before I start to tiller the walnut, but I’m afraid of the belly cracking on account of the high current MC. Thus I’m kind of sitting on my hands on that one, and moved to the above yew stave.

Maybe I’ll try to heat my closet and place the staves in there...

Would I need to seal the belly on the yew if I get the closet down to 50-60%RH?

[Thunderlizard]

Howdy Ya’ll,


I’ve started carving this bow down, and have it bending on the tiller tree (pics to follow of tiller tree later)

Although I don’t think the moisture content has gone down too much (it was at 12% last I checked), I’m just going to go ahead and make the bow, since it’s not a great stave anyhow. I expect a bit more set than if it were under 12% mc. That’s okay with me - this one is for learning.

So. As you can see in the photos, there’s a large cracked knot on the side of the upper limb, just above the upper fade. I’ve filled it with really thin Cyanocrylate glue, and am going about tillering as normal.

Would filling it with epoxy help the issue?

Should I leave it as proud as it is now, or keep rasping it down and hope it gets to the bottom of the check?

Any prior experience or advice is appreciated!

[Thunderlizard]

One more photo for scale