Yew Design Question

[Will B]

I’m working on my second yew recurve and wanted some opinions on the design of the limbs. The bow is currently 68” with 1/4” sapwood. I’m shooting for a stiff handle, hunting-weight bow around 60# at my 29” draw. The bow is 1-3/4” wide from fades to mid-limb, tapering to 5/8” tips. Would you go less than 1-3/4”, or keep it wide at the fades and do a pyramid design?  I want to make sure I have plenty of heart wood when I hit my target weight and this stave with 3/8” heartwood is barely bending at floor tiller.

Thanks for any thoughts or advice.

[PatM]

Narrower and thicker.

[Will B]

Thanks PatM.  I saw in the TBB Volume 1 that 1-5/8” limb diameter was referenced for yew.

[Pat B]

...also, as you are tillering let the bow tell you how wide or how thick it wants to be. If the heartwood starts looking thin compared to the sapwood you can reduce the width to counteract that.

[Will B]

Will do Pat B. Thanks!

[Del the cat]

Could maybe take the sapwood down to 3/16" if you are worried about the heartwood getting too thin.
If it's a clean under-bark surface tho' may be best to leave it an go a tad narrower.
Tips can go a lot narrower once it coming back in a nice straight line to say 20"
Del

[Will B]

Thank you for that info Del. I was hoping to hear from you. Much appreciated!