Yew wood and English longbow help.

[Mafort]

So I am attempting to make my very first longbow from yea wood and an English war bow at that. I’ve made them from other woods but I had some questions regarding how to properly make one. For instance does following a ring on the back still apply to yew wood? I ask this cause on some of these pieces they sapwood is a good half inch or more thick. I do not plan on backing it so I want to get these right.  I have three staves to choose from all 2x2. One is literally the straightest piece I’ve ever worked with at 75inches long the second is clean and bumpy at 80inches and the other is 72inches. I was thinking about using the 75in stave for the warbow. My plans are for 100@28” and 110+@32. I’ll try to upload pictures in the morning

[JW_Halverson]

Dropping a comment on this thread just for the purpose of keeping an eye on it. Looking forward to seeing what you do. Please post pics of the process all the way up to throwing arrows or a blow up!  Thanks, buddy!

[Mikkolaht]

You don't have to follow one single growth ring on the back. Just make sure you don't violate toomany growth rings in a small section. What I am trying to say is that if you are going to violate growth rings, spread it out a bit.
Some people like to thin out the sapwood, so they get bigger heartwood to sapwood ratio.

Yew is pretty forgiving.
 I made a 120lb at 30inches yew warbow last spring. I managed to saw a part of the mid bottomlimb to be half an inch thinner, making a dip in the taper of the limb. I just compensated it with more thickness in the belly and the bow is still shooting fine and the tiller is nice.





Cheers,