Yea wood longbow help

[Mafort]

So I’m attempting to make a bow out of yew for the first time and wanting to do an English style warbow. I have a thread in the warbow section but no one’s replied at all. 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

[Mikkolaht]

Hey, I replied to your post in the warbow section. I am by no means expert bow maker, but if you have questions I can try to answer them to the best of my ability in the warbow section.

Cheers,

[Mafort]

Hey, I replied to your post in the warbow section. I am by no means expert bow maker, but if you have questions I can try to answer them to the best of my ability in the warbow section.

Cheers,

I appreciate that. My main question is when making a warbow, do you need to thin out the sapwood and does it need to be a single ring like other bows?

[Hamish]

You are less likely to need to thin your yew sapwood on a warbow, because its dimensions are larger than a regular weight bow.
It comes down to what you are dealing with on the stave you are working.

At 1/2" you can thin the sapwood, to 1/4"- 5/16". Unless y0u are dealing with low ring count yew, I wouldn't bother to slavishly one ring. Yew doesn't need it, and Medieval/Renaissance bowyers didn't bother follow one ring with yew either. IThat being said, you still need to follow the natural run of the grain.

[Mikkolaht]

My experiences with yew:

You can go for 2:1 or even 1:1 heartwood:sapwood ratio.

Going for single ring is nice to have but not mandatory. You can leave extra growth rings around knots. The tighter the growth rings the less it seems to matter if you violate the rings. Also yew varies alot. From my experience Finnish yew tends to be brittle, snaps like a match when you bend a test piece too much. Of course there are exeptions. Good yew tends to be very elastic. When you take a test piece and bend it, it just keeps on bending and not snapping, that is a good sign in my opinion.

The heavier the wood the better.(assuming its dry)

Also if you violate growth rings, spread it out. For example do not violate like 10 rings inside of one inch. And the wider the bow the more forgiving it is.

If you find any dead branches inside the stave, dig them out with a screwdriver and you can fill the holes with epoxy+yew dust mix. Or even just leave them be if it is not in a critical location.

In summary the things that come to my mind which affect the degree you can violate the rings:

-elasticity of the wood
-how tight are the growth rings
-how many knots there are
-weight of the wood
-width of the bow

[Del the cat]

What they said!
Following a ring isn't necessary. Sapwood is often thinned to about 3/16".
Plenty of warbow build-alongs on my youtube channel, here's a link my latest warbow playlist. It's a challenging stave which should answer some of your questions:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJvkD1ib4YI&list=PLBz2tD9476KTaf_X7Em-n2t7jv4i1kCqm
Del