Small Yew Stave - Any Advice?

[JemwithaJ]

Hello All!

This is my my first post on Primitive Archer.
I would really value some advice on what I could make (If anything) with this small Yew stave I have. It was chopped in the north of England about two years ago and has been drying since. It is only 59 inches long.








I started trimming with the spoke shave today, removing the bark and thinning out the limbs a bit. There is a twist at the end of one of the limbs that I am not sure how to manage.





Also a few cracks on one of the tips.


Does anyone have any good ideas of where to go from here? I am thinking perhaps a viking style short bow.

Any ideas very much appreciated this will be my second bow (first one without expert oversight!).

[Hamish]

I have made nice little flatbows, with a stiff handles drawing 40-45lbs at 26", from similar staves. Limbs were about 1and 3/8"-1.5" wide.

You could eek out a longer draw with a bow that bends through the handle.

Your stave is quite deflexed. I would build a form to allow you to straighten the stave, with heat, or put in an 1" or 2 in reflex.
The first step would be rough out the bow, until its floor tillered. This will make any heat corrections easier to do.

I would also let your stave re hydrate after heat bending, for at least a week(no bending). Yew gets brittle in tension if dried out too much.

That being said yew is magical stuff, compared to other woods. So light in the hand, yet so springy, with cast.

There are plenty of things you could do with your stave, like recurve, and or sinew back it, but it depends on your goal and current skill level, and how much time you are prepared to invest in it.

As this is your second bow, take it slow, don't rush and you should come out the other side with a lovely bow.

[superdav95]

Great advice from hamish!  I agree with working it down a bit to floor tiller at least then reassess things from there as to heat corrections or steam.  Lately I’ve been using more steam bending and heat corrections on my yew builds.  Little safer and less potential for overheating belly wood.  Yew is indeed magical stuff.  Just don’t overheat it and try to avoid heat correcting same area more then once if making corrections.  If you sapwood is questionable these yew bows take well to sinew.  I e done a number of them now it’s a great combo.  Even using tb3 with sinew as your glue works quite well too.  Lots of help here when you get after it.  Post lots of pics and ask lots of questions when you need.  A lot of good experience from the members here.  Del has his own YouTube channel too that’s great reference for yew builds.  Keep us posted.