Cleaving yew, what's the best way?

[stuckinthemud]

Evening all.  I have been able to harvest a 6' yew stem.  For most of the length it's pretty straight, but every now and then there's a hefty side branch.  The stem is 8" wide at the base, 6" across at the top.  It would be nice to get 3 staves but 2 is more realistic.  When I split yew I find that occasionally a large knot can divert the split with bad outcomes.  I don't have a band saw.  Any advice on how to make sure a split goes where you want it to go?

[Muskyman]

I know that some saw it. I’ve never had a log so I don’t know how hard that would be. Maybe you could kerf it with a circular saw and get it to split straighter for you. It’s a good question, looking forward to what the answer will be.
Good luck with it, hope it works out for you.

[Hamish]

Can you post some photos of your log?

Never split a yew log myself, as it doesn't grow locally to me. Every stave I have bought was bandsawn. I have broken down quarters into 2 longbow staves, and have used the bandsaw for that. The wood that I had was straight grained, and any major knots were not going to interfere with layout.

If the stave has a lot of character, I'd probably split it with wedges to ensure the grain is followed.

As you don't have a bandsaw, Musky's kerfing method will do good, providing you can  layout your staves around the knots.

An 8" dia log  depending on how clean it is should yield a lot more than 3 staves, especially if you make Elb's..

[superdav95]

any yew that ive put to the bandsaw was first split to follow its grain run.  I only used the bandsaw to remove excess material.  I still find the saw is good to clean up the stave and cut out side knots and unwanted humps and such while following a rough grain line. Sometimes side knots and pin knots are unavoidable.  Ive had good luck with working with them and allow for a little wood giving room around the knots.  Yew is pretty darn forgiving and thus good at being straight kerf cut into staves.   if hoping to get more staves out of the wider log chunk, you could perhaps remove the bark and check out the grain and draw a line down the stave following the grain visually.  this may give you more staves out of the piece maybe.   You may be fine to just kerf a straight line and split it into 3 staves.  If it was me I would likely go for the 2 staves keeping them plenty wide to account for variations in grain run and any issues that may arise on the edges of the wood to then have the room width to work with.   

[Wallski]

I started out splitting my yew logs and untwisting my staves but gave up, after hearing Del say, it didn’t make any difference, so I’ve been kerfing all my logs for years since.

[Del the cat]

I'd use a bandsaw.
It does split well, BUT with big side branches the split could go wrong and ruin the whole log.
Another alternative is to cut across the log to say 1/3 or 1/2 the depth at regular intervals (say every foot) all down the bad side where the branches are. These sections will split out individually with relatively low risk of ruining the log.
To ease the process, beer may be necessary as a lubricant 
Del

[Hawkdancer]

I need more lubricant!  Started to shape stave with farriers rasp and Shinto tool!  Hope to get back to work on it this week!  Stave is sawn off round, but appears fairly knot free!
 Hawkdancer