Primitive Archer

Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: leonwood on April 01, 2019, 04:32:06 am

Title: Fumed yew
Post by: leonwood on April 01, 2019, 04:32:06 am
The stave this bow is made from was a gift from my good friend Erik from Pinaka Longbows. He has tons of good bow wood and makes a habit of giving me the "marginal" pieces. You don't hear me complain;-)
This stave was very straight and only has some pin knots. The only drawback was huge rings and about 1.5 inch of sapwood. The sap rings where so big I could chase them easily with only my drawknife, no scraper needed. Left only two sapwood rings on the finished bow.

I wanted a simple, little lighter weight bow for the upcoming 3d season and decided to make a simple flat bow with flipped tips just for looks and smooth draw.
Tillered the bow to brace and after that boiled the tips and set them with dry heat. There is still some minor twist in the limbs but not enough to bother heating it out.

Added horn tip overlays and arrow pass and started shooting it in. Had to tweak the tiller a bit after 200 arrows or so and called it done.
The handle was just a little to thin but I did not want to flatten it (and thin it even more) to glue on a piece of wood so I build it up with cork and sanded that into shape.

The bow came out very clean looking (read boring to me) so I decided to try to fume it. Had it in the fume pipe for about a week and it came out almost green looking! Luckily this changed to a darker brown after another week of drying. I really like that the fuming did not affect the sapwood. I added some extra stain at the fades and the tips and wrapped the handle with 2 different pieces of leather.
Been shooting it for two months already and the profile did not change at all. Now I know there is some debate over small vs. big rings in yew but I can tell you this bow shoots like a dream and has almost no set. So I will take the big ringed lowland yew any time;-)

Specs:
Wood: yew
Length : 64 n.t.n.
Max width: 1.2 inch
Draw weight: 48@28
Nocks+arrowpass: buffalo horn
String: 8 strand fastflight
Handle: leather wrap


Details
(https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7873/32552579757_c2c61472e8_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/RAytR8)

(https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7877/32552579657_e702a0c31b_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/RAytPp)

(https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7844/32552579777_0b8350416f_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/RAytRt)

(https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7811/47494717411_bff2611e2f_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2fmWQN8)

(https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7907/47441728972_1533c93dcf_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2fhggbm)

(https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7829/46579279815_8be2a6830b_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2dY3Z6i)


Profiles
(https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7822/40528601113_c58a182a01_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/24KnF7H)

(https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7895/32552579767_f5310eca2d_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/RAytRi)

(https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7811/32552579787_cf83155e59_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/RAytRD)

(https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7894/40528601093_8d94328fe8_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/24KnF7n)

(https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7863/47441728862_58e57bc1bf_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2fhgg9s)

(https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7858/40528601233_7230304fb1_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/24KnF9M)


Braced

(https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7811/32552579797_6d1e45a523_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/RAytRP)

(https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7880/47441729002_c37302948c_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2fhggbS)

(https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7866/32552579707_e7dd9e7673_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/RAytQg)


FD
(https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7829/32570866327_0450b66b3b_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/RCbcNP)

Title: Re: Fumed yew
Post by: bushboy on April 01, 2019, 04:46:41 am
Very nice in every way!
Title: Re: Fumed yew
Post by: upstatenybowyer on April 01, 2019, 05:12:43 am
That turned out very nice. I love the way your fades look, very graceful. How long did you fume the yew for?
Title: Re: Fumed yew
Post by: Pat B on April 01, 2019, 05:15:04 am
The fuming sure gives that yew a rich color. Very nice bow all around.   :OK
Title: Re: Fumed yew
Post by: rps3 on April 01, 2019, 05:37:44 am
Mighty fine.
Title: Re: Fumed yew
Post by: Del the cat on April 01, 2019, 06:15:35 am
Gorgeous bow...
Marginal  :o  ::) ... You guys have a funny idea of marginal  (lol)
Del
Title: Re: Fumed yew
Post by: High-Desert on April 01, 2019, 07:15:04 am
That’s a really awesome look. Never seen fumed yew before. It gives the yew an aged look. Great job on another beauty.
Title: Re: Fumed yew
Post by: DC on April 01, 2019, 07:43:10 am
Great bow Leon!
Title: Re: Fumed yew
Post by: Bayou Ben on April 01, 2019, 08:56:37 am
Awesome bow!  I really like the sleek lines on the fades.  All around beauty  :OK
Title: Re: Fumed yew
Post by: hoosierf on April 01, 2019, 08:58:05 am
Awesome. You guys are amazing. There are about 25 of you that have to be the best in the world. So cool to see and be inspired by your work.
Title: Re: Fumed yew
Post by: Hawkdancer on April 01, 2019, 09:50:38 am
Very nice!  I like the shading/color!
Hawkdancer
Title: Re: Fumed yew
Post by: Stixnstones on April 01, 2019, 02:14:12 pm
Just way too frickin cool... love everything about it, great work
Title: Re: Fumed yew
Post by: bjrogg on April 01, 2019, 06:33:04 pm
Well it sure isn't boring anymore Leonwood. That fuming really worked nice on that yew. It looks like a really fine shooter to.
Bjrogg
Title: Re: Fumed yew
Post by: Dante_F on April 01, 2019, 06:38:03 pm
 (A) (A) (A) that looks really awesome, if look very closely do i see a hollow limb there? maybe its just me
Title: Re: Fumed yew
Post by: leonwood on April 02, 2019, 02:10:47 am
Thanks for all the great comments guys!

That turned out very nice. I love the way your fades look, very graceful. How long did you fume the yew for?
It was in the fume pipe for about a week, scared the crap out of me when I took it out because it was as green as a frog... Luckily that faded after a few days ;D


Gorgeous bow...
Marginal  :o  ::) ... You guys have a funny idea of marginal  (lol)
Del
Yeah I feel the same way, he is just too lazy to take off all the sapwood because he has so many really good staves.


(A) (A) (A) that looks really awesome, if look very closely do i see a hollow limb there? maybe its just me
Well spotted ;D  I do this with all my flat bows now, not really HLD but jus following the crown shape on the back. I like the look of it and my curved scrapers just work so nice (lol)
Title: Re: Fumed yew
Post by: simson on April 02, 2019, 04:43:30 am
Great bow again, Leon!
I like this uggly frog.
Did you use osage soup or tanin additional?
Title: Re: Fumed yew
Post by: leonwood on April 02, 2019, 07:01:07 am
Great bow again, Leon!
I like this uggly frog.
Did you use osage soup or tanin additional?

I used the osage soup for the darker parts, works great!
Finishing up a hawthorn bow which I completely stained with the osage soup. Osage leftovers really makes awesome stain!
Title: Re: Fumed yew
Post by: DC on April 02, 2019, 08:22:30 am
When I first tried fuming I put  some various pieces of wood in the bag. When the yew turned that awful"wood preservative" green I just threw it away. I should have stuck with it.
Title: Re: Fumed yew
Post by: leonwood on April 03, 2019, 04:31:51 am
When I first tried fuming I put  some various pieces of wood in the bag. When the yew turned that awful"wood preservative" green I just threw it away. I should have stuck with it.

Yeah I noticed with both fumed yew and black locust that the green slowly dissolves in a week or two. Looks like it is only green when still wet from the fuming or it reacts when exposed to uv or something
Title: Re: Fumed yew
Post by: SLIMBOB on April 03, 2019, 07:58:09 am
Nice work sir!
Title: Re: Fumed yew
Post by: backtowood B2W on April 03, 2019, 12:50:38 pm
Very nice bow!!
I have a bow where the lower is dogleged and with a higher crown. It didn't start to bend and I was concerned it's going to be very thin. I decided to hollow it out and followed the crown. Voila!
Until now I just made good experiences with hollow limbs.
How does your scraper look like?
I use a long piece spring steel bend and taped together forming a U. Works pretty good and fast.
Cheers
B2W
Title: Re: Fumed yew
Post by: leonwood on April 04, 2019, 04:44:42 am
Very nice bow!!
I have a bow where the lower is dogleged and with a higher crown. It didn't start to bend and I was concerned it's going to be very thin. I decided to hollow it out and followed the crown. Voila!
Until now I just made good experiences with hollow limbs.
How does your scraper look like?
I use a long piece spring steel bend and taped together forming a U. Works pretty good and fast.
Cheers
B2W

Thanks! I did the same thing with a hawthorn bow I just finished, it has some areas with real high crown which I hollowed out and some flatter areas with knots. Basically getting even limb thickness so I don't have to narrow the high crown parts.

I made my rounded scrapers from old thick rectangle cabinet scrapers. Rounded off the ends to different radiuses. Have about 6 different ones now but they are easy to change for a different radius if needed. I find that even with a very shallow curve it really gives me a lot of control and feel and still hogs wood pretty fast
Title: Re: Fumed yew
Post by: Catkinson on May 02, 2019, 11:12:04 am
Beautiful
Title: Re: Fumed yew
Post by: Pinaka longbows on May 02, 2019, 11:34:27 am

Gorgeous bow...
Marginal  :o  ::) ... You guys have a funny idea of marginal  (lol)
Del
Yeah I feel the same way, he is just too lazy to take off all the sapwood because he has so many really good staves.

Who you´re calling lazy... at any given time 4 projects to work on. :BB. just haven´t got all the free time you have   (SH) ;D ;D
But glad that these staves usually are turned into great bows.
Title: Re: Fumed yew
Post by: globalmark on May 02, 2019, 11:46:47 am
Beautiful Bow
couple questions ???
 can someone explain what FUMED is ?? - i presume its letting fumes get to it ? or smoking but really this is the first i have heard so would be great to know how its done ?
I presume Fuming would also work for anything make with wood - a way to change colour without dye's ??

what are the benefits of fuming over dye or light burning or other methods of changing the wood colour ?
thanks Mark



Title: Re: Fumed yew
Post by: Markus on May 02, 2019, 12:00:59 pm
Goodlooking piece for sure.
Title: Re: Fumed yew
Post by: leonwood on May 03, 2019, 04:45:42 am
can someone explain what FUMED is ?? - i presume its letting fumes get to it ? or smoking but really this is the first i have heard so would be great to know how its done ?
I presume Fuming would also work for anything make with wood - a way to change colour without dye's??

With fuming you place your finished bow in a sealed bag or container with a cup of ammonia. The vapour will react with the tannins in the wood and make it darker. Will only work if there are enough tannins in the wood

what are the benefits of fuming over dye or light burning or other methods of changing the wood colour?

No real benefits really. Although it is easier to get an equal stain because you do not have to brush it on. It does go into the wood a bit too so a little sanding does not immediately remove it.
If you want a specific color staining will be better of course.