Yew Heartwood - unbacked

[ravenbeak]

This little bow was an experimentation in pushing the limits of unbacked yew heartwood,   

 It is tiny by my standards,  50" nock to nock,  with a non bending handle.  It pulls 47 lbs at 26 inches.   


It is a piggy back stave,  and when it split,  it seperated on a single year.  So the grain violations are very minimal.   The grain is quite tight, no knots,  and i polished the back to a babies bumb,  with 1000 grit and my new palm sander. 

Jamie

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[adb]

Hey, Jamie

Very nice!!

[DanaM]

Thats got some serious bend going on, well done.

[JW_Halverson]

And it hasn't blown yet???  Fan-flippin'-tastic! I wouldn't try that with hickory, much less yew...as if I have any yew wandering around the Black Hills waiting to be snatched up.  By the way, I have the exact same metal WorkMate bench in my garage, handy ain't it?

[OldBow]

Your're the yew man this month. Quite the bend for yew or any other wood. We'll look at again for Sept Self BOM.

[Bowbound]

  That is one bow, Does it stack much?

A lot of abuse for a bow like that!

[YewArcher]

Yew heart wood unbacked is not unheard of. In fact it was quite common. Some west coast indian tribes did it as well as allot of ancient europnean cultures. Some followed a ring some had allot of violation. The meare heath, some holmegaards were of yew heart wood unbacked. Yew can take allot of growth ring violatins, more then any other wood.

JV, you would be way better of with violations on a yew bow then hickory, yew can take it.

Jamie, thats a nice lookin bow. How much set has it taken.

Steve

[cracker]

I like it.Ronnie

[JackCrafty]

wow   

[Hillbilly]

Sweet little bow-looks great.

[ravenbeak]

Thanks guys,   I've taken quite a liking to it too.

yew archer,   the unbraced pic shows how much set it's taken.  I'm not exactly sure how set is measured,  is it in relation to the tips and the back of the handle?

I read about the old warbows being unbacked with ring violations, and was curious to test it out.  I thought pulling a bow half it's length would be a good test for strength,  that added with the rigid handle. It sure must be stressed.   Which just adds confidence to longer bows.

I think it is stacking,  hard to say.  My shoulder isn't super strong and I'm not pulling it as far as on the stick.

[YewArcher]

It is measured from the Back of the handel (meaning the front of the handel that poits away from you) to the tips. If you place it back down on a table you can measure it from the table to the tip. i was curious as I find that all heart wood yew bows seem to take more set.

Ya, I would not be suprised if some f the war bows had violations. yew holds together real well. I alwys chase a ring in it and end up with a back that is about 90% on one ring. Even that is unnessecary but I do not like the looks of ring violations so do it mainly for asthetics and because I thinks its just a good reassurance.

You have lallot of yew. Thats a great place to live for making yew bows.


Steve

[Marc St Louis]

Nice bow.  I wonder if a similar bow with sapwood on would have come out better?

[ravenbeak]

Marc,   I have the outside half of the piggy bag stave with sapwood heartwood,  I am in the processing of coaxing it into a bow as well,  as I am curious to see performance similarities or differences.

thanks for the input yew archer,  It sure is tough to chase a ring when you are in the 40+ per inch range,  I respect you are able to do it,  I was lucky this one split along the one year.   and yes,  this is a land of yew plenty.  Once i started to spot them I now see them everywhere.   where abouts are you located?

Jamie

[Pappy]

Man you are turning them out ,nice job Jamie.
   Pappy