Let's talk about Yew

[StanM]

Today I final split some staves and some billets out of an old Yew log that a friend gave me some time ago.

I took the worst of the staves and began working it today.  I have some questions though.

1.  Do the rules for working down to one growth ring on the back apply to Yew as it does to Osage?

2.  The side of the log that I split out as the "bad" side had a number of checks running longitudinally down the stave.  These do not go through to the heartwood.  Is this an issue that I should be concerned with?

3.  The sapwood on this stave is rather thick, from 1/2" to nearly 3/4" in places.  In TBB 1, John Strunk recommends not working down the sapwood to a certain thickness, but rather leaving it as is.  If I do this I'm going to have no heartwood in the bow for the final foot, foot and half.  Because the sapwood is so thick should I work it down?  And if so, to what thickness?

Thanks for the help.  I'm pretty sure that I'm going to break this thing, so I need a good excuse      

Stan

[the Ferret]

1) no.... on good yew there will be 150 growth rings per inch in the sapwood..all white. Good luck. I almost did it once.

2) not sure on this one, never worked yew with checks in it before. If they are drying checks like osage I don't think I'd worry much about them unless they run off the edge.

3) Leave about 3/8" sapwood evenly across the back.

[BryanB]

Stan-
Good to see you working on some yew.  I was just trimming up a bunch of yew in to 2x2 staves and billets this afternoon.  I had a good haul last summer and I think I'll end up with about 15.

Strunk certainly knows his bow making, and under ideal growing conditions the sap wood is very thin.  I have a yew bow that is about 90/10 sap to heart wood.  It shoots just fine and there really isn't much difference.

I have a few pieces with 1/2-3/4" sap wood and I plan on thinning to 1/4".  I know several who have done this and it works very well.  There is no need to thin to one ring on the back.  I'm not even sure you could if you wanted to.  

If your worried after thinning you can back it with rawhide or sturgeon skins.

Splitting check aren't unusual with yew and you can usually lay out your bow around them.  Once you have your bow down to floor tiller dimensions you can fill with super glue if you are worried.

Good luck,
Bryan

[Terry Riley]

Stan,
    On the bows that I've made including one under John's instruction, I've taken the back down to a single growth ring thinning the sapwood to 1/4-3/8". It's a tedious job but it's not hard to do. Jim Fetrow has simply used a plane to thin to uniform dimension on several of his bows and never had any problems. John recommends simply removing the bark for those attempting their first Yew bow and told me that he has made bows that were nearly all sapwood on the last 1/3 of the limb length without any problems. John also claims that minor violations in the growth ring are generally not a problem. As Brian has suggested, if in doubt, you can back it with rawhide or sturgeon. Gordon recently showed me some silk backing that he uses that is easier yet to apply and would also work well. I'd thin it down.

Terry

[StanM]

Mickey, Bryan and Terry,

Thanks a bunch!  Man I love this place    

Probably won't make a lot of headway tomorrow on Easter, but I should be back at it next weekend.

Bryan and Terry, are you guys heading over to Gordon's on the 21st?  I'm hoping to make it.

Stan

[Ted Fry]

Stan , In the case of the longitudal cracks, it is best to get them out as you are thinning the sap wood , you do not need to thin the sap to one growth ring. Matter of fact I have a yew bow in my collection made by Will Compton that has thicker sap on one side as he used the thinning of the sap uneven to take out some propeler . The sap is 1/4" on one side and 3/8" on the other, reversed on the other end.
If you do have a few cracks left hit them with a good Cyanoacrylate as they may continue with time.
I usually preffer to thin to between 1/4" to 3/8" as Mickey said  and have thinned more if I was running out of heart wood ratio of 2/3 rd heart 1/3 sap

[Terry Riley]

Stan,
     I'll be there on the 21st. Hope you can make it.

Terry