Sapwood on Yew

[wildcat hunter]

In the "boyers bible" John Strunk says to leave the sapwood alone on a Yew stave. I stave I have has a bit over a quarter inch on sapwood. Thats a lot of useless stuff on there. I Need some guidance.

[Bowjunkie]

It's not useless. You can leave it and make the bow as is, or thin the sapwood if you wish. I've chased a single, very thin yew ring for the back of a selfbow, so I know it can be done, but you've got to use a really light touch.

Others have thinned them without bothering to follow a single ring, violating many in the process, and then backed them with rawhide... others even let them go unbacked and never had them lift a splinter.

How many rings per inch in this stave?

[wildcat hunter]

You must be kidding. Its 1" overall, with 3/4" of wood. There are 30-35 rings in 3/4". So tight except for 3 rings halfway down, pertty wide. But the rest are so small and close I can't get a good count.

[wildcat hunter]

pretty, e&r are side by side - honestly, I do know how to spell.

[Blkbird]

[Pat B]

I've made a few yew bows and had to reduce the sapwood some. I was told I didn't need to chase one ring because yew could handle it. One bow I madse is a warbow that weighed 95#@30", one is 47#@26". Both have violated back rings and both are still shooting fine.
  The sapwood on yew is the perfect backing for the heartwood.

[Stiks-n-Strings]

wildcat I just built a little short yew bow that turned out great. Won BOM with it on PA matter of fact.

 Anyways, It was over 2/3 sap wood and very little heart wood once it was finished. I figured it would be doggy and slow and take A LOT of set.

 It did take plenty of set but the bow was only 47.5" tip to tip. and 46" ntn and draws 54# @ 23"

 Here's a link to the short yew bow.

  http://tradgang.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=125;t=006977#000000

[wildcat hunter]

MY gorsh, thats short - The skins look great too. My stave is 70" but there is a split so it may end up at 66-68". I never saw a close grain before, yew must grow slow. If I have 30 rings in 3/4 inch a 3 inch tree has to be 100 years old! And I thought Ironwood grew slow!

[Stiks-n-Strings]

The higher elevation that yew grows in the slower and tighter the rings. From what I gather this is what you want.

 Sounds like you got a good stave to make a good one. Yew responds real well to heat bending so you maybe could flip some tips, heat in some reflex, Heat treat the belly etc.

 I love working with yew! Have fun with her and take it slow.

[IdahoCurt]

What length and weight is your bow going to be? that's how I determine how much sap wood to take off of Yew.

[George Tsoukalas]

That's a good amount of sapwood, wh. Sapwood is the perfect backing for the yew heartwood. Not useless at all. Jawge

[wildcat hunter]

A friend gave me the Yew and some Osage staves. He is not in good health (in his late 70's and cannot work the wood himself. He also gave me the 3 bowyer bibles set. He wants me to make some bows from his staves so I gladley accepted the challenge. I guess I will ask him to help out with the Yew too, he built bows years ago. Thanks for your input and I'll keep you posted. Any other suggestions would be useful and appreciated.

[coaster500]

60" 41@27 sweet shooter (this bow was built by someone else not me)....

Here's some picks of the limb profile... at the riser, mid limb there is a knot so the sapwood is thicker and the tips...  The thickness varies and this bow is a tack driver?

 
 
 

[wildcat hunter]

Interesting pics!

[John Scifres]

From an looks standpoint, I like about 1/4 of the thickness to be sapwood.  On thin ringed stuff, I have never had a problem with simply thinning it based on looks alone and then rawhide backing it.  This helps keep the soft sapwood from dinging up too bad also.

[coaster500]

If all you have is 1/4 inch I'd work with to end up with a bow back like this. A la Natural  

This is the knot area in the above side view...

 

[Keenan]

1/4" of sapwood is exactly what I strive for . It's perfect and the sapwood in NOT worthless. It's the toughest and best tension wood that there is. You would be doing an injustice to scrape off the sap. Trust me I work allot of yew and know what I'm talking about.

[wildcat hunter]

Thanks guys, its staying on. From the looks of the pics the Yew wood is very strong and dosn't need much in thickness to make a bow limb work. So I will be starting the bow right after deer season is over ( 1 more week ). I'll keep the sapwood and work it from there. Thanks again

[blacktailchaser]

i would do what keenan said...and your choice of leave the sap wood on is good...1/4 you cant beat that in fact its perfect...i cant believe that blackbird remebered the phrase i said about chasing sap wood rings...i have 2 bows that i did with 1/4 sap and high elevtion and the limbs are thinner than the ones in the pics...one is 54 pounds and the other is 60....even pat b bows are a true testimony to the yew...john

[wildcat hunter]

I tried to tiller the Yew but the belly wood was getting thinner and thinner ( about 1/8-" at one end ) so I cut the sapwood down to about 1/8" to 1/4" it varies. I got it to tiller really well, wish I had a digital camera - I want to show a picture of it but I'm very happy with it. Its 70" and pulls about 55 at 30".
To thin the sapwood I bolted a board to the fence of the table saw, then lowered the blade and raised it so it cut into the wooden fence. That way I was able to trim some sapwood from the back a bit at a time without taking too much off in one bite. Worked great!