Twisty Lams

[Flem]

Everybody's heard of twisty staves, how about twisted lams? I have some Yew logs that are too small or twisted for self-bows, but it's Yew wood and I cannot trash or burn any of it. Yew is too rare and special to waste, so they have been sitting in my shop for many years. The other day I had the idea to slice them up for lams. It was not easy following the grain on the bandsaw, I made it squeal. After the first cut, I decided to decrown the log so i could see to follow the curve easier. Still not easy, but I got it done. Sanding was another challenge, but I finally got them to dimension. Still a little twist left, but it flattens out with no pressure. I plan on book matching the twists to hopefully even out any stress in the wood.

[BrushWolf]

I made a recurve with some zebrawood veneers once. The board a a twist to it before I sawed the lams. The limbs turned out to be twisted so bad I had to make a new set.  I ground them to .030 figuring it be just fine. Hopefully they work out for you.

[BMorv]

That's cool.  I thought about doing the same thing with a couple of smaller limbs but never tried it yet.  If you add reflex/deflex I doubt that amount of twist will make a difference.