Yew Longbow Help

[bigcountry]

Ok, I am building a yew longbow.  I am trying to replicate the design in TBBvol1.  Its going to be 70" long 1" handle going up 4" to 1.25" fades and then down to 1/2" tips.  The handle is 4", and fades are both 4".  I assume this design is a semi working handle as handle is 1.25" thick, and fades are 1.25" by 1" thick.  I have rounded the belly all the way down.

Anyway, I have the bow profile finished.  I have thinned the sapwood 1/4".  Bow is close to being floor tillered.  Still very stiff.  

I tried to put a tiller string on.  And the bow wants to twist on my tiller tree.  Maybe, because my tree doesn't hold the handle well.

I guess the dumb question here is, should the thickness of my bow be less than my width of the back?   I was thinking now, I should start flattening the belly to finish off floor tiller.  I have only made flatbows, and this has never been a problem of the bow trying to twist.  

I figured when I get string nocks cut in and put a string on, this problem will go away.  I just wonder how the true ELB guys deal with this.

Here she is so far.

 

[bigcountry]

When I first started with this stave, I had a bandsaw incident and cut a little too much into the profile.  The Stave twisted on me.

   

So after rounding the belly and rasping the profile, I left alot of meat here where there is also a big ole knot to make matters worse.

   

I am worried if she twists sideway, it will break here as its thin and thick.

[Pluck Yew]

ttt...

Shawn..  

[John Scifres]

The ELBs I have made were always a bit thinner than they were wide.  3/4" thick or so with a 1" width would be a good guess.

I'd not worry about the twist.

That OOPS is a big one.  Be very careful there.

Good luck.  Have fun.

John

[bigcountry]

Originally posted by John Scifres:
The ELBs I have made were always a bit thinner than they were wide.  3/4" thick or so with a 1" width would be a good guess.

I'd not worry about the twist.

That OOPS is a big one.  Be very careful there.

Good luck.  Have fun.

John

I figured I am going to find out real soon how big of a deal that oops is.  Fortunetely, its stiff there now, so I can take more off the belly.  That picture of my bandsaw mishap is before I rasp the contour.  So it looks real bad there.

I thinned down the thickness and its about a 4:3 ratio.  1.25" wide and 1" thick, 3/4" wide, and 5/8" thick, etc.  

I am not sure what the dimentions are of a true ELB.  Are they round crosssection?  

John, would recommend I round off my sapwood edges?  Right now its fairly square.  Figured if I am going to do it, do it now before I put on the tiller stick/tree.

I really appreciate your advise.