yew longbow--need tiller help, this one's crazy: FULL DRAW ADDED

[Keenan]

  Radius, Ive worked quite a bit of yew with seriuos reflex and it can be a pain, However what I have found works fairly well is to clap it in tight on a tillering tree and just work the limbs real ggod with a long string so the settle in a little if it's real tight grained you might need to put it on a cull and tame it a little with some heat then go with a normal string length for the bow as soon a you can gett it bending to just past normal brace on the long string.
  Looks like some yew.

[Del the cat]

Maybe it's just slipping the bowyers knot too, I always make up continuous loop strings, no chance of slippage.
Ok, I know string making is a pain.... but you just gotta tame that sucker. It should have a great cast once you get it pointing the right way!
Del

[radius]

steamed it.  After it was in the steamer for awhile, i tried just kinking it by hand and it went, no problem.  But i tied it into shape while it cooled, just to be safe.












in this pic, it's at the top



So...it's pretty much straight now...a week or two and i'll get back to it.

[Del the cat]

I've not steamed Yew, sounds like it takes it well.
My stave is a bit deflexed and it will be for a guy who only draws 27", maybe I'll steam it straight to help keep the cast/bracing weight up.
It's still not fully seasoned (I've just roughed it out) so maybe now is a good time to tweak it.
Look forward to seeing that bad boy of yours at full draw (35"?  )
Del

[dwardo]

This looks like a right battle, man vrs yew 

I have only made one yew longbow which was from an awfull looking branch. It lasted over a year with a bad tiller and only blew due to my stupidity. Still have pics somewhere..
I had to steam out several big kinks and problems but it just loved the steam, almost became like rubber
I miss that bow 

[George Tsoukalas]

Boy am I confused. LOL. Bow strung backwards, 9 inch brace height. Oh well. Reflexed bows twisting is pretty common and can be fixed w/o heat. Jawge

[George Tsoukalas]

...steaming out a reflex. That's ok don't even try to explain. Jawge

[coyote pup]

If it still went backwards after shortening the string, it sounds like the string was stretching or a knot was slipping. But at least it's fixed now that the steam took some of the sass out of it.

[radius]

today i strung it.  Now it comes even to the back of the bow, but twists to the side.  Argh.  So i steamed it again and bent it another way.  We'll see...this could be a great bow...just gotta bring it into line.

[radius]

finished it back then, never posted full draw...

here's one with Mar pulling it.



Another one with Mar pulling a little hickory/osage bow i made last year.




me and Mar

[Mar]

Good times. That little guy is pretty snappy.

[VenomBOWslinger]

Good Stuff guys...lol

[Josh]

hmm... I was wondering whatever fate had befallen this bow...  Nice tiller Scott!  Glad you finally got that reflex problem cured.     -josh

[radius]

hmm... I was wondering whatever fate had befallen this bow...  Nice tiller Scott!  Glad you finally got that reflex problem cured.     -josh

well thanks Josh!  Nice to know people care!  haha

the center of this bow is a big lump where the hand sits very comfortably but which was the center of the kink.  Steaming it and kinking it is easy to do, and solved the problem easily.

let's see if i can't put up a couple more pics of this one...

[radius]