Thanks for the good words guys.
Adam: About Pip, yes, i emailed him and told him i was coming to england for seven weeks and asked him to give me a week's work at his shop. Showed him a couple pics, my son's yew longbow and the yew recurve for my father in law. He said they were "interesting". That's all he said. Haha. Asked me about obtaining warbow-capable pieces of yew. He gave some very strong opinions about yew, which i would like to share.
According to Pip Bickerstaffe,
1. 15 to 20 rings per inch is all you want: too many means the wood had insufficient nutrients and will not hold up.
2. wood density is the best measure of its usefulness as bow wood.
3. warbows, even of the best materials, become "shot out" within a month of hard use
4. it's more common to find firewood than bow wood in a yew tree.
He did not offer me a job at all. But maybe...my wife's gonna be working still when i get there, so i'm gonna have lots of play time.
Pip said, "I have made over 15 000 bows, and i'm starting to understand what wood can do."
gotcha
Bushbow:
i like that bow you made, the yew stiff-handle bows i've made have all taken too much set.
