Pacific Yew board

[Tom Leemans]

If you are worried about the sapwood, decrown it and back it with hickory or bamboo.

[Dauntless]

The splinter bow has been backed with cotton and is almost tillered out.  Should be a smooth 30-35# when done.

So I found some bamboo today at another lumber store. The 4" diameter poles were 45$ and the 2" poles were 9$. So I got a 8ft by 2½" pole with ¼" walls.



I split off 1½" and worked it flat to about 1/5 thick. I had a little extra splinter too so I tested the strength. The two tips almost touched before a splinter popped up.


This is my first real bamboo backed bow so I'm doing a straight glue up. There is still enough of the yew to make another one of these too.
The clamps are there because I didn't want to make a million wedges to tighten the twine.

[gmc]

This is some cool stuff, can't wait to see a bow here.

[aznboi3644]

A million wedges is part of the process...but there are shortcuts

[Dauntless]

Well the splinter bow just blew up in 4 neat chunks at 24"...  Turns out the grain was pretty twisted, 30 or so degrees from straight.  The break started just on the outside of the cotton backing.

Will the bamboo backed ones have a chance? 

[El Destructo]

Looks to me like there is air space under the Boo between the Bows back and the belly of the Boo...did you plane the Boo Flat on the Belly side?? Did you taper it to a thin edge on the sides of the Limbs? If the Boo is too thick...it will overpower the Yew and cause it to fail....