I cut some yew in norcal this october. I am in the dryer climate of Utah now. My question is when is it safe to debark the quartered staves and reduce them to near finished size? Most of the wood I have worked with you can make the bow green and then season it, but I know yew can have complications when the bark is removed and reduced too quickly. Thanks guys
Personally I'd leave the bark on as it's protecting what may well end up being the back of the finished bow, and it will also slow the drying. I'm a great believer in chopping a bow out a little and often (every month or sow reduce it a tad check for splits and do plenty of armchair bowyery in between), the less wood there is the less tension can develop.
Especially with staves which are half a log, the smaller radius groth rings set up more tension.
First Yew bow I made was from a log about 4"in diameter, one side was full of pins and big knots. I didn't risk splitting it, but chopped all the back half away and some of the sides until I'd exposed the centre of the log (or near it), some minor cracks opened near the centre line but didn't travel far into the timber...I nibbled away at it with and axe, until about a year down the line I had a decent stave ready to start serious work and nicely seasoned.
Del
