Harvesting yew

[Oberon]

Greetings , I live in Oregon and have several yew trees  on my property two of them quite large.  Planning on harvesting at least two of them, would appreciate any advice on the process like splitting out the staves , like dimensions for long bows length and thickness  curing time and so forth.   Any information would be greatly appreciated.
  These trees are at about 1200 to 1300 foot elevation.

[Blacktail]

hey there...well,one thing you have to think about is that summer is right around the corner and with the hot weather coming you might get some cracking in the wood...with splitting you should chain saw is your best beat...you can hand split the wood but you get alot of tearing the wood...also,i would cut smaller trees with tighter ring growth..the choice is yours...for curing i would say 1yr..i just went to keenans house and used his band saw to cut some staves out.and when i got home (8hrs later)the wood had done some minor checking..and i had it cut and in half's for at least 6months...maybe you could find some vine maple for a faster way of getting into bow making..SO,where in Oregon do you live...Keenan is one of the main guys for yew wood info and if your interested in the vine maple then get some info form Gordon...i hope this helps...there will be others to help out all so...john

[cowboy]

I know nothing of yew or vine maple for that matter. Would love to see your harvesting and curing though - got pictures? I have plenty of osage, might work up a trade later on if your interested...

[juniper junkie]

if they are large trees then find the cleanest side, without knots, to use for the bows. I like to split mine so I can tell what the grain is doing, i have had some that looked straight and they corkscrewed when split. I would split into halves or quarters depending on the size and leave them longer than the size bow you intend to build, leave the bark on and  immediatley seal the ends about 4" up and put them in a cool dark place with good air circulation to cure. after about 6 months to a year you can split them down further, dont split too skinny as they will tend to warp. or  if you have access to a good saw and the trees are large, over 12" diameter, you could cut the staves into about 3" x3" bolts however long you need and stack them with space between  and lay them flat. you can cut the remaining heartwood into 1x2" boards to later cut down for laminations. or it wouild be much easier to just give them to me in the valley the wood dries slower than over here in central oregon, so you may not have as much trouble with checking. post some pics when you can.

[Oberon]

  Thanx for the reply's  guys I really appreciate it, I am going to harvest them in the next week, the smallest of the lot is 12"  in diameter and the largest is over 30".  There are three of them and I plan to harvest two of them and perchance a portion of the third. .  The two larger ones are double trunks
 There are also some very clean limbs on the larger that are 4 " to 6" in diameter ,would they be good to use as well? 
  I saw Keenan's bow of the month and it is outstanding.
 I live about 1 hour south of Eugene Oregon, run an artist blacksmith shop out here.

[Oberon]

  As for splitting the larger ones I am lucky my neighbor has a real nice band saw, a big one that can handle up to at least 36" in diameter.

[juniper junkie]

 the larger limbs are good. make sure to mark the up side of the limb, that will have the most tension. the inside of the split trunks should be the cleanest and probably lean away from each other, thus having tension on the inside. mark which side is uphill from the rest of the tree. the reason being, is that when you split them you need to be aware of what side has the most tension on it, it tends to pull away when split or cut, if you cut across the tension it will curve one way or the other and not make a reflex in the stave. watch for rot in the center portion of the large tree, they die from the inside ouit usually. also look for dark areas in the grain, these are called "windshake" and it occurs when the tree has been violently swayed during a storm and had the grain seperate. this can cause problems in your bow. you should get some good lumber out of that large treel if you want to trade some for some cured staves, let me know. I like making stuff from this wood, it is beautiful. I made a stock for my 50 cal muzzleloader and it looks awesome. it was a real pain though, would rather make bows

[Oberon]

 Yes JJ the largest of them does have some funky places in the trunk.  Thanx much for the sound advice.  Will have to take some notes on this so as to remember what to do.  From what I have read yews this large should be quite old, they do grow very slow correct?

[juniper junkie]

correct, they are slow growing trees. post some pics when you get some cut. would like to see how tight the rings are.

[Oberon]

JJ what do you like to seal the ends with?

[juniper junkie]

I use either wood glue or wax depending on how many I am working with at a time. if I have several to do I melt wax in a pan and dip them in it. if just one at a time I use wood glue.