oregon pacific yew

[DustinDees]

I got this stick of pacific yew back when i was on all the time, around october i believe. they were going to cut down the tree and it looked terrible to a semi-newby like me but i couldnt let it go to waste. Feb i joined the Army and after all training is said and done here i am with a decently dried very knotty 30" piece of yew. i debarked it, split it and v spliced it, came out at 57" total. Took my heat gun to it yesterday and straightened it as much as i could and put tips on it today. From what you can see from the pictures should i try for a full 28" tiller (i draw 27 but i like a little buffer area) or should i go for more like 24" for my step-daughter? Also how long should i wait after heat bending it before the moisture is normal again. i dont want to have all this time put into not touching it without giving it the best chance of survival. Thank you in advance for any advice.

Dustin D.

[Del the cat]

That doesn't look too bad to me. Yew is very forgiving, I've doen some very 'bad' things to awful Yew just to see how far I could push it, see 'Mr Wobbly' on my website if you want to see a bad knot.
You can get to my Bowyers Blog from the website, and I did a short Yew primitive in June which is blogged up on there, which may be of interest, it has a good sequence of tillering pics. (or google 'Bowyers Diary')
It would be nice to see a side view so we can see how much heart/sap wood you have.
Del
(BTW, With a long sting, you still want it as short a s possible (E.G Just long enough to slip onto the stave.) Else you get a very false impression of poundage early on.

[DustinDees]

Here are the side and bottom view of the stave, sapwood seems to be 1/8" thick towards the handle and up to 1/4" at the tips. Any thoughts on how long i should wait to tiller after using dry heat on the stave? Thank you very much for the advice.

[Del the cat]

I never use dry heat, I use steam. I'm an impatient git and have made the mistake of stressing the wood too soon. So I'd say leave it at leat a good day for safety, but the dry heat guys will doubtless be able to give you a better answer.
Del

[walkabout]

depending on where you leave the stave and its relative humidity i would say at least a day. when i reflexed my hickory stave and aligned one tip i left it sit for a weekend before i started tillering it just to be safe. your splice looks very good by the way, thats one of the hardest things for me to do right now.lol

[DustinDees]

Thanks very much Del and Walkabout. Ill wait till after work tomorrow or next weekend to start to tiller. This is my second stave bow ever and i think 15ish total. Compared to hickory im really happy about how easy yew is to sand and file. im gonna have to try hard not to be a klutz and bang up the back. Thanks again.

Dustin D.

[Blacktail]

thats going to be a sweet stick...cant wait to see what happens...john

[walkabout]

you could always put a little bit of reflex into the tips too if you want to try to get it to a longer draw length thatll help with string angle. wouldnt need anything too drastic at all really. even if it goes to your stepdaughter im sure shell think the flipped tips are cool. im surprised you have a hard time with hickory, the little bit ive worked with it really hasnt seemed hard to sand or rasp at all. and is that a knot in the pic of the tip? i cant really tell but if so i would soak it in superglue for insurance. it might not be necessary but since murphy spoke that dreaded law i take all the insurance i can get.lol

[DustinDees]

Thank you all for the help and advice. First time building in darn near 7 months, i didnt want to rush the bow but thats exactly what i did. The yew came apart right at the splice, when i spliced it i drilled it from the side and glued in a small oak dowel. I believe the bow was too thin and the tension split it right above the dowel. i wanted to re-splice it but the bow was already 57" and i wasnt confident in my tillering skills enough to try loosing another 3-5 inches trying again. although not the standard of primitive I made a 3 piece take down. The riser added 3 inches after loosing about 1 total so my knock to knock is 59", 30# @ 27" the limbs are still self yew, 3 coats of tru-oil on the riser and the limbs. The riser is hickory and black walnut. Del no question yew is forgiving, the stuff is amazingly springy and easy to work.

Thanks for any comments or critiques,
Dustin D

[Del the cat]

Hey, that's a good 'save'.
It's got a nice chunky look to it, good to see that bit of Yew made it in the end.
Don't tell anyone Yew is easy to work, we've gotta keep some mystery .
Del

[Parnell]

Good save, for sure.  It's cool that you didn't give up on it.  Good to see you're back on here.

[elk country rp]

nice save!

[HatchA]

Great save indeed!  The self limbs are a good contrast to the smoothly finished riser!

[bigcountry]

These takedowns are amazing.

[Josh]

Nice way to keep it shooting.  You said the limbs are self backed yew right? Got it bookmarked for August Self Bow of the Month contest then.