Yew Longbow Project (need some advice)

[Weylin]

I'm starting a new bow with a 30 year old yew stave. I have it debarked and roughed out and am planning on reducing the sapwood down to 1/4" as it is 1/2" currently. There are a couple of knots that I'm not sure how to deal with when I reduce the sapwood. Please let me know what you think.

Here is the original stave:



And here are the knots after I've reduced the stave:

[Tortoise]

How did you obtain a yew stave?

[Weylin]

How did you obtain a yew stave?

This particular stave was cut by my dad 30 years ago in the california coastal range. He gave me a few to work with including a half made bow that needed some love. I live in Oregon so there is yew around, if you can find it. I have a couple other staves and billets that I got from somebody on craigslist who pruned their tree. So in the matter of a few months I went from having nothing to having 4-5 bows worth of yew for hardly any money. I can't complain. But, I'm not sure exactly what you were getting at with your question, were you looking for some advice on how to find a yew stave?

[Keenan]

Weylin, Most of that knot on the side will be removed when tillering. The other is hard to tell. Where is it in the stave? Mid limb  or towards the tip? Dead center or near the side? 
 From what I can see I think it will just be a nice character bump but you may need to be carefull with the sap reduction around that area.

[Weylin]

Thanks for the help Keenan. When I laid out the bow I had enough wiggle room to avoid one knot or the other. I chose the lesser of two evils because that big knot would have been right on the side of the bow whereas this little one is right in the middle, hopefully that will make it less dangerous. So to answer your question, that little knot is right in the middle of the limb and about 12" from the tip. So when I'm reducing the sapwood there do I feather it up to the knot? Obviously I don't want to cut into the knot to weaken it further but how much of an island of sap wood should I give it? The sap wood is 1/2" right now and I'm hoping to take off 1/4".