cut some yew today

[danny f]

hi there, thought id post a few pics of some yew that i cut today. there are slight bends in them but im hoping i can get a couple of decent staves from them. im a relative newbie to bow making but enjoy working with wood. just wondering what you guys think of these pieces and do they look ok for bow making. just wondering if the smaller diameter piece has enough heart wood. its gona be a long wait until they're dry enough to work with . but i am looking forward to it. heres the pics thanks danny.

[Weylin]

It's too late for the bigger one but you should definitely leave the bark on the smaller one. the sap wood will crack as it dries without the bark to slow down the drying process. (don't ask me how I know this... ) I would slather the larger one in shellac as soon as you can to help counteract the checking. What are the diameters of the logs? and how thick is the sap wood?

[danny f]

ooops i have debarked the smaller one too, i thought this had to be done. the diameter of the larger one is 5" with an average of about 10mm of sapwood. and the smaller is about 3" with an average of 10mm sapwood. i have sealed the ends with wood glue. what is shellac? is it some kind of varnish? what else could i use to seal it if i cant get hold of shellac? also i was thinking of splitting them in the morning so they dry a little faster. do i need to seal the whole thing once split or just the sapwood. sorry for all the questions just dont wana mess it up. thanks danny.

[DarkSoul]

You're not making it easy on yourself, but those logs should yield a bow or two. It is REALLY annoying you've removed the bark. You should only remove the bark if the pith (the heart, the center of the log) is also removed. NEVER remove bark from a round log, unless you tke the stave down to the pith! Myself, I do not remove the bark at all on yew. Only once it is nearly dry.
With the smaller log, you can only get one bow. Remove wood from it AS SOON AS YOU CAN! Preferably today, but if that's not possible, tomorrow. In the meantime, store the wood in the wettest place you can think off. Probably outside in the rain, away from the sun and wind. If you put this round debarked stave in the wind and sun, it will literally crack to pieces within hours. Pick the cleanest side of the log as your back. Remove sapwood and some heartwood from the opposing side.
The bigger log could yield two bows. But the spiral twist scares me a bit. It appears to have some pretty severe twist in it, about mid way up. You should not split this log in two; that will yield two useless half logs. Instead, use a band saw to cut it in two equal pieces. Cut straight through the worst knots, picking the cleanest sides as the back of the bows.

Sealing the sapwood backs with something like shellac (a sort of varnish; google it) is certainly a wise thing to do.

Both appear to be limbs, rather than trunks. Correct? Just to get things straight here.

[Weylin]

Yeah, I thought the same thing when i got my first set of yew logs. My knowledgeable friend informed me of my mistake and helped me coat the back in shellac. even with that I got some checking that limited my options of where I could lay out the bow. Shellac should be easy to find but if you can't then i'm sure there are alternatives, someone else more knowledgeable than I would have to chime in on that. Based on the offset hearts of those logs I'm guessing that these are branches. that means that there is a tension side and a compression side. Your best bet is to lay out the back of the bow on the tension side of the log which is the side where the rings are tighter and the heart is closer to the edge. I would hold off on splitting them until you have really analyzed where your bows are. I highly doubt you will get two bows out of the smaller one and it's possible that there is only one bow in the larger one too. It's better to get one really good bow out of a piece of wood than two marginal bows. (at least in my opinion) I had a pile branches that looked similar to yours and I only got 2 bows worth of material out of the whole lot. Once they're split only the back and ends need to be sealed, the belly will be fine. but like I said, if I were you I would put some good thought into where the potential bows are before you split or cut them.

Edit: Looks like Darksoul beat me to alot of that. At least we're saying the same things. 

[danny f]

cheers for all the advice, i wish i had asked on here before i debarked them.(you live and learn). the thinner one is a branch that was growing horizontal from a large tree. and the larger one was growing vertical from the main trunk of another tree. i will get cracking on them in the morning and seal them up, and take some wood of the smaller one.  thanks again for the advice danny.

[danlaw]

I know there's already great advice from the guys, but here's a little trick if you're in a bind:  I can get even the worst woods to dry without checking by wrapping the staves in decent quality painter's tape (I use green). Just make sure every single bit of wood is covered as even the tiniest sliver of exposed wood will check. 

[vinemaplebows]

You can also use thin cellophane to slow the moisture loss at first.

[Pat B]

My thoughts too VMB. Wrap the debarked stave in kitchen plastic wrap until you can get them split and properly sealed. Shellac or carpenters glue will seal the wood for you.

[danny f]

cheers everyone i have just wrapped them in clingfilm. i was just wondering, how come the belly doesnt need sealing when the wood gets split?

[Dean Marlow]

dannyf
   The reason you don't seal the split side is you need a place for the moisture to escape the log for it to dry. So the split side will be where you will get your moisture escape so it will dry. If it checks there you usually take the wood out of the belly side of the stave anyway. Dean

[Prarie Bowyer]

Ihaven't read everyones posts so this may be redundant. 

If ti were me and I'd accidentaly removed the bark I'd wrap the logs in shrink wrap and seal the ends with wood glue or several coats of paint.  I seem to have my best results from wood glue but paint will work.

Then poke a few small holes in the shrink wrap.

[danlaw]

Sap wood has more mass and more water, and since in a log it is the only surface open to the air, dries first, shrinks fastest, and shrinks more - since the wood on the inside can't compress to make up for the outer shrinkage, the outer wood pulls way from itself to relieve the strain. By cutting a wedge, the wood can now dry in from the sides instead of only from the back. By roughing out the belly, the wood dries in from the belly as well, though since there is less of it and it is a little dryer to begin with, it shrinks less than the back (relatively) and so tends not to need to split.  Also, even though the back ultimately has  to shrink more width-wise, it can now also shrink more length-wise and stretch the belly into a nice deflex. Keeping the bark on just slows the outer wood from drying out (and thus shrinking) faster than the inner wood can handle. I just tried a flat bow, and thought that since the limbs were just under a half inch thick I didn't have to seal the back. No luck - it checked on the back just as if it was still a piece of firewood. Anyhow, that's my answer to why the belly (on a traditionally oriented stave) doesn't usually need to be sealed. it is explained better (and with pictures) in The Bower's Bible.

[danny f]

thanks for the replies. i have split the thinner of the 2 and managed to get one decent stave and one possible stave, although they are  abit bent and twisted. i have clamped them  into a straightish possition and will let them dry and hope they are workable. i took the larger of the 2 to a wood yard just up the road who has a large band saw. and tryed to get one stave out of it, but it was more bent than i thought and when cut down the middle it has only left about an inch in thickness where the handle would be, i was thinking if it is to thin would it be possible to laminate another pice of yew at that point or not. the good thing was he said they was going to be cutting lots of ash trees down in the next couple of weeks and he said i can go and pick my own logs so i should have plenty to be doing.