Yew sap wood???

[snag]

I'm starting to try and make a bow out of a piece of yew that has about 1/2" of sap wood. I'm thinking of taking the sap wood down a little. Do you have to back yew if you thin the sap wood?

[Del the cat]

Nope, no need to back. Reduce it to about  1/4", best if you can follow a ring, but it's not absolutely vital as long as you get ot smoothly blended in.
Most of my English Yew has sapwood that is too thick and I take it down with a draw knife initially, then as I work work the bow down to size it slowly gets tided up.
There are some good pics at the foot of this post from my Bowyers Diary showing roughing out a Yew stave for an ELB
http://bowyersdiary.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/keep-calm-and-carry-on.html
Del

[Bryce]

1/4" is a good rule of thumb. Some of my yew bows I take all the sapwood off, or leave very little.
The sapwood is a natural backing and if its not severely violated wont lift any splinters. Like del said just make them blend well.
Dels blog is a good read I recommend it:)

-Pinecone

[coaster500]

I've only build two bow using yew and both were good shooters. The ring count was so high that there was no way for these old eyes to fallow a ring. This is the back of my last one. took it down to a 1/4 inch as mentioned above. The stain really shows the violations. The bow was over 50 pounds and I built it for a 29 inch draw with out issue.

[Del the cat]

Hey Coaster, that's a great pic  , nicely shows what is ok in the way of violaations in Yew, most of 'em run along the bow, or are just a small island. Nothing too extreme, it's hard to tale a pic that show is so well without the stain.
Del

[Weylin]

I just reduced the sapwood on a yew stave that had 1/2" sapwood. I've done it once before and it worked great, no need for backing.

[JW_Halverson]

Remove the sapwood layer that is directly over the heartwood and all the rest can stay where it is.  (And if you figure out how to do that, post a build-along!)

Del, Bryce, Weylin, and Coaster gave you the real story about reducing sapwood, but they forgot one important point....POST PICS as you go!  Lots of us have no yew to play with so we have to get our thrills vicariously. 

Good luck, buddy!

[snag]

Thanks guys.  I don't see how anyone could see or follow a ring in the sapwood. So it is good to know that you don't have to!

Coaster that looks great! I'll have to stain it.

[Del the cat]

Thanks guys.  I don't see how anyone could see or follow a ring in the sapwood. So it is good to know that you don't have to!

Coaster that looks great! I'll have to stain it.

On some low ring count Yew you can follow a ring, and it's a good 'aim' it's just not essential (getting the lighting right to see 'em helps).
It's like those difference between thos beurocratic 'guidelines' and 'legal requirements'... mind, have you ever tried explaining that difference to a beurocrat?
They wanted to put speed bumps 10 yards from the end of our cul de sac a while back because "it's in the guidelines to have them every 30yards"... you'd need a dragster to do any speeding over that 10 yards
Sorry I'm rambling now... if we get onto daft beurocrat storries this thread will never end
Del

[Carson (CMB)]

Hey Dave, I am looking at piece of thick sapwood yew and asking myself the same question.  I plan to reduce it and leave it unbacked, unless I deiced to go for higher draw weight.  But in the back of my mind is Chet Stevenson's mention of a thick sapwood bow that he made.  He took it to a shoot where it garnered lots of skepticism form his buddies, until he shot it.  I guess it preformed just as well as any of the more traditionally accepted sapwood/heartwood built bows of his buddies.  This story from the old bowhunter is the only thing that has kept my drawknife out of the sapwood on my stave in question...at least for now. 

[Weylin]

The trick is knowing if there will be enough/any heartwood for compression when you get it down to your draw weight. The narrower and deeper the cross section the better chance you have but if you are going for a wider, flatter design you might run out of heart wood. My dad unwittingly did the same thing as Chet Stevonson with his yew longbow that he started and even with a deep and narrow cross section there was barely a sliver of heartwood as ou got near the tips. It shoots fine but it was a close call.

[snag]

Hi Carson, I have been thinking about Chet on this one too. I didn't want to take off much of the sap wood...just a little. Just didn't know if there would be a problem with this or not. I pulled out the infamous Stave Master (thanks again Keenan) and hopefully will find some time this next week to make some shavings. I'll post some pics if I do. I can use all the help I can get!

[dwardo]

I think on some yew its easy enough to take the sapwood down but some it would just be a nightmare.
If the sapwood is pretty even got for it but if its like this one its just too much hassle to get it even.



This bow shoot well and has little heartwood to speak off. Tim baker did some tests and commented that there was little difference between the sap and heart wood.

[Del the cat]

Hey dwardo, you're just showin' off now... drool drool
Del

[dwardo]

Hey dwardo, you're just showin' off now... drool drool
Del

more like whimping out