Boom!

[WillS]

I would be interesting to see if the break travels back into either.
Let's have a full postmorten... scalpel nurse!
Del
(Damn, now I'm thinking of nurses...)

Funnily enough, neither of the knots are contained/involved in the break! The large one actually travels through the limb in completely the opposite direction, so away from the break area, and the cluster of pin knots does the same kind of thing, but seems to just vanish into solid wood.  The break has some swirly grain within it, but no signs of any knots or rotten wood or holes etc.  It's a real mystery to me!

Hard to explain without taking more pictures, but here is where the break occured within the layout of the bow:


Nock-----------------||---Handle----------------------Nock


The || symbol is the location of the kaboom.  My plan with this is to chop the longer limb down to the handle, and turn it into a V splice.  I'll grab another piece of yew that's too short to make a full bow, rough out a limb based on dimensions from this one, and splice them together.  Kinda like your transatlantic longbow Del.  If I'm lucky, I'll be able to use a piece I've got which is a completely different tone and colour, so I'll have a longbow with two totally different coloured limbs, packed with character.  It'll look stunning!

Or repulsive. 

Watch this space, I guess?

[Carson (CMB)]

It looks to me like there might be some rot between the sapwood and heartwood.  Probably wouldnt be a problem except the sapwood became very thin at that break point and I think the funky wood might have failed in tension.

[bow101]

 .......I didn't want to say anything before, but I tend to agree with Carson. Looks like rot.

[Jim Davis]

One lesson pushed hard by the old writers was to not waste time on questionable staves. Now, I guess, we feel we have time to burn and conquering a worthless stave is more valuable than making a better bow and spending the time saved in shooting.

For that matter, all archers were encouraged to make their own bows, arrows and accessories. But to make them and then use them, not make a bow, then make another bow,  then make another bow forever.

Seems among users of primitive bows and arrows,  there are some who would rather make than use. Me, I'd rather spend most of my archery time launching arrows.

jm $.02
Jim Davis

[Del the cat]

.......I didn't want to say anything before, but I tend to agree with Carson. Looks like rot.

I'd wondered about that black line but I hadn't worked out that the two pieces were rotated relative to eachother before  so I didn't realise it was on the heart sap boundary... !
Del

[WillS]

The rot thing is really interesting.  I assumed it was a sort of non-sap, non-heart transition thing that kept the properties of both perhaps.  I've got another yew longbow with areas of identical dark lines between belly and back and they've performed amazingly well for a very long time! Perhaps they're just time bombs?

In regards to Jim's comment about spending more time using worthless staves than shooting, I feel it is worth pointing out that in the UK we can't hunt with our bows.  They are purely for recreational use, and fun.  While it is still fun going out with likeminded folk and shooting at targets (and I do love doing this) it is equally "fun" in my mind to make bows.  Possibly more so, as each stave is a new challenge and this challenge is addictive. 

I'd much rather "waste" time to risk in a failure if the result could have been a stunning character bow that's totally unique and learn from that failure, than stand in a hall and plug away at the same target and learn how to hit that same target more accurately

We all enjoy this amazing art for different personal reasons, and so to me there are no worthless staves or pointless failures.  Hope that makes sense and doesn't come across as snappy!

[Del the cat]

To me the fun is makin' more than shooting.
Del

[WillS]

To me the fun is makin' more than shooting.
Del

Same.  I got into archery from a completely backwards direction.  By the time I'd made my first fully finished, working longbow, I'd not shot a single arrow in my life.  I used dimensions I found online and had no idea what I was supposed to be feeling for or how it should shoot etc.  I'm one of them creative types - I make everything I possibly can.  A bow was a new challenge, and I just had no idea how addictive and surprisingly sociable the hobby is.  Shooting is a result of having the desire to push myself creatively, I don't make bows because I love to shoot.  If that makes sense.

[bow101]

.......I didn't want to say anything before, but I tend to agree with Carson. Looks like rot.

I'd wondered about that black line but I hadn't worked out that the two pieces were rotated relative to eachother before  so I didn't realise it was on the heart sap boundary... !
Del

   
"heart sap boundary... !"
I see your point, funny how sometimes judging from photos gets confusing. I was at the lumber yard today and clerk was having a tough time identifying grain, and I was on the mark.

[Carson (CMB)]

I assumed it was a sort of non-sap, non-heart transition thing that kept the properties of both perhaps.  I've got another yew longbow with areas of identical dark lines between belly and back and they've performed amazingly well for a very long time! Perhaps they're just time bombs?

I wouldn't worry about those other bows with dark lines at heartwood/sapwood boundary.  I think it only became a problem at that point where the sapwood thinned to nearly nothing at the back. 

[WillS]

I assumed it was a sort of non-sap, non-heart transition thing that kept the properties of both perhaps.  I've got another yew longbow with areas of identical dark lines between belly and back and they've performed amazingly well for a very long time! Perhaps they're just time bombs?

I wouldn't worry about those other bows with dark lines at heartwood/sapwood boundary.  I think it only became a problem at that point where the sapwood thinned to nearly nothing at the back.

Ah ok, good stuff! Its a real shame there's no way of knowing what the wood is doing inside a bow.  Might invent a self-bow ultrasound...

[AH]

I have a yew stave I'm making into a warbow, and it's got a knot like that highest one in the first pic sitting in a valley...I get the feeling that this might be kind of dangerous...

[WillS]

Don't make a warbow then! Surely its better to get a working bow out of a piece of yew, than try and force a piece of yew into doing something it doesn't want to do.  There's a reason they imported perfect staves from around Europe for turning into heavy bows...