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Author Topic: How much yew do you need?  (Read 1947 times)

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Offline ajbruggink

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  • Aaron Bruggink, Oostburg, WI, USA
How much yew do you need?
« on: October 13, 2014, 10:43:19 pm »
Heh guys, I obtained this yew stave a few weeks ago, it was salvaged from a clear cut and the back has seen better days as you can see from my pic where the bark has flaked off, so I'm thinking that either backing it or removing the sapwood would be the best option. I was thinking of either sinew backing it but I was wondering if I have enough heartwood to do that or if I have to leave some sapwood and back it with rawhide. The back of the stave isn't exactly flat, causing one side to have more wood than the other. The thinnest part has a little more 3/4" of heartwood (19.05 MM), the rest has at least an inch (25.4 MM) on the thinner side and over an inch on the thicker side and I'd like a 50 lb bow out of it. What do you guys think? Your advice is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Aaron

   
« Last Edit: October 13, 2014, 10:55:54 pm by ajbruggink »
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Offline Carson (CMB)

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Re: How much yew do you need?
« Reply #1 on: October 13, 2014, 11:20:13 pm »
Looks like you have enough yew to do whatever you want there.  I think of sinew being reserved for wider, shorter, recurved yew heartwood bows.  Looking at the photos of your stave, I would make a nice narrow, deep longbow.  Clean up the sapwood and back it with rawhide if the sapwood still looks suspect and you want a bow over 50#.  Looks like a nice stave! 
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"The bow is the old first lyre,
the mono chord, the initial rune of fine art
The humanities grew out from archery as a flower from a seed
No sooner did the soft, sweet note of the bow-string charm the ear of genius than music was born, and from music came poetry and painting and..." Maurice Thompso

Offline Weylin

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Re: How much yew do you need?
« Reply #2 on: October 14, 2014, 12:29:13 am »
Quote from: Carson (CMB) on October 13, 2014, 11:20:13 pm
Looks like you have enough yew to do whatever you want there.  I think of sinew being reserved for wider, shorter, recurved yew heartwood bows.  Looking at the photos of your stave, I would make a nice narrow, deep longbow.  Clean up the sapwood and back it with rawhide if the sapwood still looks suspect and you want a bow over 50#.  Looks like a nice stave!

What this guy said.  8)
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Offline wizardgoat

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Re: How much yew do you need?
« Reply #3 on: October 14, 2014, 02:07:24 am »
ya looks like a cool character longbow in there for sure
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Offline Del the cat

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    • Derek Hutchison Native Wood Self Bows
Re: How much yew do you need?
« Reply #4 on: October 14, 2014, 03:33:02 am »
+1 for Carson...

That sapwood thickness looks just about perfect. Don't touch it!
Where the bark is off ,it doesn't look too bad, I've had staves where a branch has rubbed the bark off but the sapwood was fine.
Looks fine to me.
Del
PS.
You can just scrape off the very outer loose bark, the inner layer will pop off during tillering. It saves a lot of work, also saves nicking the sapwood with tools.
« Last Edit: October 14, 2014, 03:57:05 am by Del the cat »
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Offline ajbruggink

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  • Aaron Bruggink, Oostburg, WI, USA
Re: How much yew do you need?
« Reply #5 on: October 14, 2014, 10:40:43 pm »
Thanks for the replies :)
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