1st time bow making question billets

[loosenock]

Hi I'm Loosenock, thought I would introduce myself and ask a question.  I am 60 years old, live in Colorado, married 33 years, Viet Nam veteran and have been making hand forged knives for 35 years.

I am in the process of making my 1st bow from Yew sister billets.  I got a couple of nice straight 1/4 logs off of ebay.  These sections were air dried for a year.  Usiing a draw knife and spoke shave I cleaned one of the logs up and split it into billets and worked the billets down a little further.

The target bow for the project will be an English style longbow 66"-68" in length with a weight of 40-45 #'s @ my 26" draw length.

The billets have nice sap wood about 5/16 to 3/8 inch thick, straight with one small pin knot, the dark heart wood is dark and has so many growth rings you cant count them, they're a blur.

One of the billets is going to be perfect, while using the spoke shave the growth riings are symetrical and feather out nicely all the way to the tip.  The other billet, if it continues to pan out the way it is going, the growth rings will begin to run off to one side about 1 foot from the tip.  The sap wood will still be in the same plane as the other billet and squarely on the back, but the growth ring feathering is going to make a little dip on one side.  If you were looking through a cross section of the limb towards the tip, the feathering of the growth rings would run from 12 o'clock near the handle to maybe 1:30 or 2 o'clock towrad the tip.  I dont think this is going to be a problem but I thought I would check with the experts so I dont get into trouble.  Anyone see a disaster in the making here?

Which of the billets would you use for the bottom limb?

Should I make the limb with a the twist a little stronger?

Any help or suggestions you care to share would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks much,

Joe

[Radon]

Hi loosenock,

since I'm a novice to making bows as well I can only answer part of your questions:

I would use the perfect billet as the lower limb since it is stressed some more.
I also would not make the twisted limb any stronger than the other.

But please wait for confirmation by the more experienced guys.

Radon

[330bull]

Hi Joe,

Thanks so much for your service.

Now back to business.  I would recommend posting a few pictures if you can, and maybe send JD Duff a PM about some suggestions.  There are a lot of people on here with incredible skills and experience, so just be patient and hang tight.

Good luck!  And if you ever want some practice stuff, gimme a ring and I may trade you for some Vine Maple & Hazelnut staves for a knife.

Later, Joe

Ps.  Make sure to back the bow if you have already violated the growth rings on the back.  Rawhide w/ Snakeskin, or Cherry Bark would work great.  I'd just hate to see all that work lost if the back's grain decides to lift.

[loosenock]

Thanks for your comments.  It is not a very good day to be glueing anything in Colorado.  what I want to do for this weekend is to get my fishtail splice ready for glueing and hopefull next weekend I can glue it up.

I have some pictures, I have ever loaded anythin up before, hopefully they will post ok.







The pic of the ends of the limgs it is the limb on the right that I have a question about.

Joe

[330bull]

Holy crap those are nice.  If you ask me, you are worrying too much and those pieces look ready to be glued up.  Good luck!

[Minuteman]

I haven't seen many yew staves but the ones I have seen were nowhere near as nice as those. I'd say( in my best guesstimation) you are gonna be alright. The one is just a little off to one side but I can't see it hurtin ya.

[Badger]

Loose, I just finished a yew bow exactly as you describe, the lower limb has the feathering on the belly like nice perfect little v's pointing to the tip but on the top limb they run toward one side, aestheticaly I wanted them both the same but it should have no affect on your bow, on fine ringed yew I seldom worry about violating a grwth ring on the back I just flatten the back out nice and pretty and go from there. Seldom will it give you a problem. Mine is 66# @28" semi rounded belly with a slightly stiff and narrowed handle section. I really like it a lot. Steve