First Bow - Replica Hedeby Bow

[Lingonberry44]

Hi All, first time posting here.  I'm a viking reenactor and was looking to have a simple, rough replica of the Hedeby Bow.  I saw a thread where Weylin from swiftwood bows made a rather nice one from a funky piece of yew and was inspired to give it a go.

I contacted a seller online who has some "economy" yew staves and got some pictures back of one of the items he was selling.  It looks fairly clean with small pins/knots and nothing terribly gnarly.

Does anyone have any advice for a first time bow maker?  I'm not looking to make anything particularly fancy or clean looking, I just want something that won't break too easily.  I can find ash and orange osage to practice on before I jump to the yew stave, which from reading some threads it looks like I will have to let age for a few months anyways.

[GlisGlis]

you will need a seasoned stave no matter what wood you choose
you may also consider helm as a wood historically used by vikings. probably cheaper than yew

[Hrothgar]

Welcome to PA. A practice stave is always a good idea. Osage is going to be a little more challenging until you have one full ring on the back. Good luck.

[Lingonberry44]

Got the yew stave a few days ago - doesn't look too bad as far as I can tell.  A few knots and pins in it.

Silly question - do I have to follow a particular tree ring when making a bow from yew?

[penderbender]

If your sap wood is 3/8" or less I would leave it. If not you can reduce it. Just don't sharply cut through the rings anywhere. If you violate it just make sure you feather it out so it's not abrupt. Pictures will help us help you too. Cheers- Brendan