Progress update, and a question. yew flatbow

[Taxus brevifolia]

I wish I had more time to work on this

I've got a uniform ¼" thickness on the sapwood, uniform taper totalling ¼" down the belly on each limb. I've got the centerline going beautifully down the grain pattern on the belly. I'll chase the back with sandpaper to a single ring. I understand it isn't strictly necessary, but it's so easy on this soft wood.

Today I got the twist out of the tips and added an ever so slight bit of reflex.

Question: if I want a lenticular cross section, should I establish that now, or later in the tillering process?

https://youtu.be/YwImIiIO9YA

[Dances with squirrels]

I radius all of the bellies on my bows and like to establish and precisely maintain three facets on the belly and use them for tillering and reducing weight until at least half way through tillering. Maintaining accurate facets means maintaining accurate dimensions and proportions, even in the craziest character bows. Dean Torges covered the benefits and techniques related to faceted tillering in his book Hunting the Osage Bow.

[Taxus brevifolia]

Ah yes! I see!

Thanks so much Squirrel

[Taxus brevifolia]

It took about 40 min of sanding to take down the tool marks from the rasp on the back, and to my amazement, that left me with one unviolated continuous growth ring, except a bit high in a few little spots. So far, the sapwood is a joy to work with.

[Del the cat]

Dont think it matters too much. It's a matter of when you remove wood from the belly during tillering do it is such a way as to give the belly shape you want, it doesn't take much to round it slightly.
Personally a tend to go flat and just round the edges... but not obsessively flat.
A few tho of curve put in with a scraper late on in in the tillering is easy enough.
I don't believe in shaping a bow too much until you can see how it's bending... it's all a balancing act... you don't make a bow then tiller it, nor do you tiller it and then shape it to look how you want... they go hand in hand.
Del

[Taxus brevifolia]

Wise words, thank you Del. Meow. Meow meow meow

[simk]

stave looks good for tillering now. take that assist 

[Strichev]

Do you use the vise to hold the bow during tillering?

If so, you can make removable, soft jaw pads using aluminium and some old tyres or some rubber. I've cut some aluminium sheet metal to match the dimensions of the vise jaws so that it could be bent and formed around them to form a sort of tightly fitting "shoes". To the aluminium I then glued pads made out of an old truck tyre. It works really well, the rubber adjusts to the rough shape of the bow and doesn't mar even the soft wood that is yew. It's way less annoying than using cloth or leather to protect the bow.

[Taxus brevifolia]

I only use that vise for untwisting after steaming. For everything else I use the shavehorse I built. I use several wraps of heavy cardboard in the jaws of the vise

[Taxus brevifolia]

I'm excited, today I'll have time to with on the bow!
That's my biggest issue, not enough time