Quick question, where do I go from here?

[Taxus brevifolia]

Yew flat bow, 61.5" end-to-end

I initially brought the sapwood down to a uniform ⅜" and then cut the heartwood to a smooth taper. Hoping to get this thing strung today, and I've got it just beginning to bend a little, a couple inches, and the bend looks good...but I'm wondering if the sapwood is still too thick? The heartwood will be thinner than the sapwood if I keep going. My gut feeling is I need to take the sapwood down just a bit.
Thoughts?

[Del the cat]

Yeah 3/8 is a bit thick 3/16 - 1/4 would be better.
Del

[Taxus brevifolia]

Ok thank you Sir

[Hawkdancer]

Listen to the master!  Or drop back 5 and punt!   At the same time remember, it is very difficult to put wood back on !  Ease into it!
Hawkdancer

[Mafort]

Follow your gut.

[Taxus brevifolia]

I love you guys, more than words can say

[DC]

I prefer a natural back on yew if I can get it, even if it means the heartwood gets a bit thin. If I have 3/8" or less natural sapwood I don't touch it. That said, since you've already reduced it some, go with what Del said

[Taxus brevifolia]

Thanks DC, I brought it down a hair below ¼" before I saw this. I'm glad you chimed in. Almost to low brace now, and I was just contemplating whether to take the sapwood down to 3/16", or leave it and go back to thinning the heartwood; now I know what to do thank you

[DC]

I prefer a natural back on yew if I can get it, even if it means the heartwood gets a bit thin. If I have 3/8" or less natural sapwood I don't touch it. That said, since you've already reduced it some, go with what Del said

I should clarify this a bit. I prefer the natural back for aesthetics only. I just like the look better than a smooth sanded back. I still prefer yew with thin sapwood. It's always a tussel for me when the sapwood is around 3/8" because I then have to make a decision. If it's a nice groovy, lumpy back back I'll probably leave it but if it doesn't have any character I'll reduce it down to 1/4" or so.

[Del the cat]

Hey, if DC is going to clarify... then so am I 
I like a bow to have at least 50% heartwood where possible, so, when there comes a point where the heartwood is going to get too thin or disappear, it's time to thin the sapwood a tad.
Conversely, sometimes I will leave extra sapwood at the grip on a thin stave to add some bulk and thickness. It's nice to roughly follow a ring, but it's not essential. Be sympathetic top the needs of the stave.
This is now officially the clearest thread ever 
Del

[DC]

Getting a bit side tracked here but Del, when you made the sapwood only bow and then glued the heartwood splint on the belly, how thick was the splint? You said it made a big difference.

[Del the cat]

Getting a bit side tracked here but Del, when you made the sapwood only bow and then glued the heartwood splint on the belly, how thick was the splint? You said it made a big difference.

It was only about 1/8 -3/16 (Maybe up to 1/4" thick at the grip)
Didn't even span the whole width of the belly.
Del

[Taxus brevifolia]

Guys I'm almost ready to post a tiller check when I get it to 10", I'm currently at 8"; before I go any further I need to decide on my target draw weight & length. I'm still too green to know what this stave is trying to tell me.

I've also got to make one of Eric Krewson"s tillering gizmos, because I don't trust my eyes yet.

I've got it on the stick with a long string; measuring from zero where tension just begins with about a ½" of movement at the tips, I've got it to 8" with rather elegant matching curves on either limb.

According to my brass fish scale, it's taking 43 lbs to stretch it to the 8" mark.

Now, when I picked this stave and started chopping, I pulled the number 45 lbs out of my @$$. It seemed like a reasonable number.  What do I know...

But so far the tillering has gone so smoothly, I'm barely doing any work to keep it good. On the eight stops to get here, it was 5 before my eye could discern the slightest flaw, and I might have imagined that.

I'm taking off so little wood between weighs, the d.w. only gets higher with every inch. 

I'm pretty sure by the time I get it to 10" with this long string, it'll be near 60 lbs, if all I'm doing is removing the minimum to keep the bends right.

I know there's an important rule about not pulling past intended draw weight (i.d.w.) so I stopped here; one more inch will definitely put me over my original 45 lbs.

How do I reasonably determine what I can expect from this piece?

This is a nearly perfect 61.5" piece of pacific yew,  flat bow,
59.25" ntn.

I'm about to steam flip the tips and put a bit of reflex on both limbs.

2" wide at the fades tapering to 1⅞" at midlimbs, then to ½" at the tips.

The only flaws I can find are a tiny ½ mm pin knot on the handle that doesn't reach through the sapwood, and a slight cast I'll fix when I do my steaming session tomorrow.

How long & heavy a draw does this bow want to give me?

Thanks in advance, I love you guys

[Del the cat]

Just my opinion of course!
DON'T mess with flipped tips and reflex!
IF you really must, you should IMO wait until it's braced and drawing about 20" at your target weight, even tiller and nice and stable (with extra tip width) and don't bring the tips past the grip by more than about 1"
Then you can ruin the string line and screw it up by adding reflex and flipped tips 
All that fancy stuff will add a marginal improvement, but with bow making you can only get a certain amount out of the wood... you don't get ow't for now't.
Main thing is decide your target draw weight now! (Should be good for upto 60#) but the higher the draw weight the more likely you'll get set and the more likely flipped tips etc will make it worse.
So if you make it a 40# then flip and add reflex you might end up with a fast 45#.
If you make it 60# and then flip and reflex, you may end up with a 60# that shoots same as before but is pretty and a pig to string .
Del

[George Tsoukalas]

Mine too, Del. Words of wisdom from you. Jawge