Yew bow 2nd attempt; tiller help please. Autopsy required

[Red Dwarf]

David T

I had not touched the bow since the last pictures a couple of days ago.

Here are a few pictures of the sad result.

The 1st is of the right limb. Although it is difficult to determine, as things happen so suddenly, I think that this limb is the one that gave way.

The next two are of the left (bottom) limb showing the almost total "de-lamination" along the sapwood to heartwood junction.

Unfortunately yew is the only wood that I have. I don't really want to build another board bow at the moment.



Juniperjunkie

The knot that I posted a picture of a while back was in the bottom limb and I managed to get rid of that with some rounding of the limb section.


Red Dwarf



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[tom sawyer]

I had the same thing happen to my first attempt with yew.  I concluded (after discussions with people who knew more about yew) that I needed to make the bow wider than it was thick to avoid the twisting problem.  I had my bow at almost a 1:1 ratio of thickness to width in places, and when this is the case the wood is really sensitive to small weaknesses that can make it pull/roll to one side or another.

Stick with a 5:8 ratio or even less if you don't care about it being a "proper" ELB.  It gives the wood a clear direction as far as bending, by making it much stronger in the sideways direction compared to the direction you want it to bend.

On my second attempt, I cut the blank out to nearly a 5:8 thickness:width ratio and am tillering the thickness.  You can also make a really nice flatbow style out of yew, that design won't want to twist on you like these thick arched-belly limbs.

[Red Dwarf]

I was wondering if there was any possibility that the moisture content was a little on the low side. I don't have a meter but I did measure the RH in my basement/shop and it is around 37%. Is this too dry?

Red Dwarf

[servicebeary]

this looks like a fine place to ask a question about my yew in progress, especially since I'll probably break it also, hehe it's my first try and its got a lot of character.  So, my question in, with 64" nock to nock, and it being a flat bow, what's the longest reasonable draw length I can hope for?  Maybe we can get 20 pages of yew horror stories going on this thread:)

[D. Tiller]

24 to 26 inches? Depends on how wide you made it and what state the wood is. May be able to get 27 to 28" if its wide enough and in good enough shape. Can you post a picture?

David T

[Lost Arra]

Red: please don't take this as criticism but I'm asking the yew experts just to learn.

Should a yew bow with this limb profile (rounded elb-like belly) been made longer to begin with?

I would think if Red's billets were 64", a flat bow design with wide limbs would have had a better chance.

Fire away.

[servicebeary]

not at home at the moment, but I think it's about 1.5" average width.  I'll take a pic and send it as soon as I can find time, and when I can figure out how to post a pic.