Twisted Yew Longbow

[SGuise]

This is my first time posting. I have been making bows for about 7 years now.

I made this bow out of a piece of Yew that was twisted by more than 90 degrees from one end to the other and went past a fairly large branch. It actually shoots very well with the large knuckle.

I am regularly told that you can't make a bow out of twisted wood or wood with knots. These are my favorite types of bows to make and shoot. There is a great satisfaction when I go to a 3-D tournament and shoot one of these bows.

The bow is 64" long with simple Ebony tip overlays.
It is 42# at 26".
The limb set is 1 3/4".

[upstatenybowyer]

Gnarly! Looks great SG. Keep um' comin' 

[Deerhunter21]

 

what da heck was wrong with that tree! 

Welcome to PA! I really hope you keep posting your bows because thats just a piece of art!

[Josh B]

I am a fan of character ridden bows!  It would appear that the tiller is a tad off, but you handled the upper limb character superbly.  That rollercoaster section is cool!

[JW_Halverson]

Yep, waste of time on those knotty staves, you'll never make a bow from it. Nope, you'll never get it to full draw.  It won't last long enough to get a full draw pic.

And now that you have proved all that horse hockey wrong, welcome to the club.  We are all miscreants and maladapted idiots here. You fit right in, sir, right bloody well in!   Glad to have you, and we'll be even happier if you keep posting your work!

[Del the cat]

Gorgeous looking bow...
Never going to be the fastest, but it's certainly a looker
Del

[bassman]

Nice. One of a kind.

[PaSteve]

Great job. Yep, I'd say most wouldn't attempt a bow out of that stave. Looks like it got caught in a door but didn't want to break.

[George Tsoukalas]

Very nicely done. It takes a lot of skill to make a bow like that. Jawge

[Lefty38-55]

It would appear that the tiller is a tad off, but you handled the upper limb character superbly.

Trying to train/educate ‘my’ eye (not that of the actual bowyer) but where would suggest this be tillered further? At the upper 1/3rd area (towards handle) of the lower limb?

[backtowood B2W]

cool looking bow! is it all sap wood?
Love to see this kind of bows where the wood has to talk with you
hope to see more from you!
B2W

[Lefty38-55]

In the 3rd picture down, you can see the more orange to honey colored heartwood.

[Josh B]

It would appear that the tiller is a tad off, but you handled the upper limb character superbly.

Trying to train/educate ‘my’ eye (not that of the actual bowyer) but where would suggest this be tillered further? At the upper 1/3rd area (towards handle) of the lower limb?

If the OP had left the unbraced side profile pic, it would have been easier to explain my "opinion" of the tiller.  Going from memory of what that profile was, it is my opinion that the outer 1/2 of the lower limb could be doing more of the work and thus relieving what is nearly a hinge on the inner portion of the lower limb.  If I had my preference for the location of a hinge it would be on the inner limb. That is because by getting the outer portion working more, relieving the hinge you will actually stiffen the entire limb in the process.  A hinge on the outer portion of a limb, when relieved by scraping the inner portion will have the opposite effect and cost you a lot of draw weight to correct. 
The upper limb needs to work more on the inner portion on this bow.  There appears to be a hinge started just outside of the roller coaster section, but not having the unbraced profile for comparison I don't remember if there was a deflex bend in that spot.  It very well could have a deflex bend there and is bending properly.  I just don't remember.  Clear as mud?

[SGuise]

In regards to the tiller, the upper limb is very crowned just before the knuckle towards the handle. I had to hollow the belly a bit to try and make the limb bend a little at that spot to relieve the stress on the knuckle itself. The knuckle was kept stiff intentionally so that it would not bend. This forced me to have more bend further down the limb than I would like. Part of the lower limb had a bit too much wood removed closer to the handle but I chose to keep the weight of the bow up and sacrifice a bit of the tiller in that spot instead of correcting the problem. 

The bow is almost entirely sapwood except for a thin layer.

[M2A]

Great job working that that piece of wood. I bet its shock to some of the folks at the local 3-d range. Would give you the thumbs up emoji but they seem to be broken for me atm.
Mike