Yew sapwood goof

[Kidder]

So someone sent me a pretty nice yew stave and asked me to build them a bow. Only issue was it had extremely thick sapwood. In excess of 1/2. And the bow needed to be rather light and rather long draw. I intend to back it with sturgeon skin. In thinning the sapwood the crown caught me off guard in places and I broke through the sapwood rather substantially. Lots of places with heartwood showing. Given that it’ll be backed with sturgeon skin is this a deal breaker? I feel like an idiot…

[Hamish]

 Not a deal breaker. It won't affect integrity of the back, as long as you removed the sapwood thickness  evenly.

This can happen with high crowned wood, or when the heartwood hasn't aged evenly.

As the bow is getting a sturgeon backing, there won't even be a cosmetic issue.

[Pat B]

 I've only built a few yew bows so listen to what Hamish and maybe other yew guys but I think I'd put 100 arrows through it before adding the sturgeon skins just to be sure.

[superdav95]

Kidder.  I did something similar and I was left with same concern.  Hamish is right as far as I have seen.  Mine was fairly slight card scraped into the heartwood on bottom limb.  It didn’t seem to hurt it at all.  I made sure to keep the bumps and valleys consistent between the belly and back after that to make sure it maintained its strength and no weak spots.  I do plan to back it eventually as a security measure.  Best of luck.