Small Yew Stave - Any Advice?

[JemwithaJ]

Hello All!

This is my my first post on Primitive Archer.
I would really value some advice on what I could make (If anything) with this small Yew stave I have. It was chopped in the north of England about two years ago and has been drying since. It is only 59 inches long.








I started trimming with the spoke shave today, removing the bark and thinning out the limbs a bit. There is a twist at the end of one of the limbs that I am not sure how to manage.





Also a few cracks on one of the tips.


Does anyone have any good ideas of where to go from here? I am thinking perhaps a viking style short bow.

Any ideas very much appreciated this will be my second bow (first one without expert oversight!).

[Hamish]

I have made nice little flatbows, with a stiff handles drawing 40-45lbs at 26", from similar staves. Limbs were about 1and 3/8"-1.5" wide.

You could eek out a longer draw with a bow that bends through the handle.

Your stave is quite deflexed. I would build a form to allow you to straighten the stave, with heat, or put in an 1" or 2 in reflex.
The first step would be rough out the bow, until its floor tillered. This will make any heat corrections easier to do.

I would also let your stave re hydrate after heat bending, for at least a week(no bending). Yew gets brittle in tension if dried out too much.

That being said yew is magical stuff, compared to other woods. So light in the hand, yet so springy, with cast.

There are plenty of things you could do with your stave, like recurve, and or sinew back it, but it depends on your goal and current skill level, and how much time you are prepared to invest in it.

As this is your second bow, take it slow, don't rush and you should come out the other side with a lovely bow.

[superdav95]

Great advice from hamish!  I agree with working it down a bit to floor tiller at least then reassess things from there as to heat corrections or steam.  Lately I’ve been using more steam bending and heat corrections on my yew builds.  Little safer and less potential for overheating belly wood.  Yew is indeed magical stuff.  Just don’t overheat it and try to avoid heat correcting same area more then once if making corrections.  If you sapwood is questionable these yew bows take well to sinew.  I e done a number of them now it’s a great combo.  Even using tb3 with sinew as your glue works quite well too.  Lots of help here when you get after it.  Post lots of pics and ask lots of questions when you need.  A lot of good experience from the members here.  Del has his own YouTube channel too that’s great reference for yew builds.  Keep us posted. 

[JemwithaJ]

Thank you Hamish and Superdav, I will certainly have a go at steam bending once at floor tiller.

Ideally I would like to straighten out the limb that is slightly twisted, and also put a bit of recurve into the limbs.

40 lb draw at 26 / 27 inches would be awesome.

I have drawn out an outline for a 2 inch wide bow for now and have started shaving the stave down. I haven't got very far just yet.

I drew the outline to avoid the more gnarled side of the stave, however I am now wondering whether the belly wood is too thin on the other side. I'm considering redrawing the outline to target the thicker, more gnarled side instead.

If I do, then the cracks at the end on other limb may get in the way and I may loose an inch in length.

Another option would be to redraw on a slight angle (ie. so the bow doesn't perfectly follow the grain). This way I avoid both the cracks and the area that is potentially too thin, however perhaps this is not a good idea?

Any advice much appreciated . I will post more pics once I have made a bit more progress.

[bjrogg]

Welcome to PA.

I agree with everything said so far. I have never had the opportunity to work yew. I have a bow I acquired in a trade with DSV Hunter. It is a very light, narrow fairly short piece of yew. It is amazing how good of a performer it is. Love that bow. In fact it’s the only bow I have ever hunted with that I didn’t make.

Definitely agree that you should look up Del the cat on YouTube. He has lots of great videos and is a very interesting character.

Hopefully he checks in here.

I’m sure there’s a good bow in there. Hope you can find it. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Yew is very magical.

Bjrogg