My first yew...

[AH]

I was given this yew stave for my birthday recently, and I have to say its magnificent, even for someone who has never worked yew before. It is 77" long, about 4" wide, and 3.5" thick, and very straight with about half an inch of deflex. It's thick enough to split and make two yew english bows, which is what I'm gonna do. I want to make a warbow of around 115 pounds (Im not going to be able to pull it now, but maybe in a few years,I just want to make a heavy bow for the heck of it) and a 70 pounder "warbow look-alike". Now here's where I run into my problems. The sapwood is a little over 3/8", which I'll have to thin, but the Rings per inch is 40, and I don't know how to thin it without violating a ring. I've also got two big knobs where limbs used to be, and both are unfortunately located smack in the middle of the two halves, meaning when I split the stave both staves are going to have a big knot in them. The stave also has quite a bit of pins. I know yew bows tend to often be riddled with knots and pins, but I have never worked yew before and am quite daunted by simple knots. Any tips?

here's the knots. this stave is still seasoning, so maybe I can get more practice before i work on it.

[Del the cat]

Don't risk splitting it, run it through a bandsaw and don't be greedy, better one good bow than two useless pieces.
Spend plenty of time looking at it before you cut, try and see exactly where the two bows will sit in the log.
Trawl through my blog, there is probably an answer to any question you might have in there somewhere (google 'Bowyers Diary').
Main advice is don't take the sapwood down too thin too quick or try to do it all at once, it can be done in stages. I only get it down to the final state when I'm back to about brace. I'll flex it on the tiller tree with the sap wood still just roughed down to have a quick look see.
ELBs can try and bend sideways on you (your natuaral deflex may help prevent this) so don't narrow the tips untill it's coming back a fair way.
Go slow and savour it.
Del

[tannhillman]

I agree with whats been said, and seriously doubt that you will get two bows of those quite high draw weighs from a stave of those proportions once split/sawn and roughed out.  As dell said, better to get one good one than two small bows or worst! 

If you're going to go for two staves from this, and I'm not sure that you should, then I personally would split it as if done right you don't get any loss of valuable wood from the cut, but that would depend on how much experience of slitting staves you have? It is also possible to cock up band sawing a long length in two!!

Best of luck!

Iain

[tannhillman]

But having said that,  if all goes well and according to plan you might just manage two bows of your desired spec, certainly possible 

No doubt you will keep us informed of progress.

Iain

[AH]

But having said that,  if all goes well and according to plan you might just manage two bows of your desired spec, certainly possible 

No doubt you will keep us informed of progress.

Iain

thanks! yes, i think I will just make one bow. I just hope I don't screw it up! now the boring part...waiting for the stave to season.