yew sapwood?

[Del the cat]

I'd be rather worried by the knot in the pic below and the dark line going out left from it.
I would get an old needle file (or some such) ground to a tiny chisel point and clean out around the edge of the knot (and that line), you may find that once you have cleaned out the crud there's no good sound timber.
Don't panic! You can excavate the whole lot, fill with a plug, then take it down to a flat concave face and overlay a long sliver of sapwood which will give the back some continuity (it also eggectively moves the manky stuff in towards the neutral plane of the bow where it won't be under such strain.
A nivce looooong patch can be blended in to almost invisible.
I've done it on a few bows and it's better to be safe than sorry.
I can see you've followed the dips and swoops, but there's that area with pins where the sap is pretty much transparent too, that may be worth a sap wood patch.
This link shows a V similar repair I did on an ELB.
http://bowyersdiary.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/repair.html
Del

[bcbull]

scott lookin good do as del said  you can also use a rawhide patch and dont be afarid to use a lotta super glue  brock

[Stringman]

Thanks, Del for the tip about cleaning out the knots. I did that and then filled them with tbIII and sawdust. At that point I put it on a long string and it seemed to be bending evenly. However, I didn't want to leave it to chance so I backed it with a super thick snake skin (red tail boa.) After that dried I cleaned it up a touch and finally got it to almost brace last night and put a few arrows through it. Feels fine, shoots sounds, but seems to be demonstrating a little string follows after being strung for a bit. Is this normal for yew? Mind you, I have been very careful to not over flex this bow too early and I do not normally have this same problem when working osage. So I assume this is a characteristic of the yew wood?!?

Here's a few "sneak peak" pics of where I'm at. The tiller pics are from both sides and with a long string.

Scott

[lesken2011]

Mmmmmm! So fine!!

[Del the cat]

I'd say you will generally get a little set. I'd say you've done well with that stave.
Yew can put up with a lot, but you've gotta know when to quit and be thankful it didn't explode on you.
It's odd how non bowyers always ask how did you get that lovely bend? (the set)...
Most of my bows take a little set, If I put 'em belly against a wall and can only slip two fingers between grip and wall I'm happy.
Just say to yourself "It's a design feature" out loud 10 times evey night before you go to sleep,...
Del

[Stringman]

I gotta say that does put my mind at ease somewhat. Resilient is certainly a word I would use to describe yew after having used it.

Now as to your "be thankful it didnt explode" comment... When I started bending it last night and bringing it to close brace height it occurred to me  how much money this little piece of wood and animal skin represented to me... Let's just say I nearly started to sweat coming to full draw.  My wife was chiding me about it later, but your words brought back the intensity of the moment all at once. 

Scott