Belly from yew kindling?

[DC]

I've got a half dozen or so yew staves close to dry. When I rough them out I am going to have a bunch of offcuts of heartwood. I was thinking of running them though the table saw(I don't think my bandsaw is accurate enough) to cut them into 3/16" or so strips. Then I would glue them together and back with bamboo. How much runout can I get away with using thin layers like that? Also, would it be feasible to splice small pieces end to end(like finger jointed studs) and just have the splices placed randomly through the belly? I just hate to think of turfing out perfectly good pieces of yew if there is a possibility of using it.

[WillS]

You can definitely splice anywhere in the limb.  I met a guy once who spliced two different broken bows together mid limb, and tillered them to be even.  I thought it was bonkers, but it shot perfectly well.  Long as there's plenty of surface area to glue there's no reason not to.

I've not used thin lams of yew myself, but I can't see why it wouldn't work.  I have seen bows (very heavy bows at that) made from two lams of yew with a white wood backing, so I would assume it's fine?

[Jim Davis]

Run-out is of almost no consequence on the belly. I've been using twisted snakey slices of Osage backed with hickory or elm and it has worked very well. It's how I will use all my otherwise worthless Osage.

Jim Davis

[Springbuck]

  I have had run-off be a BIG consequence on the belly, both onsage and massaranduba, when I couldn't see how bad the radial grain ran off.  Both of them just fractured on the belly, where the grain just split and slipped over, creating a lip like a spalt.

  BUT!  That run-off was actually pretty severe, like 20 degrees or more.

If you are cutting the strips to make "action-yew" yourself, you'll be able to saw and inspect as you go, and force curved pieces into line so you follow the grain better, etc.  I see success in your future for this!   The whole point of Actionwood is consistency, and averaging out small flaws.

[DC]

None of it will be any where near that much run-off. Some will be twisted a bit I suppose but I could steam it before I ripped it. Judging from my pile of staves I will probably be making one yew bow for every five OS bows. It may be awhile til I have enough. I'm not all that excited about making a laminated bow at the moment anyway. It's been in the back of my mind since I did a workshop with Ravensbeak and he showed me a boo backed yew laminate that was gorgeous.