Osage vs Yew

[Marc St Louis]

Steve
What has you worried about it?  Is it the knot?

[Badger]

  One big knot in the main working area Mark, I am allready getting a longtitudal crack there, if it were an elb I would not hesitate to take it about 20# more. The bow is about 1 5/8 wide. 10" of stiff handle and fades. The broadheads will only weigh 500 grains so it's only about 6.6 grains to the pound, I imagine that more working outer limb might be more effective anyway.

[George Tsoukalas]

That knot doesn't seem to have enough wood around it for the poundage wanted. I think you are asking a lot of that bow. JMO. It would worry me too. That's a 40# knot. Jawge

[Badger]

Well, I took it out to 82#@28 1/2" . Real nervous about someone else shooting this bow though. I am going to sand it down finish it up and give it a good workout before I hand it to someone to shoot, I have a strong feeling it will blow. If she doesn't blow my money will be on the yew bow at this point, she maintained about 1/2" reflex and seems to have about the same early draw weight as the osage bow.

[Del the cat]

Just an idea as it's semi experimental.
If that big knot and crack is worrying you (and it would scare the cr4paout of me) you might consider taking out a long shallow scoop from the back right over the knot and overlaying/inlaying a nice sliver of clean sapwood. I've done it on a few ELBs, a secondary avantage is it allows you to remove some of the weak stuff round the edge of the knot and fill it with epoxy/sawdust or superglue prior to overlaying the sapwood.
Hope you don't mind the suggestion, I'm not trying to teach you to suck eggs, but it might give that extra bit of security, as you feel a tad uneasy.
Del

[Badger]

  Del, I was thinking of something similar, the knot might be loose enough to just pull out, I could inser a dutcman plug right into the hole possibly, what is worring me more than the knot itself is the growth around the knot, that I don't think I can do anything with, it feels pretty hard.

[crooketarrow]

  I'm not yew expert and have only build 9 yew bows. But dozzens of OSAGE bows. Problely because osage is far more avalible here. But I know you can get away with a lot more with osage than yew. To me yews far more brittle and won't take the mistakes osage will.
  You really can judge even between staves much less tpyes of wood staves. Your not dealing with lams amd glass.
  You can take 2 osage staves or 2 of any kind the same lenth, design ,weight ,draw lenth and those bows will be different.
  WOODS WOOD

[Del the cat]

Mark the belly is just very slightly rounded, the back is crowned as the branch of trunk it came from was barely 2". Good wood just very small. Has developed a couple of longtitudal cracks near the knots, I am not too worried about them at this point, no sign of splinters lifting.

Yeah, the way I figure it, the belly won't fail, as it's in compression and any knot showing on the belly will prob be harder in compression than the surrounding wood. It's the tension side and the big hole in the sapwood that worries me, taking a scallop out and patching over with clean sapwood should be stronger than a hole, the dodgy stuff under the patch in the centre of the bow isn't under such strain and as long as there are no voids to collapse it should be ok.
If you can find a bit of sapwood with a slight bulge to mimic the knot the patch could end up looking pretty in keeping with the surface of the back.
Of course, all this is real easy from where I'm sitting , a lot trickier from where you're sitting.
Del