Yew backed with...

[Del the cat]

So if we made a self bow edge grain we could tiller back and belly? I'm not trying to be a jerk. this has bugged me for a while and I want to get it sorted. Hope Jeff doesn't mind

Yeah, could do... not sure if it would work for Osage that really likes to follow the grain, but I'd guess Hickory, Elm, Ash. But letting the underbark become the back is simpler.
Del

[PEARL DRUMS]

Yes you could, Don. I know Gary has made a few that way. Never seen one of them, but I don't doubt it one bit.

[gfugal]

It seems edge grained self-bows are an untapped method that could be extremely beneficial then.

[PatM]

Maybe but not really for the same benefit.  Tillering from the back is useful for keeping a backing to belly ratio consistent but I can't see much point in deciding to scrape the back of an edge ring stave.

[upstatenybowyer]

It's written in TBB 2 that ancient European bows (Stellmoor, Holmegaard, and Neolithic Yew) made bows with the back from the center of the tree (edge grain).

Comstock writes, "bows were made so the cut-through rings appear mainly as straight lines on the bow's back, parallel with the limbs. Also the bowyers carefully followed the radial grain of the wood from one end of the bow to the other."

I would think "following the radial grain" would be the most challenging part.

[Del the cat]

It's written in TBB 2 that ancient European bows (Stellmoor, Holmegaard, and Neolithic Yew) made bows with the back from the center of the tree (edge grain).

Comstock writes, "bows were made so the cut-through rings appear mainly as straight lines on the bow's back, parallel with the limbs. Also the bowyers carefully followed the radial grain of the wood from one end of the bow to the other."

I would think "following the radial grain" would be the most challenging part.

Not certain, but I think the view on some of that has changed due to misinterpretation of some of the old bows.
There are a few things in the TBB books that have needed revision, but that's the way of things.
Del
PS. It narks me where it says the Mary Rose was raised in Plymouth  grrrrr
My Mum was down in down Pompey when it came up and I went to school with one of the divers.

[gfugal]

Maybe but not really for the same benefit.  Tillering from the back is useful for keeping a backing to belly ratio consistent but I can't see much point in deciding to scrape the back of an edge ring stave.

Yeah, self-bow advantages aren't as good as I thought I was thinking about avoiding knots. Maybe if you go deep enough in the wood it may help, but chances are it just puts the knot fibers on the side of the bow which is probably worse than on the back. So yeah, its main benefit would be to get a flat or paired surface for backing purposes so less effort needs to occur to perfectly match the belly material to the dips, curves, divets in the backing wood that occur when you faithfully follow a growth ring. But as Upstate pointed out you may have a different problem with alignment, which seems to be more difficult to heat treat out side bends than verticle bends.

[DC]

I agree that there is limited reasons for scraping the back. It just always struck me as strange that you could scrape an edge grain backing but touching a self bow back was a bad thing. Wood must split(splinter) easier parallel with annual rings rather than across them.