Looking for yew wood info..

[ravenbeak]

Hey guys,

I am looking to books or other info on yew wood.  I am interested in what are the physical properties that make it so good for bows.  I understand a bit about the heartwood sapwood and the modulus of elasticiity.  but not too much about hardness or density.

Do people have suggestions for good books, links or articles to get into the physical properties of the yew wood and its use within the bow world.

All leads and greatly appreciated.

Thank Yew!

[Pat B]

Billets to Bows by Glenn St. Charles and TBBI.

[Del the cat]

The hardness itself doesn't really matter. Crush resistance does and there's prob' a figure for that which can be compared with other woods.
The density... there is nothing to understand... it's light for it's volume.
I'm not sure a book will tell you any more, the trick is understanding what the numbers mean and there are plenty of wood data sites.
But the numbers don't tell the whole story... I don't s'pose there's a scientific measurement that tells you how resistant it is to splitting along the grain in the various directions, (e.g can it withstand run offs) because it's not a homogeneous material.
Del

[lonbow]

Hello ravenbeak

Ulrich Stehli wrote a paper about the properties of yew wood in the book I'm going to link. Unfortunatelly it's written in germain.

https://www.amazon.de/Das-Bogenbauer-Buch-Europ%C3%A4ischer-Bogenbau-Steinzeit/dp/3980587770

best wishes,
lonbow