Reluctant Yew

[DC]

Sabo gave me this beautiful wiggly Yew stave. It has a natural sharp deflex right in the handle just like if I'd spliced it. I took it home and roughed it out cutting the bellies in the right position for the deflex and stood it in the corner. Six months later it started to show it's true character. Instead of drying straight like Yew normally does it decided to warp so now instead of the bellies being positioned properly they are at 45° to the deflex. I wanted to use the natural deflex but I can cut and splice it if need be but I thought I would try steaming it into shape. One limb(picture) has a sharp dogleg about mid limb. I would start here. I put bending points on the side of my caul with the idea of reflexing and straighting at the same time. I tested it ahead of time and it took a lot of grunt to get it into the caul. I actually couldn't get it all the way in. So I steamed it for an hour. Went to pop it into the caul and it just fell in place no effort at all. I actually thought I had it in backward.
 I've fought with this thing for a month now. What it's doing is straightening out when I steam it. If you look at the picture it actually looks like the string line would pretty much run down the middle of the limb. Before I steamed it the near end was about 2" to the left and the bend started about the hose. There has been no pressure put on it, just the steam and it straightens out. I can clamp it to a caul and let it cool overnight and it will hold the shape quite well and then over 3 or 4 days it will sneak back to it's original shape. The handle also needs to be bent and it does the same thing as does the other limb.
So what it's doing I think is when it's hot it's going back to its green shape and as it cools/dries it's taking on it's warped shape. I tried steam and dry heat on the handle and it slowed down the return but it still happened.
Has anyone had a piece of Yew like this? Did you ever manage to tame it?
Thanks for listening.

[DC]

Here's one of the whole stave

[bradsmith2010]

I can't see the stave clearly

[bradsmith2010]

Maybe go past straight,,,so it won't return as much?

[DC]

I've gone past straight before. This time I'm going way past. I thinned out the wood this time, maybe that will help

[bradsmith2010]

I think if u go way p a st,..with thinning it will hold,...

[DC]

I sure hope so, I love wiggly staves, don't want to abandon this one

[bradsmith2010]

Beautiful stave,,,

[Del the cat]

I have one at the minute that has mad reflex... steam it out... it comes back.
I've had similar before too, had to steam it and then fix the bend in place with dry heat. That seemed to work.
Del

[Woodely]

A lot of pieces of wood have its own natural memory no news there. ..

[maitus]

Nice stave, but im more interested about the bow on the backround ?

[maitus]

I know some guys clamp staves like this in form when they are green. The wood will "tire" of holding the natural shape while it dries. Perhaps soaking for a couple of weeks and following clamping until the stave is dry again could help? Not have a clue, just a thought ....

[wizardgoat]

Pretty common with Yew branches. Drives me nuts. Recently, a friend I helped make a cool branch bow said it warped into reflex over the winter. This branch was over 5 years old when we made it.  I did around half a dozen steam and dry heat sessions, maybe it was too much.  I had it straight again but it blew after a couple dozen shots, into many many pieces. 

[Bryce]

What!? Yew dries straight? Lol I’m just messing with yah.
Yeah branches are coiled with higher degrees of tension and compression wood. The only way to increase your success at a straight branch stave is to separate the two woods using the tension side for your back. Clamping it into place and letting it dry as slow as possible. But even then 2 or 6 years down the road unclamped it and well the next day could totally be warped sideways. Yew is it’s own animal sometimes.

When it come to difficult bends, if your using steam that’s all good and well but after it cools it would be a good idea to give it some good deep heat with the heat gun. Maybe even a couple cycles to relax and then set the wood. That’s when I’ve had the best success.

That’s quite the dogleg. Remember when your tillering it to switch it around so you can see both sides of that wiggly limb.

Keep at it Don!

[DC]

I heat treat the heck (well, a little more than heck ). It opened up three cracks down the middle so maybe that will help relieve a bit of tension. There is a few other problems like some twist that I ignored and there was a couple of knots that are gone now but left some questionable grain. As soon as it's cooled off I'll draw a straight line from tip to handle and then start watching. I've never had this with yew and I've done a few branch bows. Maybe they were good and I didn't have to bend them. In hindsight I should have dried it whole and then oriented the bow to make it work. But I wanted to get going, it's such a nice stave. There's that impatience biting my butt
That's for the responses.