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yet another yew war bow

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Pat B:
I have a primo yew stave that James Parker gave me in trade for some locust I had. The stave was sawn out but the grain looks quite straight. It is 72" long, 1 7/8" wide, the sap wood is 3/16" thick under the bark and the ring count is, from what I can count, about 35rpi. There is one 1/4" knot along one edge about 3" from one end and it looks like it goes towards the center so it is a concern. There are about 5 other knots but they are all towards the center of the stave and I can deal with them.
   I have remover the bark but violated a ring or so  because the back undulates a bit around the knots. Should I worry about these ring violations and raw hide back the stave? or does a few violations matter with yew.
   I want this to be a somewhat heavy bow, 80# to 90# or a bit less even. I need to know what width to make it and should the handle be centered on the stave or offset a bit? and should it taper straight from the handle to the tips?
   I'm planning on taking my time with this bow because I don't want to screw up this beautiful stave and I plan on gifting it back to James probably at the end of May so any and all help would be appreciated.  I have made an ELB style bow with osage(BOM earlier last year) but this one will be of the war bow style...like JD's war bow...just not as heavy.     Pat

tom sawyer:
I'm no expert on this but I've talked with an expert at some length.  He is in the Bowyers Guild and makes and shoots yew ELB war bows.  He says it is no big deal to violate a sapwood ring.  I think he puts his handle 1or2" lower than center but can't remember for sure.

Pat B:
Thanks Lennie. With these thin rings and the undulating back it's almost impossible to not violate a ring or 2.    Pat

episaacs:
Pat, I've just bought a nice AAA yew stave from Dave Robertson and have been researching just that same question.  From reading posts on just about all the trad archery sites I can find, it seems that you can ignore the ring violations in yew, especially with a high ring count.  Hope this helps
Ed

Dano:
You can ignore the violations, but in the long run a rawhide back is good insurance. Yew has very soft sapwood as you will find and if it gets dinged it could blow. Personally I don't think it's worth taking a chance. That's the only help I can offer Pat. Good luck to ya.

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