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Harvesting yew

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Oberon:
  Greetings , I live in Oregon and have several yew trees  on my property two of them quite large.  Planning on harvesting at least two of them, would appreciate any advice on the process like splitting out the staves , like dimensions for long bows length and thickness  curing time and so forth.   Any information would be greatly appreciated.
  These trees are at about 1200 to 1300 foot elevation.

Aalmaron:
what areas in oregon are good for finding yew?

I recently split my first walnut tree and it went really well. it had a 9 foot straight section, so i cut that out, then used a wedge and a splitting maul on the end while it was laying down. i then chased the split with the maul. make sure its centered. if the split twists or runs off, then the grain wasn't very good. then i split those halves again to make quarters. i had an 8 inch tree so this is were i ended to let it dry.

snag:
Oberon, I have heard that the best yew is found under large old growth. With the diminished sunlight it grows slow and straight with few knots.

bow-toxo:

--- Quote from: Oberon on April 09, 2010, 08:45:58 pm ---  Greetings , I live in Oregon and have several yew trees  on my property two of them quite large.  Planning on harvesting at least two of them, would appreciate any advice on the process like splitting out the staves , like dimensions for long bows length and thickness  curing time and so forth.   Any information would be greatly appreciated.
  These trees are at about 1200 to 1300 foot elevation.

--- End quote ---
  Mediaeval practice was to cut in winter when the sap is down to make the best bow.The bole log should be split with a mallet and a pair of iron or oak wedges to end up with staves three fingers square and 7 feet long. Paint the ends to prevent checking [important !]and leave in an unheated room to season for one to five years.
                                                                     Erik

snag:
I've also read that the old-timers would turn the stave or log once in awhile to disperse the sap evenly throughout the piece of wood.

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