Main Discussion Area > English Warbow
Where to cut yew
WillS:
Yeah it's tricky. Personally I've always called anything that isn't obviously "bark" or "sapwood" cambium. Whether that's fibrous stuff, or pickable bits of softer stuff makes no difference to me. That's clearly not scientifically correct, but I'm not sure quite why it would matter. As you say, as long as we and whoever we're talking to understands, that's all that really counts.
tannhillman:
--- Quote from: Del the cat on April 25, 2014, 02:35:24 pm ---It states in the work done on the MR bows (by Hardy I believe) that there are traces of cambium on the back of some of the bows.
Your picture of your Pacific Yew warbow is typical of a bow that hasn't had any the sap wood taken down to reduce it's thickness and....
a) Hasn't been meticulously cleaned up. No criticism is implied as I believe that's exactly what they are talking about on the MR and many of my bows show the same, unless I am being obsessive in prettying them up.
or
b) Hasn't been tillered with the 'underbark' left on to allow it to pop off in one piece, which gives a virtually perfect surface.
I think the main problem with this thread is twofold... one the naming of the layer above the sapwood, as the Hardy MR reference refers to both bast and cambium and I take it the mean the stuff visible in your pic (which in my experience is homogeneous with the thicker corky layer which pops off). It doesn't really matter what we call it in terms of seasoning wood and making bows as long as we understand what we mean.
The other problem is the different experiences with Yew. It is up to the reader who's opinion and advice they take.
As always I only ever offer my first hand experience, and I have no problem with people ignoring it or preferring the experience of others.
I shall in future use a generic rather than specific name for the corky fibrous underbark stuff that pops off.
Del
BTW... nice looking back :)
[/quote
That might be a little bit of cambium and inner bark left behind on your bow there. It is vey hard to tell from those pics of MR bows if the cambium is on them or not, for a start the pics are quite yellowy orange so similar to the colour of cambium. And after 400 years in the sea I think the colour has merged somewhat! I have uploaded some pics of some of my bows, the cambium is quite obvious :)
--- End quote ---
tannhillman:
And other one :)
tannhillman:
That's the cambium. And left on gives protection to the sapwood and, in my opinion, makes for a stronger bow:)
PatM:
When are you cutting that wood?
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