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Where to cut yew

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tannhillman:
There are three bows in the pictures, but sometime during the period I mentioned. I get some wood from tree surgeon contacts and that can be cut anytime of year, depending when they are asked to do the work.

PatM:
And how thick do you think that "layer" is?

tannhillman:
If you mean the cambium .. I've just measured a bit with my digital calipers iv just scrapped off an off cut and its 0.25 of a mm .

WillS:
So you're choosing to leave a piece of the inner bark on the bow, despite the fact that it's pretty ugly and has no historical bearing when it comes to what we know about warbows because it's protective - at 0.25 of a mm?  Seems a bit odd.  Not trying to gripe or cause an argument (there are easily enough of those surrounding warbows in particular so apologies in advance if I'm coming across abrupt!) it just seems really odd.

It reminds me of a thread a while ago that was on the EWBS forum.  Somebody had found a guy trying to sell his longbows on eBay and he did what you do - left the "cambium" (or whatever it's called) on the back, saying that most of the MR bows had it.  The general consensus amongst the warbow guys (and we're talking the really top talented bowyers such as Joe Gibbs et al) was that it was totally pointless.  None of the MR bows have it (unless you count bits left in dips etc) and most of them said that they'd much rather have a bow with the thinnest possible sapwood that had been chased and reduced to a single ring so the bow itself performed faster, as compared to leaving a soggy strip of something just to show that the sapwood hadn't been worked down at all. 

In fact (and this is second-hand information so take it or leave it - I don't have anywhere near enough experience to say whether it's true or not) I've been told by at least two bowyers who I really look up to at the highest degree that the best thing you can do with yew sapwood that doesn't need to be thinned per se is reduce it down to the first yellowish layer, rather than the brighter white stuff.

At 0.25 mm it's probably not doing a thing for strength, but it's more likely just a preference thing, and if you prefer that weird brown stuff covering what would be a stunning white back then that's your call ;)

I still think however, that trying to differentiate terms between bast, cambium etc is a bit over the top.  Bowyers will know what you mean if you say cambium - I think to most people who make bows, you have the bark, then the cambium, then the sapwood.  It doesn't NEED to be more complicated than that, otherwise we might as well start using latin names for everything and being all elitist when somebody asks us how to treat rot in heartwood and telling them that rot doesn't exist, and the area they're referring to is actually xylem. 

PatM:

--- Quote from: tannhillman on April 26, 2014, 04:55:09 pm ---If you mean the cambium .. I've just measured a bit with my digital calipers iv just scrapped off an off cut and its 0.25 of a mm .

--- End quote ---
That's what I don't get. You say it comes off when the bark is dried in place and popped off later , but why would it not just come off later if the bark is removed when the stave is green?
 I'm looking at the part where you have rounded the back near the horn nock and the color on the back looks like nothing more than oxidized sap rather than an actual layer of material.

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