Main Discussion Area > English Warbow
pacific yew hunting
E. Jensen:
If those are defects, please send to me for disposal!
yew hunter:
Every time i come across a yew log over 40 inches long I get out my axe head, 3lb mallet, and a bag full of fallers wedges and see how it follows the grain as it splits. That in itself is an interesting passtime trying to guess how its going to split out, and watching it "walk around knots" no two logs seem to be the same.
I think it was in bowyers bible that talked about grain. I used to think about grain in only a two dimensional way - only growth ring count or tight or loose grain. I now see the grain as "straws in a tube" and as i see it a bowyer wants the straws in the bow complete from tip to tip, or else your backing it with something. The way I see the yew split by hand it appears to me it would be kind of a crap shoot to use a band saw and hope to not violate the grain structure. Thats why I thought you would hand split, straighten, then saw after you knew exactly how the grain ran in the wood. I will look into using a froe.
DC's bows have alot of character - what I thought was defective wood in the yew I have been throwing away may not be so defective. I do look at it a little differently now.
WillS:
Something that might be worth noting is that while following the grain can be crucial in many woods, with yew you can very often violate it a huge amount with no problem. I've got heavy yew warbows that I made from twisty, bendy staves that I just pretended were dead straight. The grain swirls all over the place in some areas, and it doesn't affect the bow in the slightest.
I don't know how many other woods allow this but yew certainly does. The only time I straighten a yew stave is if I can't realistically fit a straight line to it without it falling off the side. Sometimes I'll be forced to make a layout that has some curves if there are big knots or the grain is worryingly crazy, but generally you can plough through snakey yew and not worry.
yew hunter:
Thanks for the replies. There is alot more to building a bow than I thought 10 months or so ago.... not your average wood working project.
E. Jensen:
It might also be worth noting that yew has interlocking grain, which means it not only has spiral grain, but alternates the direction of the spiral. This could make splitting problematic and not always the best approach.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version