Main Discussion Area > English Warbow
How did bowyers harvest so much yew?
JW_Halverson:
--- Quote from: WillS on March 18, 2016, 05:19:42 am ---
You can get impossibly fine-grained European yew that makes terrible bows, and stuff with 5 rings to the inch that can reach 120lb and still be physically lighter/smaller than you'd expect.
--- End quote ---
And with the "meane" wood bows I make, the rule of thumb has always been that the denser the wood within it's species, the better the bow! Goes to show, yew simply does not play by the rules.
WillS:
--- Quote from: JW_Halverson on March 19, 2016, 02:18:33 pm ---yew simply does not play by the rules.
--- End quote ---
Never had a truer word been spoken!
Ruddy Darter:
--- Quote from: joachimM on March 18, 2016, 04:23:28 am ---Dont forget the english roved most of europe to get their yew. Due to the english, yew turned from a common to a rare species. Harvesting wasnt exactly sustainable at the peak of the demand.
For every yew bow a bowyer made, he had to make at least one bow from other wood so as to spare the yew. Forgot where I read this, though
--- End quote ---
I did read that during Spanish civil wars in the 14th&15th century some major yew groves where set to fire and destroyed by factions not allied to the English, as much to prevent trade and income as well as English warbow maufacture,
Ruddy Darter.
joachimM:
--- Quote from: JW_Halverson on March 19, 2016, 02:18:33 pm ---And with the "meane" wood bows I make, the rule of thumb has always been that the denser the wood within it's species, the better the bow! Goes to show, yew simply does not play by the rules.
--- End quote ---
I'm not so sure yew doesn't play by the rules. I rather think that ring count is often not a good predictor of density. Not just for yew, but in general. I've seen some woods with rings of 2 cm wide of equal density as same species woods with 10 rings per cm, and intermediate staves being much lighter. I've been fooled by ring count a lot.
WillS:
That may be true, but yew is still an enigma! It can tolerate serious ring violations, ridiculous knots, bad tillers, splinters and cracks across the grain... Crazy stuff.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version