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Troublesome Yew Stave

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babbott:
I have a Yew bowstave, 74" NTN, with nice grain and sapwood, but as it has dried, it has become quite curved.  It has a pronounced deflex at about two-thirds of its length, and it also bends to the side at a similar point.  I was thinking that I could rough out the shape, then steam it to straighten it.  Has anyone tried this type of treatment?  I have seen a guy on TV make a recurve with yew, so I know it can be done.  Does anyone have any advice or warnings?  Here are two pics of the stave:





Thanks for any help,
-Ben

Marc St Louis:
Ben
Yew bends well with dry heat. You could rough out the bow then use dry heat to starighten it out.

SimonUK:
Sorry for jumping in on the thread Ben, but I have a related question.

Marc (and others), I need to correct some string follow in a yew bow. It has 2.5 inches of string follow and has only been tillered to about 27 inches.

Can I apply dry heat to the bare wood? Or should I complete the tillering, apply my finish of linseed oil and bees wax, then heat it?

Thanks

Simon

SimonUK:
Ben, in my limited experience with narrow bows like elbs, I find it very difficult to line up the tips when straightening a roughed out bow.  So I try to keep the stave as wide as possible when straightening. Then you have some wood to play with when marking your centre line.

With that sideways bend I imagine you'll need to narrow it a bit though.

Marc St Louis:

--- Quote from: SimonUK on February 26, 2008, 09:37:01 pm ---Sorry for jumping in on the thread Ben, but I have a related question.

Marc (and others), I need to correct some string follow in a yew bow. It has 2.5 inches of string follow and has only been tillered to about 27 inches.

Can I apply dry heat to the bare wood? Or should I complete the tillering, apply my finish of linseed oil and bees wax, then heat it?

Thanks

Simon

--- End quote ---

Simon
I used dry heat to take some deflex out of a Yew bow I was tillering and it worked well. I just applied the heat directly to the wood. If you use a heat gun then use the high setting and keep the gun about 4" away from the wood. Keep heating till the wood starts to darken in colour. If removing set or deflex then you would need to reflex the limb as you were heating it.

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