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Ash backed yew

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broad_head:
Hi All
           Thought I would show you some pictures of my warbow. It was made from a yew billet given to me by a friend and backed with ash. The sapwood on the yew was no good and there were a few nasty knots that were all in the wrong places. I cut it in half and joined the two pieces at the handle with a simple lap joint with about 6 inches of contact, thought this would test the strength of resorcinol glue? The ash backing was cut from a billet using the outer crowned surface; this I thought would give it a self-bow look, and this again was joined near the handle with a lap joint. I didn’t think the bow would survive tillering due to the bad knots but it did. Having said this I noticed while photographing it a longitudinal crack from one of the knots, I am not sure if this is due to compression or not? I will keep an eye on it! Looking at the tiller it looks out, but I have noticed that I have not got the correct position of the handle on the tiller stick. Top limb was intentionally left stiff due to the large knots and unbraced there doesn’t appear to be any undue set.  The bow is 75 inches nock to nock and draws 80lb at 31 inches. The main objective of this exercise was to see if ash would make a suitable backing material for yew, as it is difficult to get hold of with nice sapwood. Using the natural outer of the ash gives the bow a more self-bow look rather than a flat piece of hickory.
       I had trouble getting all the photos on one post so have split them up onto separate ones.
                                                                                                                                        Peter (UK)


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broad_head:
More photos

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broad_head:
Yet more photos

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SimonUK:
Wow, I'm totally impressed by the lack of set.  According to Yeomanbowman, this combination of woods is historically accurate from Tudor times (I think).

Hopefully someone will give you some good advice regarding those cracks ...I'm personally thinking dribble some superglue into them.

Kviljo:
I think you have been worrying too much about those knots :) Don't think it is necessary to leave them that proud, but of course, it is better to be safe than sorry. The cracks are just the wood drying. Thin superglue is a good advice.

Great bow though! And the amount of set is impressive - how much reflex did you glue it up with?

Nice work :)

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