Main Discussion Area > HowTo's and Build-a-longs
Yew Recurve Build-Along
High-Desert:
I have removed the bark with a drawknife, leaving just a bit of the pinkish colored cambium layer, shown in the above picture.
Since this stave has been split, using a fabric tape, I measure across the stave and find the centerline. I do this every 6" or so down the stave, then connect the marks, this established my centerline. There are several ways to do this, some just follow the grain down the middle, or follow the high section of the crown down. I like measuring everything, so I have found this method works well for me.
High-Desert:
With fabric tape, it is difficult to hold it at 0 on the edge, so I start at 10", just for ease of dividing by 2, to find the center.
I then begin to mark out the rough dimensions of the desired bow. I mark off 1" from each end to mark where my nocks will be. Nock to nock will be 60" on this bow. I then find the center of the bow and mark 2" either side for the grip, then 2" out further for the fades. The handle lines are marked out at 1-1/4" at center, and 1-1/8" and the handle fade contact, then run the lines out to 1-3/4" wide, these run to mid limb, then taper to 1/2" at the tips. When I rough out the bow, I will follow just shy of the lines until I am about 8" from the tips, where I will stay about an inch wide to make recurving a bit easier and prevent twisting.
High-Desert:
I did make little mistake.....I was planning on reducing the sapwood to about 1/4", but I forgot to do that before roughing out. So the stave is rouhged out, which I used the bandsaw for, but sometimes I will use a hatchet to rough out the stave. It really depends on the temperature outside. Right now, its way too hot, so it had been roughed out on the bandsaw, but it really doenst take much longer to rough out a stave with a hatchet. Once the stave was roughed out, I began reducing the sapwood with a draw knife. I use a small device I made for measuring thickness that references off of one side of the stave. I forgot to get pictures of it, but I will gets some. The device helps me keep thicknesses consistent when getting the belly down to thickness and reducing the sapwood.
High-Desert:
Heres the stave with the sapwood reduced. Next, I will be chasing a ring in the sapwood. This step is not necessary, but I like doing it and it looks better when a ring is chased.....even tho I will be putting snake skings on this one. Chasing a ring in sapwood is not that difficult, the key is proper lighting. When the light hits it just right, coming just over one of your shoulders. I typically start with the drawknife, to get close to a ring, Then using a cabinet scraper, do the final touches.
Rākau:
I'm keeping tabs! haha hope you take it to the end!
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