Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: doggonemess on April 04, 2012, 12:22:19 am
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I've had a tall shrub (I guess I would call it a tree) growing in my front yard since before I moved in to my house years ago. It isn't all that attractive, and I've almost considered having it cut down. But I wasn't really serious about the idea, and it's continued to get bigger. I have lately been learning more about different trees, and decided to figure out what I had in my yard.
Imagine my total complete shock on discovering that the tree is actually English Yew. I compared some photos of the needles and cones, and it's a perfect match. I also had a landscaper come by and confirm it the other day. He estimated the age at around 30 years old.
So, now, the question I have is pretty obvious. Is this bow wood? Obviously, if it is English Yew, it could be. But should I cut some of the trunks down and try to make a bow with it? Or is it too small? None of the trunks are more than three inches in diameter.
I'm very interested in proceeding, but I don't want to mess this up, considering the price of yew staves. Should I let it be for a few more years?
I'm open to advice! Thanks very much.
Here are some pictures:
(please excuse the contrast)
(http://www.thatsmywebguy.com/hosted/images/photos/archery/yew%20(1).JPG)
(http://www.thatsmywebguy.com/hosted/images/photos/archery/yew%20(5).JPG)
(http://www.thatsmywebguy.com/hosted/images/photos/archery/yew%20(6).JPG)
(http://www.thatsmywebguy.com/hosted/images/photos/archery/yew%20(7).JPG)
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Jack-pot, Mutha-load, et al... 8) Congrats
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Yew is actually a commonly planted shrub. It's shade tolerance makes it attractive. Not to diminish the excitement of your find. :) Hope you can find some bows in there. You're likely to have a lot of knots to contend with, and a low ring count due to all the sunlight and watering it's received.
Wow, I sounded like a real negative nancy there ::), good luck and have fun. ;D
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Even if there's no bows in there, I would still say you are lucky to have a nice yew tree in your front yard. I have never seen a yew bush that big in person,... but I look all the time... :)
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Well, the fact is, the Britons had English yew in their archery heyday, but they used Spanish yew, the English yew not producing stave-sized material. Mostly what you have is a shade shrub that is poisonous to certain herbivores. guess you could kill a deer with it that way.
Jim Davis
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it may not be the best quality, worthy of a warbow, but it would work great for a regular weight bow
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Well, the fact is, the Britons had English yew in their archery heyday, but they used Spanish yew, the English yew not producing stave-sized material. Mostly what you have is a shade shrub that is poisonous to certain herbivores. guess you could kill a deer with it that way.
Jim Davis
Hey now, del makes english yew bows all the time I believe. I have seen some nice english yew bows. Please correct me if I am wrong del.
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Let it be. I can't believe how bowyers will cut anything growing if they've heard it makes a bow.
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Perhaps prune some branches and incorporate them into a bow, but not kill the goose.
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I've made quite a few bows from english yew. Our yew tends on the whole to be less dense than some of the imported stuff that i've seen, oh and twisted and full of pins. Occasionally you see some really straight sections with no/few pins. I've found most of our yew is best for flatbows with crowned bellies, it's also very good when sinew backed too.
Your tree is just about the weirdest looking yew i've seen - it doesn't grow like that here.
If the ring count isn't great (which I suspect it will be) try it heavily reflexed and sinew backed.
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Let it be. I can't believe how bowyers will cut anything growing if they've heard it makes a bow.
I believe it! I see it happen all the time. If it weren't for all of us primitive bowyers around here, Kansas would be heavily forested. ::) Just kidding you a bit. I don't believe it matters in this case since he was considering cutting it down before he thought it was bow wood. Wouldn't you prefer that tree died for a reason instead of just being piled up and burnt? Josh
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Thanks for the advice and encouragement! I'm not going to cut the tree down, I've decided that I like it. Regarding Bowyer's Deforestation, I understand the urge, but I don't act on it very often. In this case, I was just curious if the tree was the correct size and shape, but I still want to keep it in the yard.
My neighbor two houses over seems to hate trees. He has an oak that is 50 feet tall (or so) and huge around the trunk. He's been talking about cutting it down for ages, due to it taking up so much space in his front yard. Fortunately, it would cost way too much for the service, so the tree is safe. Any idea how old an oak that big must be?
But like it was suggested, I may "prune" a limb or two some time. One is resting on an overhead coaxial cable, so maybe I should remedy that...
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... the English yew not producing stave-sized material....Jim Davis
That's just an oft quote quoted theory, but it's no more than that, it certainly isn't fact.
Provincial bowyers would probably use local wood and there is documentary evidence that they were given leave to cut any Yew except that belonging to the church (or some such, I can't remember the source document but it is quoted in either Longbow by Robert Hardy or Weapons of Warre).
Yes we imported Yew from Spain Italy etc but maybe because they had it and were keen to supply us with wine and other goods, thus we could levy a tax of so many staves per ton on imported goods.
Maybe we were more interested in the Oak in our woodland for ship building.
So perhaps it's more about supply and demand and trade than quality.
It doesn't mean English Yew is no good for bows.
I have made many excellent English Yew bows.
I don't mean to appear argumentative, but the facts are open to more than one interpretation and extraploation of the facts into theories is fraught with possible error.
If you can get foreigners to provide you with free material why go to the trouble of harvesting your own?
I don't profess to be right on this, I'm just saying we don't know for sure.
Del
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I'd suggest you cut that dead limb out, it may give you an idea of the heart/sap ratio and the quality of the wood.
There may be a slim chance that you'd get enough heartwood for a small bow, a miniature or a crossbow prod.
Del
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yes it is a yew tree( shrub),how do you know if its not a welsh yew tree instead of an english yew tree,where are yew from ,if yew were from scotland it wood be a scottish yew ,lol...anyway it looks a bit thin to make a self bow have yew considered splicing them ,glue 2 short staves together in the handle area and work from there ,good luck and dont forget to where a mask when using this wood as it will make you high!seriously...be warned.
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are you sure about that volts?
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Also, if your one of those crazy people that believe in "orbs", then I guess you caught a bunch of orbs flying around your yew tree. LOL :laugh:
(http://i44.tinypic.com/nbasmp.jpg)
I mean these things:
(http://i42.tinypic.com/18zsqd.gif)
:o ;D
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Those are just the spirits of English archers who will never be free unless their tree is turned into a bow so they can finally "move on" ;) ;D ;D
I might have watched too much ghost whisperer with my aunt :laugh:
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lolo ohh man that is too funny!
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1000000volts, I've never had any ill effects from yew. I've had wind blow fine file shavings into my face many times and nothing. Joel
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yes i am sure you get high off yew trees they are poisoness,it starts off with a very dry mouth and a kind of amphetamine buzz, shamans used to boil it and breath in the vapor,ive made many yew bows and my mouth and nostrills have been full of yew sawdust,and i promise you i had yew tree poisoning many a time makes your heart race,if you dont believe me do a google search.where i live there are many old yew trees,some are 500 years old plus,with trunks at least ten foot wide.
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yes i am sure you get high off yew trees they are poisoness,it starts off with a very dry mouth and a kind of amphetamine buzz, shamans used to boil it and breath in the vapor,ive made many yew bows and my mouth and nostrills have been full of yew sawdust,and i promise you i had yew tree poisoning many a time makes your heart race,if you dont believe me do a google search.where i live there are many old yew trees,some are 500 years old plus,with trunks at least ten foot wide.
I don't think its yew then. Yew gives me a headache and nose bleeds.....that's it.
It DOES NOT get you "high"
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There's no doubt that yew is highly poisonous. But people react differently to the poison. I've heard the story of people getting 'high' from working with yew wood before. So 100Kvolts is not the only one. Myself, I've worked with yew numerous times. It does not make me high, but I sometimes feel a little light headed a few hours after I finished woodworking. Sometimes it's also a little hard to breathe for me; my nose swells a bit on the inside, or so it seems. It could very well be the case that the poison builds up in your system. You may not feel anything the first few times you work with yew, but you may react progressively worse to the dust over prolonged exposure.
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thanks i told them so,and its 1million volts not hundred thousand volts,lol,i play with electric as well as wood.....i have a beautiful yew longbow i made recently,42@30. leather and fake gold threaded handle shes so smooth to draw ive called her silky sue lol.i will post a photo of her soon.
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I'd suggest you cut that dead limb out, it may give you an idea of the heart/sap ratio and the quality of the wood.
There may be a slim chance that you'd get enough heartwood for a small bow, a miniature or a crossbow prod.
Del
What a mighty fine suggestion! I just so happened to do that the day I posted the start of this thread. ;D Here's a cross section of the limb.
(http://thatsmywebguy.com/hosted/images/photos/archery/yew_crosssection.jpg)
When I originally cut the top off, I sealed the end with enamel (the end not pictured), so it's unlikely that anything crawled in. I saw live growth coming off the sides of the wood, too. At the time I originally pruned it, I knew nothing about trees, and threw the part I cut off in the woods. It's gone now. :embarassed: Wish I had known better then.
It's been seasoning in my car for a few weeks now. I made my own little kiln. It's easy! One easy step - stick the wood in your car and park in the sun. I've been told it works wonders.
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Wow, that looks pretty sweet.
You can send it to me for closer evaluation :laugh:
This explodes some of the myths about the stuff you can find growing in more domestic environments (e.g. Pale, wide rings, thick sapwood)
The colour is great, the ring count looks fine, the sapwood is nice and thin, maybe because it was tucked away in the middle and was nice and slow growing (Yeah, like so slow it died ;) )
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying all Yew is good, but sometimes there's good stuff there for those that look.
Seek and ye shall find!
Del
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Thanks for the encouraging words!
If I can ask one last thing regarding this - I plan to make a short bow from it, since it's less than four feet long. Should I split the log into two (or three?) or just work my way in? It's probably three or four inches thick. Rather than splitting, would a saw be safer?
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You should so make a spliced handle bow, ;D.
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Thanks for the encouraging words!
If I can ask one last thing regarding this - I plan to make a short bow from it, since it's less than four feet long. Should I split the log into two (or three?) or just work my way in? It's probably three or four inches thick. Rather than splitting, would a saw be safer?
If you saw it you will get a couple of decent sections which could be spliced. Splitting is better in theory, but it can wander off with knots.
Personally I saw to maximise the yield from Yew, and it's pretty tolerant of waggles in the grain, minor run off etc.
JMO of course.
Del