Yew tree

[Rough Hewn]

Love the song cheers [emoji23] and yes looking to hand make a long bow I’ve looked up and yew seems to be the best for it but can not find any been looking for a while is that a yew tree in the picture 

No logs but I have yew in stock.

[Ashley gould]

How long are those lengths and where abouts are you? 

[muttley9050]

Need to get into selling the habitat idea more, there's no good and bad just different ecological niches.

 

I'm a big fan of not having to move wood that doesn't need moving.

Habitat is great. All for it, but I was told yew was a poor choice as its toxic to most things. Makes sense to me but could be wrong.

Came from wether or not to fell a dead standing yew for Milling or leave for habitat. We milled it as seemed no good for habitat

[rapalaman]

Shame that got chipped and left Mick - have got loads that has been drying for about 8 years and sold a good few £ worth to wood turners.

about 2 tons left to go through 👍

[peds]

Very exciting. Just walking the dogs around a forest I've not been in since pre-Eowyn, and I've found this yew tree. Photo attached, dogs for scale.

 

 

 

I'm definitely going to snip a bit of this off for making a longbow or two.

 

I wonder, is lower down the stem preferred, or thick enough from higher up?Can anyone recommend any good resources online for longbow making? 

 

To Google!

[openspaceman]

36 minutes ago, peds said:

Very exciting. Just walking the dogs around a forest I've not been in since pre-Eowyn, and I've found this yew tree. Photo attached, dogs for scale.

 

 

 

I'm definitely going to snip a bit of this off for making a longbow or two.

 

I wonder, is lower down the stem preferred, or thick enough from higher up?Can anyone recommend any good resources online for longbow making? 

 

To Google!

You need  a clean cleft and the proportions of the flexible and elastic sapwood on the outside of the bow with the strong in compression  heartwood on the inner.

 

Yew woods grown with competition between the trees to yield a clean stem were the preserves of royalty, I did work in one, owned by a knight but not royalty, who established it just after the war. I was clearing up after some unscrupulous fellers had ripped off a load of veneer butts in an older part of the wood.

[peds]

Useful stuff, cheers. I'll look for cleanest lengths then. It had competition all right, long established ash beech and oak on all sides. So hopefully it'll yield some good straight sections. 

[stuckinthemud]

Cleanest length, stem not branch, if you only want to make one or two, but thick straight branches yield compression wood, and that makes very interesting bows. I would try to stockpile it as seasoned long bow staves are rare and valuable 

 

Derek Hutchinson is one of the best in the business and has a you tube Channel and blog. Also known as del the Cat and Bowyer's Diary. The boys and girls of the primitive archer forum enjoy walking novices through their apprenticeships in the dark and addictive world of bow building, it's how I started out and I continue to go to for help/advice/encouragement 

Edited Wednesday at 18:39 by stuckinthemud

[peds]

Outstanding, thank you Stuck. I'll follow those leads and see what develops. 

[stuckinthemud]

Give me a shout if you need any help on getting started