can you make a bow out of freshly cut green yew?

[cumbrian_pete]

im looking at making a simple bow for somebody for Christmas, a way wondering if its possible for the bow to be made more or less when its been cut straight from the tree, or does it have to be left to dry?

 

[Man of Tanith]

I seem t recall it needs t be seasoned.
But you're better off waiting for a more experienced bowyer to arrive to confirm that

 

[dwardo]

Sorry bud but yes it does have to be dry. You can speed up the process a lot by roughing out the bow to floor tiller then sitting it somewhere dry for a few weeks. Under a bed for instance.
Wet wood will just take a bunch of set (looking like its strung when it is not). Green wood just crushes under compression where as dry resists it. This means it loses power every time you pull the bow and will eventually just crumple under the strain.

 

[Man of Tanith]

See told you a more experienced bowyer would turn up

 

[mountainm]

Sorry bud but yes it does have to be dry. You can speed up the process a lot by roughing out the bow to floor tiller then sitting it somewhere dry for a few weeks. Under a bed for instance.
Wet wood will just take a bunch of set (looking like its strung when it is not). Green wood just crushes under compression where as dry resists it. This means it loses power every time you pull the bow and will eventually just crumple under the strain.

Sorry for the hijack. But can you set it in a reverse bend when green to creat a recurve and add more spring when dry?

 

[dwardo]

Sorry for the hijack. But can you set it in a reverse bend when green to creat a recurve and add more spring when dry?

There are bowyers that will strap green wood into a form to produce a shape, usually reflex across most of the bow rather than sharper recurves.
I have tried this with poor results, poor in comparison to using heat and steam. In one of the bibles I think it was Tim baker who said that green wood will always try to return to its natural shape under stress. This was my experience too, the shape simply pulled out during tiller.

 

[cumbrian_pete]

Great thanks for the advice, so it will just have to be a late Christmas present instead then, better late than never. I once made a simple bow out of green wood just for a bit of fun and that set curved like it was drawn, that explains why. But id like to do this one properly, i also would like to put a curve in it at each end, sort of like the merida bow off brave the cartoon haha, but not such sharp bends, id imagine that would be too hard?

 

[dwardo]

Great thanks for the advice, so it will just have to be a late Christmas present instead then, better late than never. I once made a simple bow out of green wood just for a bit of fun and that set curved like it was drawn, that explains why. But id like to do this one properly, i also would like to put a curve in it at each end, sort of like the merida bow off brave the cartoon haha, but not such sharp bends, id imagine that would be too hard?

All depends on the quality and size of the wood. Flipped tips or recurves place more strain on the wood than a standard bend through the handle bow.
If the recurve bits are "static" and do not move at all then the rest of the bow that's working/bending has to take the strain on behalf of the none working bits.
The idea behind the recurves is to decrease string angle making the draw smoother and more efficient as well as increasing early draw weight. They also decrease stack and finger pinch.

I dont want to put anyone off building any type of bow but recurves especially static none bending recurves can be a bugger to make. The working part of the limbs have to be very well tillered. It can be a nightmare to get the tips in line at full draw, not to mention heating in the statics in the first place without splinters pulling or crushing the back. They then have to be light enough to not rob the bow of cast but at the same time heavy enough not to be pulled out of shape.

These are the last two I built. I would guess it takes about twice as long to make one as a standard bow.

http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=114095&highlight=wych

http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=108262&highlight=wych

 

[cumbrian_pete]

WOW brilliant that is a fantastic bow you certainly know your stuff. i suppose then jumping in at the deep end and trying to make a bow with curves will be a bit out of my depth, it does not matter too much, i ideally wanted it to have curves but its not a must, it seems hard enough work making one without. how will i know that the wood is dry enough to start working on?

 

[dwardo]

WOW brilliant that is a fantastic bow you certainly know your stuff. i suppose then jumping in at the deep end and trying to make a bow with curves will be a bit out of my depth, it does not matter too much, i ideally wanted it to have curves but its not a must, it seems hard enough work making one without. how will i know that the wood is dry enough to start working on?

Few things to consider.

The less mass there is the less time the wood will take to reach its moisture content (MC) equilibrium with its surrounding environment.
Down side to this is drying too quickly and causing the wood to check (crack and split) The less mass there is the less internal stress there is that causes this checking and cracking. Its always a risk fast drying wood. If you had all the time in the world and all the material you want you would do this a lot slower, over years. I dont have the patience or the room to store the timber.

I cut the timber green and split it out into to more than 3inch width splits. I then leave them for a week or two with the bark on in my workspace which isnt heated.
Then I started roughing out a 2.5 inch wide blank for the whole length preferably 70" long for an English long bow type but usually i make shorter recurves so about 65". I will also work down the belly of the stave to about and inch thick leaving more thickness at the handle. It then gets left for a few weeks again. These over sized measurements leave lots of options for the final bow style.
The next stage is to remove the bark and rough out a bow. This is the point where the bow will start drying much faster and after a few days in the shop it gets moved to a warm room in the house. I will weigh the blank using an accurate digital scale. Once the bow stops losing weight for about a week its ready to go.

This all sounds like a long time but think of it more more like a factory line rather than making one bow at a time. Half if not more of the timber i rough out will not make it to a bow due to various faults or problems. If you do all of this to just one blank and come across a nasty problem you cannot fix then it will put you off bow making.

Plus when you have several bows to work on then you are always in the position to keep working and even better just put a stave down when you are not sure where to go with it and start on another.

Hope this helps and any more info please just ask. Lots of works in progress here from me and other bowyers.
http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=87278&highlight=stave+making

 

[cumbrian_pete]

Few things to consider.

The less mass there is the less time the wood will take to reach its moisture content (MC) equilibrium with its surrounding environment.
Down side to this is drying too quickly and causing the wood to check (crack and split) The less mass there is the less internal stress there is that causes this checking and cracking. Its always a risk fast drying wood. If you had all the time in the world and all the material you want you would do this a lot slower, over years. I dont have the patience or the room to store the timber.

I cut the timber green and split it out into to more than 3inch width splits. I then leave them for a week or two with the bark on in my workspace which isnt heated.
Then I started roughing out a 2.5 inch wide blank for the whole length preferably 70" long for an English long bow type but usually i make shorter recurves so about 65". I will also work down the belly of the stave to about and inch thick leaving more thickness at the handle. It then gets left for a few weeks again. These over sized measurements leave lots of options for the final bow style.
The next stage is to remove the bark and rough out a bow. This is the point where the bow will start drying much faster and after a few days in the shop it gets moved to a warm room in the house. I will weigh the blank using an accurate digital scale. Once the bow stops losing weight for about a week its ready to go.

This all sounds like a long time but think of it more more like a factory line rather than making one bow at a time. Half if not more of the timber i rough out will not make it to a bow due to various faults or problems. If you do all of this to just one blank and come across a nasty problem you cannot fix then it will put you off bow making.

Plus when you have several bows to work on then you are always in the position to keep working and even better just put a stave down when you are not sure where to go with it and start on another.

Hope this helps and any more info please just ask. Lots of works in progress here from me and other bowyers.
http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=87278&highlight=stave+making

Ok that is more info than i could ask for, thank you very much i will do just that with them, i will get some various bow staves too so im not disheartened if one fails, as i did dread that happening. i particularly want to make one out of a yew for myself too so i may let that dry out naturally for as long as possible in my garage.

thanks again dwardo