Last Staves of the Year

These are my last 3 Yew staves for this year. The longest and best has a fair bit of deflex.
The one on the left has great clusters of pin knots breaking through as a hugely undulating back, it also has a gaping knot in the belly about 4" from one end. It is too iffy for anything other than an experimental character longbow, although it could end up looking stunning. I'll possibly make that as a show piece.
The skinniest one is the one I've now picked up, it's a sister to stave that made the last bow (e.g From the same log, so the grew side by side.) You can see the knot a few inches from one end like the last bow and some of the knots on the edges of the belly which will hoprefull disappear as it's worked down.
I've got a 55# and a 60# to build, that's not a lot of difference, so I'll see how this next one shapes up.
The problem with the knotty stuff is that you can't just go at it with the drawknife as it will dig into the knots and dip down into the undulating grain splitting into the wood or ripping out great gouts. Some carefull roughing out on the bandsaw and tentative drawknife work can get you so far, but after that it's laborious work with a rasp until you have clean wood. Even the one has to be carefull as a spokeshave set for a fine cut can still dig in where the grain is dodgy.