Yew Harvesting Trip

Stuart and I went over to the Shotley peninsula just South of the River Orwell and opposite Felixtowe. We had a very productive day with lovely weather and an enjoyable lunchtime break looking over the coast while eating pasties from the Suffolk Food Hall. We'd got there about 11:30 and made a good start before lunch. I shinned up the Yew and sawed off the top stuff which we stacked out the way, we made one cut at the base of the trunk and then called it lunch time.
We weren't cutting the whole tree, it has two main trunks and we took the straight one. As we cut a bird's mouth V out to actually fell it, it seemed to be almost all sapwood, but closer inspection showed the harder heartwood was actually deflecting the bow saw blade. Oddly my folding pruning saw from Wickes was working particularly well on the sapwood and we soon had it felled. For a safe controlled drop, we had it roped to the second trunk, with the rope going round 3 times, allowing us to let it slip in a controlled manner by easing off the tension.
Splitting it was a bit of a pig as there were a couple of side branches near one end, it certainly illustrates why I prefer to saw where possible. The log was just too big to handle in one piece, in fact each half was still a fairly hefty two man lift.
We had offered to do a bit of an archery demo for the guests in the holiday cottages if they were about, but they'd all gone out for the day to enjoy the good weather. the upside was that we could get the wood onto the roof rack and make it home before the rush hour kicked in.

This afternoon I've tidied up the logs a bit, painted the ends and got them stacked just off the floor. Sometime we'll run 'em through the bandsaw, but that will be a two man job again.
There is a lot of sapwood and it's easy to be a bit disappointing, but I think there is plenty of wood there. Some how an 8" diameter log with 5" of heartwood looks worse than a 6" log with 5" of heartwood! The splitting has left some ragged timber, but we have plenty of length and worst case there is probably a couple of good bows from each half, also probably a sapwood backing strip or two.
On the pic of the stump (bottom) there is a pound coin for scale.

I also got the second limb of the Hickory flight bow heat treated, ready for finishing and testing later in the week... if it stops raining!

Quick Test of the Flight Bow

I managed a try out with the flight bow, even though it's not finished yet. I'd glued a bit of feather (from a cut down flight) to act as an arrow rest, (see close up pic) it seemed to work well as the arrows left the bow very cleanly.
The first two shots were a bit tentative with a cut down regular arrow and a flight arrow, the latter going predictably further at 251 yards. I then tried again getting a fuller draw and a cleaner loose ... 299 yards!
Pretty good considering the bow is unfinished.
JT tried a variety of flight arrows from the 120# Warbow and, it beggars belief, we lost one. The field has been mown and the hay collected, as you walk towards the arrows they are visible from about 50 yards sticking up. He'd shot the 5 bamboo arrows of different spines, and then the 2 pine flight arrows. I watched 'em go and had a good line on both of 'em, yet one was nowhere to be seen. We could only guess that it has maybe hit a stone and not stuck up straight, there were bits of dried grass all over the field an finding an arrow lying flat would be V difficult.
We gave up eventually having drawn no great conclusions about the arrow performance, other than maybe the loose is as important as anything else.

Update:- Got ready for my Yew harvesting trip tomorrow and heat treated one limb of the flight bow while keeping an eye on Emily and Andy Murray who has just won the singles at Wimbledon.

Flight Bow Tricky Tillering

The flight bow has come on deceptively fast, it almost looks like it's simply been cut out by numbers to a pattern, but the actual tillering is V tricky.
The bow is so short and the actual working limbs so short that slight errors in how the bow and it's string are supported on the tiller make a big difference. I've shaped the grip, reduced the levers and made a shoot through arrow pass/rest. It's been braced and the arrow/finger position marked with tape to allow it to be pulled accurately on the tiller.
The shoot through hole may well need enlarging considerably, but better to start small and make it bigger... it's hard to reduce the size of a hole! Bear in mind flight arrow fletchings are very minimalist too.
In the pic, Emily Kitten is checking that the grip is a good tail fit... very important the tail fit!

 Where the lower limb had looked stiff and I'd eased it off, it now looked weak. I've been checking an actual draw by looking at my reflection in the patio doors. I finally got it looking pretty even and plucked up courage to draw it to 24", it's actually only 50# and gave a slight noise at one point, not quite the dreaded death 'tic' but a bit worrying.
You can see from the pics it's taken a slight even set, that's fine. I'll strap the limbs back flat and heat treat the belly. I was tempted to add a hint of deflex/reflex, but the old adage of keep it simple is probably sensible.
It's looking a bit more elegant now, but doesn't have the slender elegance of the Yew Cherry flight Molle' that it's modelled on, and it's only about 5# heavier... so it doesn't seem very promising. But heat treating is the ace in the hole, and Hickory responds well to it, so I'm hoping for about 60# at 24 now. I've also allowed some room to reduce the length of each lever a whisker if necessarywhich will increase draw weight and reduce mass and inertia.
Maybe it will explode, maybe it won't chuck an arrow very far. I'm hoping to heat treat it and get some test shots soon, then I'll start the work of fine tuning it.
I need to prepare for a Yew harvesting road trip on Monday so I don't know if I'll have it shooting this weekend.
Just got a call from my mate JT, we're on for a bit of shooting tomorrow morning excellent. I'll make a string and give it a try out before heat treating... better check I have a suitable arrow too!
Update:- String made and tested with a 21" arrow, seems pretty quick and flew nicely through the hole... seems odd having to thread the arrow through the hole.

Flight bows are a bit of a niche thing... this one hasn't taken long to make if you discount the years of experience and the endless pondering about how I'd make it.

It's like the old joke about the retired maintenance guy who get called called in when the factory boiler stops working (or whatever piece of equipment suits your story). The lost production is costing a fortune... he walks round with a big wrench, followed by eager suited executives and accountants. He checks valves, feel pipes, listens to the boiler and eventually walks up to a water feed pipe, picks up a length of 2x2 timber that is leaning by the pipe. He whacks the pipe at a U bend and listens... there is a gurgling sound and suddenly it all springs to life.
He submits the bill, next day he gets a call from the accountant querying it... £5000 for whacking a pipe with a piece of 2x2 is a trifle excessive isn't it?
He says OK fair enough, I'll submit a revised bill.
See below:-
Striking pipe with 2x2" timber      £25
Knowing where to hit it.         £4,975
                                    total   £5,000

I also had a good trip out to a local farm shop, the farm keeps Geese and now is the time they moult their feathers. He let me have a look round the goose enclosure and pic up feathers, I got a good handfull, not many white ones unfortunately, but still a good return for an E-mail and a few minutes drive. He was a really interesting chap and it turned out he grew cricket bat Willow down along the river for a company that makes bats. We had a good old chat about wood, bows and bats, I picked up a big punnet of strawberries while I was there too. It's good to make local contacts. Which reminds me, I should wash and sort those feathers.

Two Bows on the Tiller

I don't often work on two at once, but I'm keen to get the flight bow done. It's the first time I've used commercial timber and I've not made a self Hickory bow before either, although I have used it as a backing. I may get it tillered to about 60# then heat treat the belly to gain a bit extra. The upper limb has just started to take a little even set, which is fair enough as it's working hard.
It's a tad scary as there were some odd noises coming from it during the first flexing, you can see the left (lower) limb is too stiff, but it's flexing a fair bit. I've since eased of the left limb and rounded the corners considerably which seems to have quietened it down. From rough out where it barely flexed, I've taken off about a mm, then another mm with draw knife and spoke shave, they both needed sharpening to cope with the Hickory. Now it's mostly rasp work, the levers are vastly oversized and haven't been touched yet. No point doing a load of work on them until I know it isn't going to explode!

The Yew longbow is fairly short at just under 70", it's to be 60# at 28" which should be ok as I've made 70 pounders that length before.

BBY Collected & a Flight Bow?

My mate Lawrance came over to collect the bamboo backed Yew this afternoon. The pic makes the upper limb look a bit long, but that's due to the bow being canted over a bit and the camera being at eye level. I should have known to kneel to get the camera at the same height as the centre of the bow..
The lower limb tip still isn't completely uncoiling but it's not far off and once the bow and archer are more used to each other it may settle down.
It's arguable if it actually qualifies as an English Longbow (NFAS deffinition), but it's hard to know how much reflex will stay in when gluing up and during tillering. It may get a little adjustment later, but Lawrance isn't really that fussed as he isn't seriously into competition anyway he can always shrug and say "call it whatever you like!"

I've got a Yew longbow roughed out, it's to be 60# @ 28", I've been filling a couple of knots, but it's already flexing on the tiller.

Meanwhile there's good news  and bad news on the flight shooting front. The good news is, the field has been mowed, the bad news is, I haven't made a flight bow....
So I pulled out a big length of Hickory that my bowyer friend Matt had given me, it's a tad odd as it has heart & sapwood running through it, but there's supposed to be no difference anyway. I might be able to make it into a Yew lookalike longbow, but I figured there's enough to cut out a flight bow based on my Yew backed Cherry one from last year that was pretty good.
I'm making it with the growth rings running from belly to back. Many Hickory backing strips are cut this way. I offered it up to the bandsaw, but the fine tooth blade didn't like it. Swapping to the 3 tpi blade and letting it go at it's own pace went through fine.
I'm aiming at about 70# at 24", that's scaled from 90# at 31" which I know I can pull. That should hopefully give me a decent distance... if it doesn't explode!
I was going to go a hint longer on the levers, but forgot that as I drew round the original bow! Having allowed a bit extra all round should give me some wriggle room. There is plenty of width on the timber and it will have the sapwood strip running down one side.
Note, I won't be shaping the grip, as I may make it centre shot, or shoot through a hole or have a false grip on an extension out the front, that allows the archer to bring the back muscles into play more and effectively do a 24" draw but by pulling back to a normal 28" anchor.
Should be interesting... watch this space!

Dear Diary

Shot another 20 arrows from the 'Boo Yew.
Coaxed kitten towards me and grabbed her from roof of next door's shed. She's now learned to miaow pitifully and tug at my trouser leg in a plea to be let out! She's had 3 short spells outside today(about 20 mins each). She's ok for a while and then goes bonkers rushing up trees at warp 8.
Made 5L of Gooseberry wine.
Hope to do some on the next Yew longbow, it's roughed out but I need to take the sapwood down and investigate a couple of knots.
Time for a cuppa... and maybe a cat nap.

Boo Backed Yew done ... or is it?

The bow is looking really good and shoots very crisply.
I twisted the string up a bit to get the brace height right and thought it looked a tad off, the lower limb looks a little over stiff at brace. Generally the lower limb is tillered a little stiffer to allow for the asymmetry of the draw, but this seemed a bit too much.
I put it on the tiller and it looks lovely at full draw, so I won't panic and over react, I'll get it shot in and see if it settles at all, I'll also let the guy I'm making it for shoot it to see how he finds it.

It's not actually a problem, just me being hypercritical... I don't s'pose most archers would even notice. There are plenty of little tweaks I can do to adjust it here are some of the things I could do in no particular order:-
1. Ease off the lower limb a tad, (but I don't want to drop poundage).
2. Do a tiny heat bend on the lower limb to deflex it a hint  (but I don't want to drop poundage).
3. Heat treat the upper limb to stiffen it a tad.
4. Do a slight heat bend in the upper limb to remove deflex or add reflex.
5. Take an inch off the upper limb to stiffen it a tad.
6. Leave it alone and stop being obsessive!

Here's a couple of pics showing some of the interesting grain. It's worth noting the the billets were cut from wood which would have been marginal for a self bow due to bends and twist such that the sapwood would lie along the back of the bow. By careful sawing the wood is fine as billets for backing with another wood as it will all in compression and the grain direction isn't so important. Of course there is a risk of warping and such like, but it's all part of the fun. On one billet thre are signs of the central pith of the wood along the centre of the belly, but on the other limb there are signs of it along one edge. That lovely swirling grain in the left pic, is a handsome feature, but probably couldn't exist in a self bow.

I've just shot another 10 arrows and had another look... it's fine, I think it's just the unbraced shape showing. The two billets are not a perfect match even with the bit of heat bending I did in the early stages before glue up. After all, it's not supposed to be a laminated recurve made on a former! Anyhow I'll calm down, have a nice cup of tea and keep shooting it in over the course of the day.
It does shoot nicely and rings like a bell when given a good crisp loose from a full 28" draw, yet doesn't feel at all harsh. I've stuck 5 scraps of masking tape on the boss so I can spread the shots around.