Sunday 28 August 2011

Stave anxiety

My stash of Yew which was cut last November hasn't yielded as many staves as I'd hoped and they are a bit knotty. One of the problems is the tree surgeon who cut the logs didn't cut them long enough (I'd asked for 7-8' but they were just over 6') some of the staves are barely long enough. The extra length would allow any big knots to be positioned at the centre of the bow or cut off one end.
One stave had a huge knot which once I'd chopped it away resulted in the stave being only enough for half a bow! Of course if one of the others isn't up to scratch I can always splice two halves together.
I've just got six and a half staves for longbows
On the plus side there is a half log which looks very nice, too short for a longbow but it will make a nice primitive or two billets to make a spliced longbow.
I've also managed to salvage some offcuts from the last longbow I made. These may just make a low draw weight takedown (carriage bow) which is something I've not tried before. The two halves are joined with a metal ferule at the handle.
Anyhow I've now stacked the staves up on their shelf for a few more months, hopefully next time I look at them they won't look quite so much disappointing as challenging.

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