Trimming Staves

I was hoping to put some temporary nocks on the Derbyshire Yew but the garage was full of the Yew which I was given the other day.
I sorted it out, and painted the ends of the decent bits, I've probably kept more than is sensible, it's a triumph of optimism over realism, but it can always be thrown or turned in firewood later. There's a bow or two in there, so it's worth the effort.
(You can see it in the background of the lower pic... not much heartwood there, and rather small diameter)

The problem is I have no more room to store it. A reorganisation of staves was called for.
The stuff that was cut last June is stored as half logs, with the corners trimmed off these it has generated an empty shelf for the new wood. From the pic , you can see how I've sawn along the heart sap boundary. Holding the timber flat side up as it goes through the bandsaw allows me to see where I'm cutting, unfortunately having the curved surface on the table allows the log to vibrate, rock, rotate and snag unless it is held very firmly. I actually reach round behind the bade with my left hand and support the log as it goes through I brace my hand firmy againstthe back edge of the table making it into a sort of flexible moveable guide. My right hand feed in the log, but never gets close to the blade (The front edge of the table is close enough!). I use a coarse blade with alternate set teeth when ripping down timber, this helps to stop snagging, as does putting a small wedge in the cut a good way from the blade to hold it open. The tension in the wood can close up the cut and grip the bade, so a little wooden wedge is V handy.

The above practice will doubtless have some people throwing their hands up in horror as being unsafe.
It requires a good deal of care especially when nearing the end of a log. To minimise the danger, I'll generally stop halfway and then saw from the other end. Knowing how to deal with a jam or snag is also key, slight movement of the wood will often free it, or I simply hit the stop button and then free it.
One must not wrench on the log or try to pull it back as there is a chance of pulling blade from it's guides with potentially very nasty results if the blade snaps. Please don't consider the way I work as a recommendation, every man is his own safety officer! I'm simply saying what I do... it's not necessarily best practice or even good practice! It's about the only way of seeing where you are cutting tho' . Out of interest, I have made up various guides for curved timber but they don't really help unless you have perfectly cylindrical logs... it's a bit of a catch 22. Once the timber has been run through it has flatter faces for the next cut, but early on it's rather tricky. A helper can be very useful on long stuff, but they do need to know what they are doing.
If anyone has a design for a good jig for this sort of work (or a link to it) I'd be interested to see it.

The June Yew is pretty marginal too, maybe a couple of full length staves, which are rather wobbly, but a good few billets. There are a couple of odd bits which were screaming 'make me into a crossbow prod' as they were short, fairly wide with a nice curve to give up swept tips.
It's hard work running it all through the bandsaw (I still haven't finished) but some of the off cut sapwood (seen on the floor) may come in handy. I have this idea for maybe cutting it into thin strips and laminating together as a bow backing or making a laminated Yew bow. Dunno if I'll get round to it, getting it all nice and even thickness and then gluing would be tricky. It could give a very good back for bow.
A bit more work and I'll get the garage back to a usable state.