Started on First Bow of 2019

I've been out in the garden burning the greenery from the Christmas wreath and decorations, along with some off cuts of yew. I'm informed it's a lucky thing to do, I put some dry eucalyptus leaves on to the blaze, they burn nicely and give a pleasant smell too. It just about wraps up the festive season, although we still have home made sausage rolls and mince pies in the freezer.

There's been a trend in some roving circles to shooting American Flatbows (what they call "longbows" in the USA), horse bows and other barebows, which are glass faced.
This allows some to use lower poundages and still enjoy the rove, shooting full distances. The bows are more durable (and cheaper) than the self Yew bows. Of course some of these bows out distance the self bows when it comes to the flight contest traditionally held at the end of the rove.

So... I thought maybe a heavy weight primitive of Bamboo backed Yew might give a nod to the trend whilst still being of natural materials, and might even give 'em a run for their money in the flight if matched to a decent flight arrow.

A scaled up version of Twister (45# @ 28") my "go-to" field bow is the basic premise, but at over 100# and about 31" draw.
I happen to have a couple of decent Yew heartwood billets from a log with dodgy sapwood. One is shorter than the other and They don't have any length to spare, consequently I've done a short Z  splice, only 2" long and about an inch wide. The short length should be fine as the Yew belly will be in compression and the bow will have a continuous Bamboo back and it will also have a small riser block glued on the belly. The overall effect will be a very solid join.
The short splice length does conserve maximum length of the two billets and gives me a stave of 76" which is fine. The width mid limb will be about 1 3/4" but the grip will only be about 1" (this has benefits in terms of a clean loose for flight shooting as the arrow will have to flex less to get round the grip
I may glue in a tiny bit of deflex at the grip and reflex at the outers, or leave it dead straight. I don't want to go bonkers and over stress it as it will be a long draw.

It's much easier to do a good accurate splice on billets for a laminated bow as the billets can be cut nice and flat and the two splices cut with the billets taped together.
BTW. The pic shows it dry assembled. I've since glued and clamped it so that it can cure overnight.

If you are not sure how this works, cut a couple of strips of card say 1" by 6". (Mark one face of each piece "back") Tape 'em together with back uppermost on both pieces. Mark out and cut a Z spice with scissors (cutting through both together). Undo the tape, fit 'em together with "back" showing uppermost on both pieces and they should fit together nicely.