Yew Boo Glue Up

My mate JT has been over off and on over the last few weeks and we've been working down a marginal Yew stave, the sapwood was suspect so that came off and it's been gradually worked down as the belly for a boo backed warbow/roving/flight bow.
It's been tricky due to the limitations of the wood, knots, encroaching sapwood etc.
Don't quite know how it will perform or what it will be yet, as it's rather short. Mind it would have been 6" shorter if we hadn't cut out a big knot that ran at a shallow angle through one tip. We actually milled it out as a slot right through the limb on my mini mill (Clarke CMD10). I could have chiseled it out, but it was fun to try a different approach and there was less likelihood of splitting the wood as it was knotty. We fitted a plug about 3" long. The plug being slightly wedge shaped such that, once the Boo back was on it could't possibly pop out (see first pic)

The stave had a fair amount of deflex, and it was glued up on a former with about 1" of reflex. We got it glued up yesterday with clamps and rubber strapping in between for extra belt and braces squeezeosity.

Taking the clamps off this morning the stave sprang back up about 1/2" at the grip making it pretty much straight and putting some nice pre-tension into the Boo backing.
The stave still has some undulations and will have a bit more character than a laminate made up from machined timber. We could have spent more time getting it pre-tapered and even, but our sessions are limited for time and we couldn't resist the temptation of getting the glue up done.
It's that old balance between perfection and pragmatism. :-)

It will be interesting to see how it feels once cleaned up and tried on the tiller... that will have to wait until JT's next vist.

Final pic shows the bow testing rig having a tentative try out with my filed bow. The rig isn't fully finished yet, but it seems like it will work well.

Bow Weighing Rig

I'm making this portable rig for someone to replace a somewhat heavy and agricultural one.
It gives me an excuse to turn some bits on the lathe and bash some metal.
I bought the crane scale off E-bay for about £19, I've made a nice curved piece to hook onto the bow string and modified the scale slightly, removing some of the bulky case to allow the hook to be fitted better.
I sawed off some of the excess case and used the offcuts to patch the resulting holes, which I then painted with some Humbrol enamel, which gave a remarkably good match.

The scale is rather nice inside, a shaped plate of aluminium has strain gauges mounted to it (these are covered with epoxy) they are wired to the circuit board which has a surface integrated circuit (amplifier) and another mounted directly on the board, potted in epoxy (display driver)? The push buttons are nice discrete switches with good feel (rather than unreliable membrane switches), they sit behind a thin membrane/label which keeps the muck out and protects the display.
It was worth taking it to pieces as I found the internal screws that hold one end of the plate to the case were loose and there was small split pin inside! (it's part of the kit of bits, shackle, hook etc that comes with the scale)
The spine of the rig will be a length of aluminium extrusion which was left over when we had solar panels fitted. The clamp to hold the bow is made of layers of ply, it slides in the extrusion and a simple loop of bungee cord with a nice leather tab holds the bow firmly in position against the larger fixed plywood block. The bungee hooks over a knob turned from lignum vitae (I bought a chunk of lignum off E-bay just for the fun of turning it).
 The winch is also made of plywood glued up and turned on the lathe, it pivots on a turned steel shaft and the handle is turned wood mounted on an aluminium crank. I pretty much copied the dimensions from the original, whilst improving the detail.
I've laid the parts roughly in position to show how it goes together. One nice feature is the measuring tape which slides nicely in a channel along the aluminium extrusion, this will be attached to the sliding block which presses against the back of the bow, thus giving draw length measured to the back.

I'll probably get the rig finished before picking up the next stave, which I expect will be a Pacific Yew Warbow for my mate Rob, not the same Rob who had the Yew primitive...

Yew PV Finished

I've got the bow finished and taken some video of it being shot.
It's surprisingly difficult to get a good image from the video due to camera angle, lighting and the movement of the bow. In the still taken from video, the upper limb looks much fatter than the lower due to the change in contrast despite the green fabric hanging up to cut some of the back light from the sky.
It shoots very crisply with the arrows waggling a fair bit over the 10 yards, I may ease off the arrow pass a tad, mind the arrows are 35-40 spine and the bow is 50#

Video here:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_C3nxhEEHbE

Multiple Projects

I seem to have swung from nothing much to 4 things on the go!
The Yew primitive needed steam bending to get rid of the side ways bend before it can go on the tiller. First session didn't seem to relax the wood much so I immediately refilled the steamer and have it more time. I pulled it beyond straight and over night it did recover to some extent but was still slightly over corrected. Another steaming allowed it relax back a tad and it looks good now.

While I was waiting for the steaming and allowing time for it to cool I did some roughing out of Rob's Pacific Yew stave, a very nice piece with lovely consistent thin sapwood which won't need any reducing. That will be ready for first try on the tiller soon.

Meanwhile my Pacific Yew stave arrived, not such a nice piece and a less experienced bowyer would have found it very challenging. There was a good deal of deflex and sideways bend, there were muscular ripples running diagonally across the back which told tales of internal stress. I allowed some extra width when doing the first rough out, and as I took a little off the side the thin slice curved itself down towards the belly which is rather unusual.
As I took some off the belly it revealed some nasty worrying black manky stuff where there had been damage as it grew. This will probably be a bow for me and at about 90# maximum so there is still enough good wood, I was a bit concerned that the manky stuff went deep and continued along the whole stave, but it seems ok. The wood was also a bit brittle in parts splitting off too easily for peace of mind. Anyone who had tried to lay a bow out and cut it in one go would have been in trouble... mind there is still plenty of time for me to screw up, but then I like a challenge.

The above is a good illustration of why the buyer needs to beware even when buying from a reputable source and having viewed a video of the stave... no one knows what lurks deep inside the wood.
I blame the fact that it was ordered on Halloween (cue spooky music).

I've also been doing some to the portable bow weighing rig, but I'll post pics of that when it's all finished.

Update:- First video of the Yew Primitive on the tiller here.
https://youtu.be/8Vso6D7dQ_k

Bouncing Back

After the collapsing step ladder incident I didn't feel too bad, but the next day it kicked in and I felt rotten. It's all settled down now, but I'm still a tad sore, so when I went to the Society of Finsbury Archers Baron Camoys shoot at Stonor Park (Oxfordshire) I just shot over the morning.
It was a great shoot, in a lovely setting with a large turnout (50 plus?) and great company. I enjoyed a good natter and a bite at lunchtime before driving home. The shoot itself was roving marks with many of the shots being across the valley. Just before lunch we did the speed shoot, as many arrows as you can get off in 30 seconds at a mark set at about 100 paces. I loosed 6 arrows with 3 of them scoring which was pretty good, one guy managed 7 with 5 scoring which is impressive.
Whilst there I handed back the bow that had needed some fiddling and fetting and collected a lovely Pacific Yew stave from Rob which he wants turning into a 130-140# warbow.
Many thanks to Emma and "Dodge" Erry for the excellent organsiation.

The decision to quit at lunch was a good one as I arrived home in good time, pleasantly tired and ready for my Sunday roast.

I've picked up one of the skinny Yew staves and started work on a primitive for a guy... (another Rob), he'd had his name down for a bow for ages, and this seemed like the right stave to give it a go.
I no longer have a real list of orders as I tend to only make them for people I know (or who visit) or if some interesting wood turns up or an
Anyhow the primitive a bit odd as the stave seems much skinnier at one end with not much heartwood and it has some sideways bend and a nice burr knot on one limb, the target weight is only 40-45# @28" so it should be fine and have some interesting character. Hopefully I'll get it on the tiller for first flex today or tomorrow. I might trim down the big Yew stave too just to get a feel of it, and to see if I can cut off that corner knot, it might even yield a useful off-cut for a belly lamination.
I'd better get on with it rather than sitting here ...ha... my enthusiasm is back :-)

interesting bow is wanted. I only make 'em when I want to rather than when I feel I should... doing it because you "ought to" is a mistake IMO.