Walnut sapwood bow finished

I'm very pleasantly surprised, having gone at it like a bull at a gate with the worst piece of walnut, it seems remarkably good.
I've only had one shot at full draw, and not seen it on the tiller beyond about 24", but it seems to have retained a nice hint of reflex. I'd guess the weight is a tad short of 40# at 27" but I'll check it on the tiller some time. I'll probably test it through the chrono to see how it performs.
It's a whisker over 2" wide at the widest.
I'm impressed as I'd expected it to take some set and maybe chrysal... ok I know it's low draw weight and it's wide and heat treated, but it's not over long. Maybe I'll see how hard I can push it, but won't go beyond 28", maybe try with some light flight arrows?
I haven't got a full brace full draw pic yet, as I've only just made the string... check out the build along on the Youtube channel (Del Cat) I've made it into a play list.:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qqUKCNhT5w&list=PLBz2tD9476KRuVA_Fkpzav-457zLavBU5

I've now had it back to full draw on the tiller and it's a whisker over 40# @ 28". It shoots nicely, my first 3 test shots at 10 yards, put one low and left, the next two were in the kill on a paper target of a Jay.
The dark mark on the side of the right limb near the tip makes it look like a bit of a kink.

Update:- Just shot it through the chrono... 168fps... nice :-)

Groan!

 Just been been near one of the old buildings in Harlow (Moot House)... they are doing work there to "enhance the environment" by re-paving... They have protected a large sculpture of Chiron and 2 large Plane trees...

However I noticed a pile of sawn tree stumps, about 10"diameter, lovely dark reddish brown heart wood, creamy white sapwood.

Yes they'd cut down some Yew ... none of it left... bastards... enhancing the environment? My arse!

I had a chat to the foreman and told him what decent Yew is worth, maybe some will get used in future rather than sawn up.

Makes my blood boil. I've since E-mailed the council suggesting that if they are felling trees they should contact interested parties. My E-mail is being passed to the Parks and Landscape department. They also said it would be very unusual for healthy trees to have been felled... but of course a Yew tree doesn't need to be healthy to have good bow wood in it, slow growing stunted trees can produce very fine wood, and some will insist that it's actually preferable to faster gown wood.
Meanwhile I've been playing with the walnut cut last year. I've been working the worst bit which had tons of reflex and sideways bend. It stream bends well and I've roughed it out quick on the bandsaw. I overdid it and created a weak point (see pic), however, shortening that limb and will probably allow it to become a low weight bow of about 30# . The good thing is that it gives me an idea of the dimensions I'll need for a decent
primitive style 40 pounder. It feels very much like Hazel, but maybe not quite as stiff.

Getting on with it.

 I'd been working on a scruffy bow made from 2 mismatched Yew billets. I'd only spliced it up (Z splice) in order to video the process for someone. One good limb had some deflex and reflex with cleanly define heart/sap wood. The other was just scruffy and from a much narrower branch which had weird heart/sap and the central pith was running up the belly, just under the surface.
To cut a longs story short it exploded on the tiller, but to be honest I'd only really been doing it to give me something to fiddle about with (videos on the Del Cat Youtube channel).

Now that's out the way, I'm going to look at the heartless walnut I cut last year. I'll probably start on the worst piece first and see what it's like work and how it performs. The main concern is the huge reflex in the staves.
The growth rings are really fat, I think the tree had been growing above an underground gravel bed (about 3' dawn) that had water running through it, which would account for the rapid growth. I'll see if I can clean the back and sides up to a decent surface so that I can have a good look and then rough it out on the bandsaw.