My Dad ordered a couple of Yew staves from Ravenbeak and had them sent to me to make him a couple of bows. All my bow making experience this far has been making board bows with various backings, but I've always wanted to work a Yew stave. The staves arrived, and one of them has a lot of twist. Are there any good tutorial posts about this? I figure it can be dealt with, but I would really appreciate some advice. I will post some pictures when I get a chance. Thanks in advance.

Pictures would help. The twist may not be enough to cause problems. How much twist? If it is under 30 degrees I don't worry about it. My site has info.

http://traditionalarchery101.com

Jawge

Twisted, bent and crooked yew is an absolute nightmare. yew doesn't like to stay put after you move it. It rarely does completely. Localized steam works best for the most stubborn corrections, dry heat for the others. I hope your dad was made aware of that prior to buying them.

I agree. Yew is a bit of a different animal... and especially if you're making a deep cored English longbow. They have less lateral stability by design and a little bit of twist can cause alignment issues that will make you pull your hair out. I have twisted yew billets here I've been sitting on for darn near 20 years because of it. I can cut em straight and heat straighten the twist out of them as best I can, but I just know what they're gonna do when I brace em. Drives me nuts.

Still, I love yew :^)

I love yew too, Jeff

Buddy ol' pal :)

:^)

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