I have more information and another question now about the yew billets (mostly log sections) in the stash I inherited years ago. I wrote about this "Inherited Yew Wood" in 6/2023 and 11/2023: about 200 44-45" billets and a similar number of staves. These are what's left of LL "Flight" Daily's stash for his 1935-1945 Eugene OR wholesale/retail bow business and then his next 22 years of individual building. This week John Strunk inspected about 40 of the billets, piece by piece. Of the 40, maybe only 1/8th would be suitable for selfbows. The main problem was twist (even though I had already culled out the worst of the twisted pieces). We haven't looked at the staves yet, and I don't know what to think about the selfbow potential from them. They are not matched, and many are clearly discards. But some may be just the third stave from half-logs used successfully for bows. What all of this means, I think, is that there will be only a limited number of selfbow-suitable billets for sale when we finish sorting. Also bowyers might reasonably want to see the wood before buying...so maybe of most interest to OR/WA builders? I understand from John that the other wood could be used for laminated bows. So...my main question: --How much bowyer interest do you think there would be in old yew NOT suitable for selfbows? THANK YOU SO MUCH for all your help over these several months. And I'll write again when I know more...maybe especially about the staves. Best wishes. Linda

I would be! My endless supply is running low, and Yew is a favorite of mine for both cores and veneers. Richard

To others,,, what kind of riser wood would Yew make, either ASL or Recurves? How about belly/back lams? Wouldn't think much could/would go to waste.

In the early years Howard Hill used a lot of yew for risers. I have three early bows in my collection that have yew risers.

Bob

I’d buy some small discards just to make key fobs etc.

Brian McBroom made me two reverse handle string follow longbows in the past year or so, using yew as the riser. He put an I-beam in the second riser. I quite like it.

I think there would be more of a market for Yew laminations than you may expect.

Thanks for the responses. About laminations, are bowyers generally willing to cut their own laminations, or would the market be for prepared laminations? If for prepared, what I see listed from suppliers is more like veneer laminations. But John Strunk described to me 1/2" thick laminations. Would there be a market for those? A slightly related question...I saw a yew selfbow for sale online. I may have misunderstood, but I thought the maker described having corrected slight twist with steam. Is such a thing even possible?

Sincerely HOPE that the YEW wood can be used for Z spliced billets, riser handles, lams of some kind? Do NOT discard unless proven USELESS? PUH-LEEEZE & THANK YOU!

Dave Miller built me an all yew Old Tom, and I realy like it. I looks great and shoots very good. Big fan of yew here.

I think you could probably sell more yew for laminations than self bows .

Thank you for the good wishes and information. No worries that I'll waste any of the yew. The twist in the smaller billets is definite but slight. If laminations are usually cut from 2"x2"x36" blanks (but I'm not sure that's right), there would be a lot of waste. These billets are 44" long and some are 8" diameter half logs. Plenty of extra wood, even if laminations are their main use, for risers. The original bowyer did z-splice (or maybe other splice...I can't quite tell on the only partial bow I have of his) to make bows. But if there's even slight twist in the tree, doesn't that mean that a selfbow won't work? Thanks again. All information welcome! Linda

I would be interested in character wood for veneers and riser wood. BigJim

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