Anybody have experience using dry heat on yew? I have several staves with a 90 degree twist in 6 ft. Hoping a heat gun will do the trick, I seem to remember reading that yew responds well to dry heat, but I can't find it.     Rob

Not much experience with yew, but I bet you could make your staves kind of board-like and steam/heat straighten. Then add your handle piece after that.

i used a heat gun and cooking oil( extra virgin olive oil- only the best for my trade bow recipient!!), and it worked really well- some kinks took a few treatments.
i found that you cant feel it go "soft" like osage- so i just heat the  belly and sides until i feel the heat migrate through to the back- until it is too hot to touch for say 3 seconds.
i DONT apply any heat to the back!!!- then bend and clamp, i always got about 40 to 50 % springback- so the severe kinks i had to do a few times. and i did add in some backset over the whole limb- just did it in stages.
g'luck
wayne

Thanks, guys. It's slow but it's working. Now if I don't find one of a million other ways to screw it up.....