I haven't contributed here in a while so I thought I would get back into it by posting pictures of a bow that I recently built. Even though I have been building my own bows for a few years now, I had never made a traditional yew longbow. The reason being is good yew wood is not easy to come by and I wanted to hone my skills before I began cutting into my small stash.

For this first attempt I selected a set of sister billets from a yew sapling that I had harvested from a buddies property in the high Cascades.
It's not prime yew – there were several knots and one dog-leg that I tried, unsuccessfully to heat out. But the rings were tight and the ratio of sapwood to heartwood was good. I spliced the billets at the handle using a Z-splice and made it 66" ntn. The limbs are 1 ¼" wide at the fades and taper evenly to ½" at the tips. The design is asymmetrical with the top limb 2" longer than the bottom.  I like an asymmetrical design because the bow balances better in the hand when being carried. It smoothly draws 60# @ 27" and delivers an arrow with a gentle and satisfying thump. The overlays are some sort of tropical hardwood and the handle is natural elk with a Strunk style wrap. The bow is finished with 9 coats of Tru-oil.

I've always been a bit envious of my friend's traditional yew longbows, but now I finally have one I can call my own. Here are some pictures:

Beautiful!  

gorgeous!

thats very very nice

great bow, great pics  

Gordon, great to see you posting here again. That is your usual inspirational work, the tiller just makes me sigh with appreciation. Thanks for sharing.

Thats a gorgeous bow yew built Gordon, yew've outdone yourself!    

Looking gooood as always. Bue--

There are not many people who can make the English Longbow.
Take my hat of to any one that even gets close,

The best looking bow iv seen on this forum.

James

You certainly don't need to be envious of anybody else's longbow now. Yours is beautiful. Congratilations!

very nice!

As always Gordon, a true work of art!

That is the sweetest bow I've ever seen'd...        

Shawn...

i really like it!

  Leland

WOW, is all I can say. Thanks for sharing that beauty. Flint

Thank you all for the wonderful compliments. And have a great Thanksgiving holiday!

Wow, that is sweet!!!  Real nice one.

Treekiller            

Tracy

That's just plain gorgeous! Congrats and great work!

Spanky

Beautiful looking bow. Welcome back.