The Self Yew Longbow

For many this is the bow people think of or at least the wood to make a bow from, whenever I tell people I make bows for a living they always ask "do you make them out of Yew?" This wood, like no other, seems to conjure up the image of the English Longbow, its one of those little nuggets of knowledge people all round the world of any age seem to instinctively know.  Having said all that, and assuming you have actually gone through the other stages on the left and not just jumped to number 9, Yew may `potentially` make the best Longbow, but, its far from the easiest to work with.  Its certainly very difficult to get a good piece of Yew and indeed very expensive if you import some from America/Canada etc where most of todays best Yew comes from, particularly if its been harvested and selected specifically for bow making.

Here is a series of videos following Philip making a Self Yew bow for Lindsay, his Mother!