I have been in Kent in 99 to visit my daughter, and her mother have made me seeing the oldest yew on England. It is 1600 years . This place is a little cimetery near Detling, close to Maidstone. Very nice place.
Over a couple of my local parks I've noticed that young yew trees seem to spring up in random places, so it seems like birds deposit the seeds around the park and allow the yews to spread reasonably evenly across the parks. There are places where there are mature purposely planted and positioned yews along old driveways and gardens of the old mansions that used to be there, which are where the seeds came from that sprung up new yew trees randomly across the parks.
My grandfather used to start his wood projects long before he even cut the tree down. Each year he'd pick a bunch of saplings and strip all but the top branches off and then wrap the trunks so no new branches would start. Then he'd wait, sometimes for years, until he had good lengths of absolutely clear wood; no knots, just beautiful straight wood. I remember one ash log that he had waited twenty years to cut.
That was really intressting, I always look at yew limbs with an eye to bow,, Very rare , that looked perfect, can't wait to see them take shape, Thanks for sharing
I knew the yew was the choice wood to make bows but never worked with yew mainly because : they don't grow as big round here, that log you split..I've never saw a yew that big. Lastly, I had some yews right up against my house for many years, unkempt, low, broad and bushy. Decided to cut them out. What struck me was how incredibly hard that wood is near the root. Smoked 3 chains on my saw cutting out 2 roots.
Wow, beautiful wood you've got there! My logger friend in Oregon recently told me he's been saving yew as he comes across it. I bet he has some nice specimens. Inspiring video, thanks for sharing!
🎩Hi as an ex forester one of the local woods I worked in had yew trees planted at every junction. And you used to know where you were by how many. 6 point, 7 point and so on. I managed to get a perfectly straight 6ft yew stave from 7 point. Hard as anything it is.
Can't wait to see wat you get out of those peaces. I've recently been building bows here in the states out of Osage orange and hickory. The Osage was less then agreeable. The grain looked good even after opening the log...real good...but later didn't hold up. Hickory is much easier to work even with flaws and knots and makes a good Boe. But Osage is the prime wood here like yew is for you guys
I'm a bowyer in Maryland and make bows primarily out of Osage and then Hickory. As long as you get a clean ring on Osage, it's almost indestructible. Hickory is GREAT as long as you design the bow well. Otherwise it takes quite a bit of set.
Still in Rougham? I've been making fret boards for guitars and some wood is like a Christmas present waiting to be opened. Beautiful grain, colors. It's a magical moment.
I love the grain in Yew 😃 yes is hard af to carve but so so worth it, beautiful wood with amazing colours running through the grain. Theses are going to be stunning bows! 🥰 Can I put my name down now for one please brother 🤟
I sawed a reasonable dead branch off of a yew tree last year that had been dead long enough for it have been seasoned. Not sure if I could make a decent bow from it. I could probably make a small selfbow, but I don't think it's thick enough to make a full length yew longbow. I may end up just using it for crafts and making handles for pressure flakers etc. I've been using well seasoned apple wood for my pressure flaker handles up until now and while it has quite nice colours and also a bit of bruising from deer eating some of the bark, it's nowhere near as nice as a good piece of yew.
New to the channel and loving the videos. This one in particular reminded me of Kingley Vale Yew forest near Chichester. Some are over 4000 years there i believe. Amazing place, well worth a visit. I have a question if that's ok - i've heard that Yew is poisonous and ergo risky to work with? Are there special precautions you have to take that you don't with other woods?
I have to say Italian yew is much better then English yew. It grows much straighter then English yew. It is also Historically correct to use Italian yew over English yew for English long bows.
Every day is a school day indeed! Thank you for that Will!
Love it when I discover information that I didn’t know I didn’t know. It opens up a whole new trail to investigate.
English Yew is so gnarly.
I have been in Kent in 99 to visit my daughter, and her mother have made me seeing the oldest yew on England. It is 1600 years . This place is a little cimetery near Detling, close to Maidstone. Very nice place.
There is one in Scotland over 5,000 years old and it had a sex change about 8 years ago 😂
@@WillLordPrehistoricSurvival lol 😆
@@WillLordPrehistoricSurvival Shit, i do not know than trees could be trans.
Over a couple of my local parks I've noticed that young yew trees seem to spring up in random places, so it seems like birds deposit the seeds around the park and allow the yews to spread reasonably evenly across the parks. There are places where there are mature purposely planted and positioned yews along old driveways and gardens of the old mansions that used to be there, which are where the seeds came from that sprung up new yew trees randomly across the parks.
My grandfather used to start his wood projects long before he even cut the tree down. Each year he'd pick a bunch of saplings and strip all but the top branches off and then wrap the trunks so no new branches would start. Then he'd wait, sometimes for years, until he had good lengths of absolutely clear wood; no knots, just beautiful straight wood. I remember one ash log that he had waited twenty years to cut.
Great place, that is a nice piece of yew can't wait to see the bow.
Nice piece of wood
Please don’t stop making videos
Can't wait to see you start making a bow. Hopefully you will have some more of the story to tell as you work!
Thank you!
That was really intressting, I always look at yew limbs with an eye to bow,,
Very rare , that looked perfect, can't wait to see them take shape,
Thanks for sharing
Wow, beautiful piece of Yew, stunning.
I swear I could hear your heart rate increase as you cut into it, nerve wracking 😊
I wasn’t messing about 😃😎
Can’t wait to see what you with this!
I knew the yew was the choice wood to make bows but never worked with yew mainly because : they don't grow as big round here, that log you split..I've never saw a yew that big.
Lastly, I had some yews right up against my house for many years, unkempt, low, broad and bushy.
Decided to cut them out.
What struck me was how incredibly hard that wood is near the root. Smoked 3 chains on my saw cutting out 2 roots.
Wow, beautiful wood you've got there! My logger friend in Oregon recently told me he's been saving yew as he comes across it. I bet he has some nice specimens. Inspiring video, thanks for sharing!
What a choice piece of wood!
Lovely 👍🏼 ✨
great video, keep it going!
🎩Hi as an ex forester one of the local woods I worked in had yew trees planted at every junction. And you used to know where you were by how many. 6 point, 7 point and so on. I managed to get a perfectly straight 6ft yew stave from 7 point. Hard as anything it is.
Can't wait to see wat you get out of those peaces. I've recently been building bows here in the states out of Osage orange and hickory.
The Osage was less then agreeable. The grain looked good even after opening the log...real good...but later didn't hold up. Hickory is much easier to work even with flaws and knots and makes a good Boe.
But Osage is the prime wood here like yew is for you guys
I'm a bowyer in Maryland and make bows primarily out of Osage and then Hickory. As long as you get a clean ring on Osage, it's almost indestructible. Hickory is GREAT as long as you design the bow well. Otherwise it takes quite a bit of set.
Still in Rougham? I've been making fret boards for guitars and some wood is like a Christmas present waiting to be opened. Beautiful grain, colors. It's a magical moment.
real nice Will !! good luck with it!!
I love the grain in Yew 😃 yes is hard af to carve but so so worth it, beautiful wood with amazing colours running through the grain. Theses are going to be stunning bows! 🥰 Can I put my name down now for one please brother 🤟
Totally agree! Bud I would love to offer you a bow from it but on this occasion the 4 bows are already earmarked
Looks like a great piece of yew. Maybe you could get six staves from it?
I sawed a reasonable dead branch off of a yew tree last year that had been dead long enough for it have been seasoned. Not sure if I could make a decent bow from it. I could probably make a small selfbow, but I don't think it's thick enough to make a full length yew longbow. I may end up just using it for crafts and making handles for pressure flakers etc. I've been using well seasoned apple wood for my pressure flaker handles up until now and while it has quite nice colours and also a bit of bruising from deer eating some of the bark, it's nowhere near as nice as a good piece of yew.
So did they manage the yew trees to grow straight branches, or were there just so many trees they just had to hunt?
New to the channel and loving the videos. This one in particular reminded me of Kingley Vale Yew forest near Chichester. Some are over 4000 years there i believe. Amazing place, well worth a visit.
I have a question if that's ok - i've heard that Yew is poisonous and ergo risky to work with? Are there special precautions you have to take that you don't with other woods?
I’m headed there next month for a trip really looking forward to it no I don’t take any special precautions when I work with Yew and don’t get sick
I always heard osage orange was the best bow material, but that might be a north American thing.
I have to say Italian yew is much better then English yew. It grows much straighter then English yew. It is also Historically correct to use Italian yew over English yew for English long bows.
Exactly, they would import loads of yew from northern Italy for their longbows.
Your reminding me of someone...yes, it's Colin Furze ! Could be your little brother. ;)
Fot the best wood. Go to Wales