working with yew

[skeetstar]

Fellas, I got a small project to do for a friend. The piece of Yew in the photo will be cut to set in the base of the aperture in the wall against which it is resting.

My plan is to set a few crosswise battens in the aperture, then peg and glue the Yew down to those battens. I then plan to cover the edges of the battens each side with a strips of wood left over from the main board.

A few questions.

Is my approach a good one? I dont really want to use metal fixings if I can avoid it. Any other suggestions?

The board was milled 18 months ago. It is just over an inch thick, I plan to leave it where it is for 6 weeks to acclimatise, and then work on it. Should I be expecting a lot of movement in those six weeks. Is six weeks long enough? Is it likely to move much after I fix it in position?

How much should I cut it short if at all to allow for lengthways expansion over a 3'6'' length?

and lastly, are there any finishes that should be avoided, I like oiled finishes, so would probably go for Tung or BLO but I've never worked with Yew before so would value some recommendations.
Thanks all

 

[Woody2Shoes]

Hi - Am I right in understanding that you want to lay the board flat - as a cill along the base of that aperture?

As long as the board doesn't twist/cup - and I've no particular reason to suspect that it will (unduly) - then any movement is likely to be across the width (short dimension) of the board/cill - probably a few mm max over the forthcoming years. If your fixings are close the centre of the board, and the rest of it is free to move, then I don't see a problem. I'd be tempted to stick it in place with a few blobs of polyurethane glue along the centre line.

As you indicate, you'll need some kind of apron/beading to conceal the edge gaps you create underneath and at each end.

Cheers, W2S

 

[Yojevol]

are there any finishes that should be avoided, I like oiled finishes, so would probably go for Tung or BLO but I've never worked with Yew before so would value some recommendations.

I've made a couple of cabinets out of yew and have found it very frustrating. The problem is that the grain can be all over the place so planing is difficult. I found the best method was to not bother with planing but to sand the sawed surface. The finish you can get by sanding through grades to 320 can be superb. you only need a waxing to bring out the grain features. The piece you have looks beautiful. I'm sure you'll get a great result.
Brian

 

[custard]

In many respects Yew is a nightmare to work, there are so many fissures and bark inclusions that wastage goes sky high, and it's also quite tricky to finish. It's prone to tear out and wooliness, yet you can't scrape it.

However, it does have the redeeming feature (besides looking beautiful!) of being very stable and easy to dry.

Yew's stability is actually comparable with some tropical hardwoods. Along the grain, in common with most timbers, you'll find shrinkage is negligible, certainly well under 1%. But even across the grain it's very low, going from freshly felled, wet timber all the way down to 12" moisture content, and shrinkage will only be about 2% across radial cut grain, and 3.5% across tangentially cut grain.

 

[skeetstar]

Thanks fellas.

Yes the wood will be flat effectively like a window board.
Great news about its stability, the last thing I want is to get it exact, and then find it shrinks badly.
Sanding is fine by me, and I like the idea of waxing it .. easily renewable.

So thanks again, the aggregate wisdom and experience of this forum, is a great asset to any woodworker.

PS Have a good Christmas.

 

[Woody2Shoes]

I'm sure you'll be taking suitable precautions anyway, but bear in mind that the yew tree contains toxins - it's impossible to quantify the risk, but I think it's worth being more careful of the dust than usual. Cheers, W2S

 

[AndyT]

I used some yew for the top of a little chest of drawers a few years ago.

I found that it was difficult to plane by hand, because of the lovely swirly grain and little knots. My solution was to plane with an old fashioned toothing plane to get the surface level, then scrape with a Stanley no 80 to get it smooth. This worked well.
I then sanded with Abranet. For a finish I used Tru-oil, which I really liked for this job. It was easy to wipe on and soon built up to a good shine on the tight grained yew. You can add layers to get a deep shine, which is why guitar makers like it, and buff it back with fine abrasive if you want to. Pictures here

chest-of-drawers-wip-slow-hand-tool-project-t87014.html?hilit=chest%20drawers&start=75#p960246

 

[skeetstar]

Thanks to all who helped me out here. job is all but done, In the end I sanded it through the grades and got a lovely smooth finish. The end grain was easy to plane, and I imagined that the side grain would be as well, but it wasn't at all, I have to revert to sanding for that as well.
did some sample finishes on a scrap for the customer and they went with BLO.. is there any down side to using BLO?

Once again thanks all, really appreciate your help.