I recently purchased some Yew and would like to know if it’s ok to use the white outer edges as well as the mature wood.
There seems to be lots of waste if this is not used and I could see some wonderful potential for special projects using the contrasting wood colours.
Anyone any advice, ie shrinkage etc?
Replies
I know that Yew was used to make archery bows - I know with other similar bow woods the sap wood will cause checking but I have never worked with Yew. I bet it was very expensive.
Yew is an excellent cabinet wood...and if you like a variegated look, there's nothing wrong with incorporating the sapwood. For a softwood (gymnosperm species) yew is relatively strong, acceptably stable and is fine textured enough to have very good shaping characteristics.
...Just don't use it for food or toy related projects. It contains an extractive that affects the cardiovascular system. In fact, it can be deadly, if used for storing potable liquids (wine barrels, etc.)
About the only difference between the heartwood and sapwood of yew is that the sapwood has no decay resistance. The heartwood is extremely decay resistant.
Watch out for slivers from yew. They can be wickedly sharp and very, very, very long.
The toxic compound that Jon is referring to is Taxol and occurs at the rate of about 0.1% in Pacific yew (Taxus brevifolia). Taxol was found to have anti-tumoric properties that are especially effective in treating late stage breast, ovarian and small cell lung cancers. the taxol is not produced by the tree itself but rather in some symbiotic relationship with some other single celled organism.
All parts of the tree (berries, foliage, bark, and wood) can be toxic if ingested in sufficient quantities.
When I get a chance - this coming weekend - I'll put up a photo of a small jewellery box that I made a few weeks ago in heart and sap yew.
I think it looks great, sir.
Yew is an excellent furniture wood, but because it usually comes from smallish logs, the figure and grain tend to be all over the place, and it is sometimes hard to work.
Well worth the challenge, though.
Post us a photo?
Be careful about finishing - done badly the clean creamy white sapwood can go muddy.
Edited 7/22/2003 5:36:25 AM ET by kiwimac
Edited 7/22/2003 5:37:05 AM ET by kiwimac
I don't think Taxol is the compound Jon is referring to above. (Do other Yews besides the Pacific Yew containTaxol??) The toxin he is referring to is a glycoside, which knocks out heart muscle very effectively. A few hundred grams of wilted leaf (the only way they seem to eat it) kills horses very effectively. Don't throw your hedge clippings into the neighbor's pony pen.
I saw quite a bit of furniture made from Yew in Britain, some was a couple hundred years old. My ex has a pastry rolling-pin of Yew that hasn't injured anyone (chemically) in 30 years of use. But there have been a lot of recorded human deaths caused by Yew over the centuries, mostly in places like Agincourt (Yew was(is) the preferred wood of the English longbow).
Cheers,
IW
>>"Don't throw your hedge clippings into the neighbor's pony pen."<<
...Well, I guess I'd go along with that, provided his spread was down wind from mine.
As for yew's toxicity, I don't think there are any exceptions within the genus. I know there are reports of the lethal toxicity of the European species dating back to ancient Rome, where it is documented that some Roman soldiers "bought the farm" by drinking wine that had been stored in a yew barrel. In fact, I believe our modern word; toxin stems from the same Latin origin as the name given to this genus:Taxus.
I wish I could know more about wood chemistry but a lot of it is just plain over my head due to its complexity and specialization. Taxol is pretty lethal stuff, I guess this is why it is so effective for chemotherapy. I am not certain if it is a glycoside; a publication I just pulled to be sure indicates that taxol is an unusual diterpine amide that is only slightly soluble in hot alcohol. Its chemical formula is:
Stanley, doesn't the "OL" mean that taxol is a phenol? I'm certainly no organic chemist either...I just know yew contains some serious compounds that will punch your ticket, if you aren't careful.
Taxol -----
[2alpha R-[2a alpha ,4beta ,4a beta ,6 beta, 9 alpha ( alpha R*, beta S*), 11 alpha, -12 alpha, 12a alpha, 12b alpha]] -beta - (Benzoylamino) -alpha - hydroxybenzenepropanoic acid 6,12b-bis(acetyloxy) - 12 - (benzoyloxy) - 2a, 3, 4, 4a, 5, 6, 9, 10, 11, 12, 12a, 12b-dodecahydro-4, 11, -dihydroxy - 4a, 8, 12, 13, 13-tetramethyl-5-oxo-7, 11-methano-1H-cyclodea[3,4]benz-[1,2-b]oxet-9-yl ester.
And not everything that ends "ol" is a phenol (which if I remember correctly) is an oxygenated benzene ring and therein considered cyclic. There are alcohols which are oxygenated straight chain compounds such as methanol, ethanol, etc.
And relative to other toxic substances that trees produce, if you crack cherry pits and swallow them, when they hit your stomach hydrogen cyanide is released. Jon why don't you try an experiment in which you swallow one broken cherry pit per minute and then we can determine how many are required to be lethal. In the name of good science, I'll even buy you the cherries! Out of my own pocket and without the necessity of any governmental grant monies!!!
>Jon why don't you try an experiment in which you swallow one broken cherry pit per minute and then we can determine how many are required to be lethal. In the name of good science, I'll even buy you the cherries! Out of my own pocket and without the necessity of any governmental grant monies!!!<
Easy, yew!
I like it better when my technical wood questions don't come back with some sort of implied death threat!
Ed
Jon and I are brothers in wood science and technology. I was simply proposing some ancillary experimentation (private sector of course) such that we might find the perfect conservative amount.
As an old hippy pacifist, I would never threaten anyone.
>>"Taxol -----
[2alpha R-[2a alpha ,4beta ,4a beta ,6 beta, 9 alpha ( alpha R*, beta S*), 11 alpha, -12 alpha, 12a alpha, 12b alpha]] -beta - (Benzoylamino) -alpha - hydroxybenzenepropanoic acid 6,12b-bis(acetyloxy) - 12 - (benzoyloxy) - 2a, 3, 4, 4a, 5, 6, 9, 10, 11, 12, 12a, 12b-dodecahydro-4, 11, -dihydroxy - 4a, 8, 12, 13, 13-tetramethyl-5-oxo-7, 11-methano-1H-cyclodea[3,4]benz-[1,2-b]oxet-9-yl ester"<<
Now Stanley, that's exactly why I took Constitutional British History instead of Organic Chemistry my sophmore year.
> ....(Do other Yews besides the Pacific Yew containTaxol??)
I'm totally out of my league entering this discussion but ....
A friend of mine gave me a nice seasoned log of PNW Yew and I subsequently did a 'net search on the wood. Everything I found talked to the toxicity of the entire plant. "No part of the Yew is non toxic" paraphrasing one site. But -
In every instance they were refering to the European Yew with no mention of PNW Yew. So whether there's a difference or not isn't something I could attest to, just that there was no mention in the few resources I was able to locate. I nod to Stan for his reference library if it contains information specific to Yew in my locality (the Pacific Northwest).
After turning a couple boxes from the log, I'm still alive but I was careful to use good ventilation and wear a mask while sanding the stuff.
...........
Dennis in Bellevue WA
[email protected]
Dennis, I don't think you have to get hyper about working with the wood...at least not unless you have a heart condition. Yew has been used in cabinetmaking for literally thousands of years. You just don't want to get too casual with it in projects that enhance the leaching of it's compounds into something you intend to consume, or to make toys that might get chewed on. Just wear a mask and keep the dust down. If you haven't worked with it before, go easy the first few times you use it, until you become comfortable about your not having a special sensitivity to it (the odd chance of an allergic reaction.)
As for chemical differences among the species in this genus, I doubt if they are significant. It's a small genus of moderately ancient gymnosperms and they're not all that diverse.
Yep they are in both English yew and Pacific yew.
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