A few of you may have seen the Duke dressed in a pair of Cocobolo Scales I made a few weeks back, well the Duke somehow didn't look to good in those scales, he's more of a traditional looking chap, so I removed him and gave those scales up to a vintage Kropp I restored, well in all honesty the Kropp looked perfect in those scales, but the poor old Duke still needed a new set of clothes, so I decided on a ancient native wood Welsh Yew, and I went for the more traditional scales which the Duke once owned. I went for a double washer at the back with a single washer at the front kind of gives a nice balance, I also made the wedge from a small off cut of the Yew. Regards Jamie.
Jamie, I am not familiar with this wood. How well will it stand up to moisture and / or what did you use if anything to coat or treat the wood with?
The wood is very hard and durable, it's more famous for being the wood that they used in the most deadly weapon ever invented during the middle ages the Longbow, even today they are finding arrow heads embeded more deaply into oak than a modern bullet can penetrate, and were used to great affect when the Welsh archers faught along side the English to defeat the French in the famous battle of Argincourt in 1415, so feared were the Welsh archers if they were unlucky enough to be caught by the enemy they would cut off thier two pull fingers and release then so they could never use a longbow again. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Agincourt Regards Jamie.
I am very familiar with the battle of Agincourt that it was the beginning of the end of the age of Knights and heavy armor. That spurred on development of longer range weapons of war by all European countries.