Woodturning a Yew Bowl

May 2, 2020 - Reading time: 9 minutes

A family friend gave me a Land Rover boot-load of old Yew wood. It’s from a very old tree, is very dense and has loads of character.

The wood had been stored in her garden for several years prior to me getting it.

There were a lot of marks, holes and cracks to work around. It also felt very hard to cut and turn, possibly due to the complex grain patterns.

I was pleased with the end result and the different colours & patterns, and have enough wood left to make several more, hopefully.

NOTE: I wore a decent mask and kept the dust extractor on while turning this, and removed as much of the bark as I could first – apparently Yew dust is highly toxic.