Yew is a lovely wood to look at, it's bands are consistent and comes up brilliantly with varnish, but you should be careful as it is directly poisonous, this doesn't  mean you can't touch it but you should be careful when working with it, it's not something you should burn indoors, and it shouldn't be used when it comes in direct contact with food (i.e. a chopping board).

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The tree itself is very long lived (the longest in the UK) with some being well over 2,000 years old.  Conservation wise it's common in the UK so not a problem to use, but again try to source it locally.