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Knots and Sinew on Juniper

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superdav95:

--- Quote from: bradsmith2010 on January 03, 2023, 11:37:31 pm ---its hard to tell from the photos,,shape the bow to floor tiller and see what you think,,,
maybe make the bow a lower poundage bow,, and not draw it too far since the stave seems questionable,,

--- End quote ---

Plus one on this.  Be a shame to spend all that time with sinew in less then premium piece of wood imo. But if you do proceed get it bending some first with floor tiller then see.   

bradsmith2010:
I will add, I made a bow from a juniper stave that was not that good ,, knots and such,, two layers of sinew,,got it strung and tillered, it shot well at lower draw,,, got over confident, drew it further than needed,,, and and it exploded,,










 a lower draw,, got over confident and drew it further, it exploded,,

wstanley:
By no means am I am expert on sinew backed juniper bows. I have made 5. I don’t think those knots are too much of a concern with sinew. However, that swirls looks quite drastic and a good spot for it to fail. In the spirit of making a California style juniper bow, I would start over and find a straight grain limb with lout knots if you still have access to junipers.. All the juniper bows I have made have been split off a trunk. It’s a bit of a process but worth it for getting a knot less straight grain piece of wood. In fact, many junipers with stave removal scars on the trunk have been found in Nevada and I believe Utah. One tree in particular still had a basalt chopper/wedge still sitting on a limb of a juniper with a scar from a removed stave. I can send you a link to the article showing this. I have spoken with Southern Sierra Miwok in California  elders who have seen these trees also in California. Not sure if that was common among Ishi’s people or the Pit River natives (Atsugewi?) to remove staves off the trunk). I have some juniper staves with a 40-42” length if your interested in them you can message me. May be  a little shorter than what you’re looking for. Anyhow, good luck. Juniper with sinew makes a hell of a bow.

Marin:
Thanks you guys.
Yeah the swirl seems quite risky so maybe I will set this one aside.
I was honestly just curious what anyone thought about this to be hoenst. I have heard of some people who even chase rings on already pristine bow staves before they back them, and others who just take any relatively straight peice of wood, knots and all, shape it and back it. Good to hear all of ya'lls opinions.
wstanley: I actually did the method you are talking about and yes I also have a copy of that article. Part of the reason I harvested this stave was to test out the method (spolier: it required a lot more work and the help of a tree cutting bow making friend to do this). I live in North Utah so there is a lot of Utah Juniper I have access to, though finding a straight, knotless peice is another question. this particular stave is half of one that we extracted from a tree using that method that you were talking about. With the bark, the trunk portion looked abosultely pristine at first, but it was only upon debarking and carving that the problems began to appear, such as the knots which ran very deep into the wood. The swirl was caused priarily because my friend and I wedged this off of a tree trunk that had a rather large knot on the side of it, which we avoided taking off but obviously the wood around it is not good.
The other half of this stave (I ended up splitting this one because it was beginning to crack in the middle while drying) is a little bit better and does not have that pesky swirl, so I may try that one. Worst case scenario, I just go out into the desert to find some more.

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