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Questions about sinew backing

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Aaron1726:
Hi all, I am working on a replacement short bow for my failed sisal backed one.  I got my hands on a good hickory board and have a 42 in bow tillered out to about 40lbs at 17in.  Now I'm looking to add a backing, I thought about sisal again, but I kinda want to give sinew a try.

So my questions...  first, does anyone have any idea how much sinew I would need to back this one?  It's 42" long, 1.5" wide in the middle 8in and then tapers to 1/2" tips.  Would like a little performance, but not looking to go overboard on how the sinew so I'd guess maybe 2 layers at the most?  Finally, I thawed out several backstraps to make jerky and trimmed the sinew off the back to add to the few I already had dried, is there any issue with using sinew that's been frozen and thawed like that?  If it's good to use, I may have more sinew in the freezer that I had realized  :)

Thanks in advance for any help or guidance, really appreciate it.

willie:
what is your intended draw length?

Aaron1726:
Willie, was really only looking for about 18in or so, not sure how much more I could get from this one, maybe 19in?

willie:
seems ok, I was thinking that overdrawing your previous one might have been too much

not on account of the typical stress increases one see with overdrawing, but if i remember correctly. a bendy handle can be subject to disproportionate levels of stress of one goes beyond the 2:1  bow length: draw length ratio

bassman211:
One good layer of sinew should do it for you. I have made quite a few 38 to 50 inch sinew backed plains bows, and one good layer of sinew has worked well for me. Draw lengths to 20 inches on the short bows, and draw lengths up to 25 inches on the longer ones.

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