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Yew billets belly drop build with sinew backing.
bjrogg:
I’ve been trying to keep up with your build Dave.
Was looking forward to seeing what your thoughts were about the chewed sinew. I have never backed a bow with sinew but I have used it in lots of other applications. Really pretty amazing stuff.
I have noticed it clings to itself much better if I rehydrate it in my mouth than with just plain water.
I usually don’t so much chew it. I wet it down with my tongue and then just put it in my mouth and let it rehydrate. The cleaner and more refined the better. I actually can see how the process could work.
Would you have sized the bow with hide glue first?
Bjrogg
superdav95:
Thanks bjorg. Ya I tried to chew it initially but it kinda grossed me out. I did find that it was a messy ordeal too. I noticed for me trying to unbunch the mess from my mouth was time consuming and was not an efficient way to lay sinew. In my opinion it was just plain messy and unorganized way of applying sinew. I also did find that if laying it down over an uneven surface with high reflex it had the tendency to lift off. I then tried to wrap it and that did work ok but I question the holding strength of just sinew alone with no glue added. Just my observations in trying it before I gave up on it and went back to my tried and tested way of doing it. It is very cool stuff when done right. My opinion is that it obviously can be done but not my preferred method for sure. I use a pretty thin mix for my hide glue when laying it down and it seems to work well for me. Too much heavy glue is self defeating with added mass. Just my opinions and observations.
superdav95:
Ok I’m gonna throw out some questions on these two bow builds. I e had some concerns pop up after two weeks of letting them dry. So far here is what I have,
The heartwood only billet bow sinewed with tb3 retained about 4.5” reflex after removing back string.
The sapwood/heartwood bow sinewed with hide glue retained about 5.5” reflex after removing back string.
Both started with same reflex prior to adding 65-70 grams of sinew.
Another observation I noticed that the heartwood only bow took longer to dry and get to the point of no longer loosing mass. The last few days the bow remained the same mass.
The sapwood/heartwood version stopped loosing mass pretty well after the first week. Loosing very little the second week of any at all.
I did some sanding on both today and they look pretty good however some concerns have popped up.
There is some grain run off out towards the flipped tips on the heartwood bow. I’ve posted a few pics here. See first two. The sinew I laid down didn’t cover this area as I had decided against it wanting to keep the tips lighter. I still have some shaping and narrowing to do yet on them.
1. Should I just add a little more sinew out at the tips to cover these spots? Will that be enough to keep it together and prevent it from separation at run off?
2. Should I just add some rawhide to the back over the sinew and also cover out to the tips?
3. Should I add a back lamination of thin horn to this area to prevent separation at run off?
The sapwood bow is less of a concern but there is a knot out near one of the tips that I’m little worried about. Same questions above for this scenario. I did plan on removing the wrap of sinew at the ends of this bow when dry if I end up covering with rawhide.
Let me know your opinions and thoughts as to possible solutions I may be overlooking. Maybe I’m worried for nothing and let me know that too.
Thanks guys!
Muskyman:
I’m going to ask a question just for myself here. Could you trap the back of the bow and get rid of the runoff?
superdav95:
--- Quote from: Muskyman on February 12, 2024, 05:58:11 pm ---I’m going to ask a question just for myself here. Could you trap the back of the bow and get rid of the runoff?
--- End quote ---
I could trap the back but it would be hard to avoid affecting the sinew layer already down.
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