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Lumber Red Cedar and Sinew build along

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Robert Pougnier:
Here is a build along for a Western red cedar/sinew bow (originally I thought it was ERC, but I was wrong) I am making. It's a first in a few ways: It's my first lumber bow, first juniper/sinew bow, and first time building a bow with materials I've mostly purchased rather than harvested. It has a low SG but is very elastic. I've read that they can make excellent yet finecky sinew backed bows. I've read that tighter ringed trees and heartwood are densest.

I selected a quarter sawn and tight ringed board that was much darker on average than the rest. It also felt a bit denser/heavier than most of the other ones in the pile. It's free of any noticeable knots, though has a couple small pins.

To add to the challenge and fun, I also purchased a handful of beef sinew dog chews to see what I could get out of it. It turns out that while a couple pieces were fairly degraded, I was able to get 3 fully processed and they are very long and clean. I swished them in rubbing alcohol after processing because they are bit greasier and stinkier than elk and deer sinew.

The first set of photos is of the materials.

Here are the rough dimensions of the bow: 62 inches end to end, 60.5" ntn.1.75" at fades and down to 1.5 at midlimb. Light taper to 3/4 inch before the nocks. pin nocks are 1/2' . Target draw weight and length is 45# @ 27".

Robert Pougnier:
I first built a handle riser on the belly side

For the riser I used another piece of red cedar for the base layer. My thinking here is that the softer wood could behave like part of the core around the fades and would relieve some stress in those areas I also glued the base layer in two pieces (see the seam in photo) to relieve more stress. For the top layer of the riser I used a piece of beautiful dark poplar. It's also soft and will contrast well with the rest.

Robert Pougnier:
photos of riser before roughing out

Robert Pougnier:
I then relfexed the bow slightly, only about an inch and a half on each limb total using the heat gun on a very slow setting. This was both to temper the belly very slightly and induce a bit of initial reflex before applying sinew.

Robert Pougnier:
I roughed out the handle riser and brought  the bow to some slightly overbuilt dimensions. I cut out some pin nocks.

The back was sanded down to 220 and the edges rounded in preparation for the sinew backing.

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