Birch bark over sinew?

[WhistlingBadger]

Hey, boys (or girls, if you happen to be one).  I am about to put a snakeskin on this wonky juniper/sinew bow.  I don't think the skin I have is big enough to cover the whole bow; I'm going to have a few inches on each limb tip of bare sinew.  I want some kind of covering on it, both for water resistance and for looks.

I have some nice pieces of river birch bark, a nice dark red-brown, that might do the job.  Anybody ever tried covering sinew with birch bark?  Anything I need to know?

Thomas

[Chumash]

For moisture protection wrap a thin layer of birch bark around the limbs. Glue it with hide glue.
Thin means: as a sheet of paper.

http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,73437.0.html

And I think willie has posted something about a birchbark wrapped twowoodbow from Russia http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,68162.0.html

[superdav95]

Hey WB.  Just was looking back at your post and figured I’d post a few pics of my recent birch bark project on my Korean bow build.  Have a look.  I’ll post link for it here. 

https://i.imgur.com/J6zepss.jpg

http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,73074.0.html

[Robert Pougnier]

This past fall I did something similar (though not as clean) as superdav on his korean bow.

I really liked it, the thin bark is really nice to work with and adds a great touch. And great moisture protection. I used TB3 on mine since that's what the sinew was held with, I'd do it all over again with hide glue next time.

http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,73377.0.html

[superdav95]

Robert.  That’s a nice looking bow there.  I’ve made a few tb3 sinewed bows as well and they turned out great actually.  Not as fast or quite as much reflex but I did allow at least 6 months for to dry.  I had suspected that tb3 would cause me some issues in fully dry time vs the hide glue version.  I let both versions dry a long time.  The tb3 actually can trap moisture deep into the bow which is what I think you encountered which JW and Pat pointed out.  If I were to do another one with tb3 I would wrap it and hot box it to get all the unwanted moisture out and then let bow reaclimate a couple days before shooting or bending limbs.   

[WhistlingBadger]

Wow, those are really beautiful.  I managed to get my snake skin stretched out enough to cover this one to the tip overlays, but I will definitely keep this in mind for the future.  The birches around here tend to have dark, red-brown, glossy bark that would look gorgeous on a bow backing.

[Chumash]

This is a bow backing with  very thin birch bark over bamboo glued on with Urac.

[superdav95]

Nice!

[WhistlingBadger]

Yep, definitely going to have to do this some time.  Beautiful stuff.

[bjrogg]

I have a Osage bend through the handle with birch bark that I got from Greg aka Badly Bent. I will try to remember to get a picture of it. I’m thinking it’s really more for decoration than backing as it’s pretty distressed. Looks really nice though and is really thin. Used several different colors of something to create a nice look.

Bjrogg

[Chumash]

Yeah, I think so - the very thin bark is more for decoration (may be a little moisture protection)
with the inner bark (birchleather) in a thickness of 1mm you can wrap a bow or back a bow  with sinewbacking for moisture protection.
The sarmat bows or the twowood bows of the samii people are good examples. A bowyer from Austria builds a good examples Erich Streichsbier (Sparrowbows).

If you want a stronger bark backing (not only moisture protection) cherrybark is an option.


 

[superdav95]

The bark I placed on my Korean bow here is for 2 purposes.  Moisture protection and decoration.  It’s mainly used for protecting the precious sinew layers under it on horn bows.  It provides excellent water resistance if done right.  I used sturgeon bladder glue to put mine on which also has a measure of moisture protection on its own.  The orientation of the bark is not terribly critical.  I’ve got bows that orient the bark lengthways and perpendicular to the limbs.  I bet it would even be fine with tb3 and give great results.