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.