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Hold my hand when I sinew my first bow
jameswoodmot:
Can’t thank you enough for all your help and the the videos and everything Dave, this isn’t just my favourite bow but one of the best things I’ve ever made and I’ve made a LOT of stuff! Super proud of this one and it turned out even better than I had hoped! I’ll get some full draw pics of hen it’s dry.
jameswoodmot:
It seemed to have stopped loosing weight, I just strung and shot it and it’s lost about 3lbs of draw weight and just felt a bit sloppy and had a lot of string follow compared to before. I assume it’s not stopped losing moisture.
I’ve strung it backwards and put it back on the radiator.
Have I likely caused permanent set or is it likely to regain its reflex and hold it? It’s lost 5 grams in water since putting the bark on.
Is the fact that it was warm off the radiator likely to cause this, I’m reading mixed answers about if heat impacts sinew of its it’s just moisture.
Kicking myself, it seemed to not have lost any weight for a day I thought it was good to go.
Won’t touch if for at least a week now. And see if it was just a temporary slowing of moisture loss
superdav95:
--- Quote from: jameswoodmot on March 04, 2026, 12:48:55 pm ---It seemed to have stopped loosing weight, I just strung and shot it and it’s lost about 3lbs of draw weight and just felt a bit sloppy and had a lot of string follow compared to before. I assume it’s not stopped losing moisture.
I’ve strung it backwards and put it back on the radiator.
Have I likely caused permanent set or is it likely to regain its reflex and hold it? It’s lost 5 grams in water since putting the bark on.
Is the fact that it was warm off the radiator likely to cause this, I’m reading mixed answers about if heat impacts sinew of its it’s just moisture.
Kicking myself, it seemed to not have lost any weight for a day I thought it was good to go.
Won’t touch if for at least a week now. And see if it was just a temporary slowing of moisture loss
--- End quote ---
Sorry man. I got busy here. Just seeing this now. Wonderfully done btw. I would say you are fine with this bow as far as set goes. I would let it sit for a week or two after using hide glue to adhere your bark. That’s just my opinion on that. Moisture will find a way into the sinew again that’s for certain. I did the same as you before and was watching weight loss to a point and noticed less draw and string follow. This is just moisture crept into sinew and wood. It will take more time to get rid of moisture now then before as you have covered it trapping it in so to speak. Do not fret. Your sinew was done well and it will recover just fine. Just give it a couple weeks to sit. You can back string if you like but it will just settle in where it wants to when it’s ready. Waiting is the hard part. lol. Been there and it sucks. As for the birch bark. Ya it’s hard to get consistent pieces. I don’t use the thicker pieces. If I can’t get it at least as thin as paper or thinner I put it aside. I make sure I have enough thin stock before proceeding. I boil mine for a half hour and let it sit in the warm water for awhile too I split them apart carefully obviously but easier said then done. As you mentioned I use younger trees. I find the older trees are more inconsistent results. The last one I did I made a tracing stencil to cut my desired shapes which were angled rectangles. I established a center line on the bow first. I didn’t post a detailed process for this as it’s very tedious. It took me 3 days to get mine done! It’s kind of one of those things that when you start it you are committing to a lot of pain! lol. All worth it in the end. Be proud of this bow brother. Take the things you learned from this one to the next. Btw another covering option that’s very thin is goat skin parchment. I’ve used this material and it’s one of my favourites. You can stain it, paint it or decorate it the way you like. It adds very little weight. I order mine on Etsy by the full hide.
Here’s a couple pics of what I use here. Younger trees limbs. As you can see I’ve cut down the length and can then separate it into 5-6 paper thin layers. This is pretty ideal scenario however. We have lots of this here in Canada.
https://share.icloud.com/photos/0b14Us6UZ1zRwVkVbkUDkzgIg
jameswoodmot:
Not at all no need to apologise. Panic over I’ve left it on the radiator and I’ve got away for a week so that should stop me messing with it!
That’s great thanks for the pics, do you know what kind of birch it is?im off to hunt for some now!
superdav95:
It’s called white birch or paper birch up here. It’s quite white on the outer layer and peels off easily. Depending on the look you want you can mix up the tones as you sort through your stack. The bigger trees have bigger dark streaks than the smaller tree. The last one I did I used an older tree that my neighbour had cut down.
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