Well, getting ready to try my hand at sinew. Not sure if I should mix teh back sinew with the leg sinew. The back sinew seems much stiffer. I can't believe how much work this is. I have a osage that is a little light at 40lbs. I plan on piking the tips bymaking the bow 62" instead of 65". And figured with this sinew, with 3 courses, I might be able to get her back up to 50ish.

Here is a bunch of back sinew I took this year.


Here is some fine shredded leg sinew.


Some course shredded.


And some I have to pound up

I have yet to use sinew for anything but thread on leather handles. I might try it on some selfbows ill be making this summer. I like the idea of using sinew because of its tendency to shrink inducing and/or holding reflex better than other materials.

Have you reflexed the tips any. Usually you can get about 10 more pounds when you reflex. Osage is real easy to reflex with a heat gun. Then when you sinew, it will hold the reflex better and give you more pop.

I have reflexed the tips when I first built the bow. It had 1" of string follow. I think I over stressed it then. So I steamed out all of it on the tips.

So, I decided to perfect the tiller on this bow. And ended up with a hinge 10" from the tip. So I turned my 55lb bow into a 40lb bow. So kinda scared to mess with the tips any more.

Nocking 3" off the total length will give you back quite a bit of draw weight. Add 3 courses of sinew and you'll easily make 50# plus. I've onlysineweda few bows in the past. I believe it wasall leg sinew, so Idon't know about mixing back and leg. I haven't done one in quite a while. I don't really like working with the stuff. To messy and labor intensive for my liking.

I'm very Interested In this Mark. Let me know how you go about getting this sinew ready. I may try this with my upper limb on my recurve where It's loosing some splinters on the outside edge.

Well, I know one thing right now. My fingers are killing me. I have shredded 10 leg tendons. Now got to find some hideglue. Some guys tell me to use knox jellitan. But thats hard for me to believe.

Schultz, you will have to use back sinew I think. It would need to be long. I have no idea how to tie up back sinew around a limb. I bet Chris could tell ya.

Mark

Give the guys at Pale planet a try. They usually know there sinew. http://paleoplanet69529.yuku.com/