backing a yew longbow w/rawhide

[unclewhit]

For those of you self bowyers;
Do you put the rawhide on before shaping and tillering, or in the final stages?

Any links?

[John Scifres]

After final shaping, before tillering.

[PEARL DRUMS]

Same here. A great tidbit of advice I was given. The day before you lay the rawhide down its a great idea to put down a layer of TBIII to dry over night. What this does is prevent moisture in the rawhide and glue from penetrating the bows back the next day. Its worth the little effort it takes to do. I do the same thing if Im adding skins over sinew.

[Pat B]

What Pearlie and John said!

[Pat B]

Unless the back is in really bad shape or there are lots of knots, all heartwood, etc yew sapwood is the best backing for a yew bow.

[john fletch]

Yew can count on that Pat B,  but there is a lot of good heartwood under the sap and outer rings in a decent Yew trunk so many good bows can be made from that with a decent backing.

I however, would consider rawhide as one of the lesser backing materials as it tends to deaden rather than improve the cast of a bow.

I have used sinew, Bamboo and Hickory as backing for inner heart Yew bows with good success.  Often using a planer for a flat surface to allow a Bamboo or Hickory backing strip is fast and easy. A sinew backing on an inner heartwood bow that is also shaved down by growth ring is still probably the strongest and better performer - but it does take more time and careful work.

For sure the best ones come from the sap/heart combo, but that Yew wood is too precious to throw away if your stave/trunk is a good size one.

[Shaun]

A very thin rawhide backing is traditional and the only purpose is to protect the soft sapwood from damage.