What to do When Temp hits 113........ Sinew!!

['46]

Terry, La Corazon is a beast, she's the heaviest 52# bow on earth       I wouldn't hesitate to hunt elk with that baby....or elephants.    :D

[Chad Sivertsen]

Wonder what 12% would feel like. Probably have to put water drops in my nose to keep it from bleeding LOL

Mickey, come on out in July or August and find out. We will hunt the elusive Yew that grows in cool damp stream bottoms.

Humidity below 15% and temps above 90 are not unusual here in Summer. It will dry a sandwich before you can eat it. Bow wood dries too quick and checking can be a problem. Sometimes it rains but never reaches the ground because the surface air is so dry.

Now is a good time of year for drying bow wood as the afternoon humidity is 30-40%.

I have 3 Yew staves that I cut about a month ago and they are drying quickly.

['46]

Terry, La Corazon is a prime example of what a long drying time, heat and low humidity will do to sinew. When I got her from you she was at 52#. I hung her on the wall for a few months and she gained 10# easy. The tiller is still fine and she is a perfect elk bow now.    

[David M. Mathis]

Ice water or ice tea when it get that dang hot.

[Chad Sivertsen]

Terry,
How many elk tendons did you use?

[AZStickman]

I'm not sure Chad......I had Mickey, George, Mike, Rusty and Bobby in javie camp a couple of years ago and I took a bunch of Elk sinew tendons with me for the guys to have.... I came back from hunting one morning and they had taken some of it and had it stripped ready to go.... I felt like Tom Sawyer and the whitewashed fence...   :D   I've been saving it for a special project.... I still have enough left over to do another bow... But to get the same coverage on bows I've done previously I would use 3 Elk leg tendons.... BTW... You haven't seen sinew stripped until you see Mickey do it.... We were all impressed....

George I'm glad you still like La Corazon.... I've been searching the net looking to see if I could get ya on that elephant hunt.... But until I get a rich uncle dying I think it's outta my league.....   :D   .... Terry

[AZStickman]

Here's one for only $33,800:

2006 DAILY RATES & HUNTS ON OFFER

1. BIG ELEPHANT
Elephant bull in an area that regularly produces trophies of 60lbs and above Daily rate Comments
$1 450/day for 14 days Trophy Fee
- $13 500 [/b]

Hmmmmmm...... That 60 pound elephant doesn't sound like much of a trophy to me.... LOL.. Terry

[Chad Sivertsen]

I have deer, elk, and buffalo. Will probably use buffalo. Anybody know where I can get some giraffe sinew? That should work real good.

[huntwithastick]

My wife's from Mesa and we used to live in Sierra Vista for a few years.  Just remember, life can always suck a little bit more - I'm in Baghdad and it's in the 120s

[AZStickman]

Douglas..... I'd like to extend a thanks to you and all the service men and women serving our country.... You're all doing a great job keep it up....        I love the hot weather..... I grew up in Montana and every time it get hot I remember the winters up there......A sunburn hurts a little but man when you freeze your fingers or toes it hurts like the dickens when you thaw out..... Thanks again...... Terry

BTW.... That's a great tag line.

[huntwithastick]

amen to that!!  Thanks for the kind words.  I'm looking forward to finishing up my 20 yrs soon and getting a chance to hunt the White Mtns and Blue Wilderness.  Az sure does have a wide variety of terrain.  Enjoy!

[AZStickman]

Well we've had a nice couple of weeks since I applied the sinew to the back of Compadre heck we even had some single digit humidity days and the temps have been averaging 110 or so..... Doesn't get any better than that for sinewing..... I started prepping the rawhide last night.. I'm trying something a bit different on this bow to give it character....We'll see how that turned out.... I've got things all set up and will be getting to it after breakfast..... Pics to follow..... Terry

[the Ferret]

Following closely Terry      

Hey..isn't breakfast over with yet?

[George Tsoukalas]

Terry, neat pictures. Gotta tell you anything over 90 deg and I head for the AC. ) Jawge

[bayoulongbowman]

when its this hot if the snakes dont get ya the sketters will, then of course there is always the "Gators"!   :D        

[B n Az]

Maybe the heat got Terry afterall?    

[AZStickman]

:D  Good Morning Guys...... Wound up taking an impromptu trip up to the white mountains for a day of flyfishing yesterday.... Got in around 1:00am this morning..... I did get the rawhide on the bow yesterday before taking off and will get the pics up this morning..... Terry

[AZStickman]

I think these are going to be good...... I tried something I'm calling the "Valdes Patina" on the rawhide and I think the pics show it well.... Terry

[AZStickman]

Ok Here we go.....

The first order of business is to take care of some little pockets in the sinew backing....We will fill these in with sinew patches to avoid having air bubbles under our Rawhide backing.... Here's a pic of the pocket

     

First step is to lightly sand the sinew surface to get rid of pickers

     

Now we'll patch our pockets:

     

Here's our first look at the rawhide strips with the Valdes Patina: ( Linc donated the rawhide for another project I was doing a while back. I didn't use them for that one but I put them to good use here.... Thanks Linc.... Just another trad gang Compadre adding to this project)

     

I'll dry them with the shop towel then size the back of the bow and the hair side of the rawhide with hide glue.....

     

Now we're ready to start applying our rawhide.....

[AZStickman]

Now I'll clamp one end of the rawhide down:

   

and rough trim it using a fresh razor blade I'm leaving the rawhide wide enough to fold over the edges a bit we will finish the edges after everything has cured a couple of months from now:

   

Now I'm wrapping the rawhide with an ace bandage being careful to wrap the edges of the rawhide around the bow and not allowing it to slip to one side or the other:

   

Once I finish one limb I repeat the step on the other limb and wrap them with hemp twine:

   

Here's the finished pic..... I'll put Compadre to sleep now for a couple of months:

   

I'm really pleased with how the Valdes Patina turned out.... It gives the rawhide a real rich color and made it almost translucent.... At least when it was wet.... We'll see how it looks dried...... Terry

Note: Notice how I kept the bow tied down onto reflex throughout this procedure.... This is important..... If you were to untie it and apply the rawhide the moisture will relax your sinew and you never seem to gain back what you had even if you tie it back down after the rawhide is applied.