help with leg sinew

[ejwitman]

Y'all,

I am attempting my first sinew backing and need advice.  I have tried the method in the Bowyers Bible Book 1 with the nails as a comb.  I seem to get alot of tears and wasted sinew doing this method.  Should I just poung it flat and tear it by hand an leave the outer layer attached?

[Silent Bear]

I just pound it and shred it by hand leaving it rough and then I take it and shred it very fine with my hands, its a tedious process but it saves you time when you a sinewing your bow

[Pat B]

Once you get the sinew shreaded you can wet it and then comb it to straighten out the strands.

[yamapup]

I think that it is best to do all the shredding and straightening by hand. It does take longer , but you get less tearing. You only need to comb it out when you've got it all down to fine threads and you then comb carefully and stop if your comb gets hung up. Pup

[DV of WI]

Has anyone ever taken the leg sinew after pounding and de-casing and seperating and then soaked in water and seperated further? I can't get the sinew seperated fine enough when its dry but when I saoked, I seperated it to very fine. When it dried it was opaque, coarse and stiff. I will see how it works when I back my next bow.Point is it was a heck of alot easier to pull apart wet then dry.

[John Scifres]

Isn't the TBB method referring to back sinew?  It combs pretty easy since it's just one layer really.  Leg sinew is more like a tube of strands.  I pound it and then use two pairs of pliers to pull the strands apart until I get them like thin yarn.