Winter project #2

[Pat B]

Last week I posted pics of 2 of my winter projects. One is a 2" diameter osage pole(TG Bow Trade bow)and the other is a 47" yew paddle bow Keenan gave me at last years Tenn Classic. It is shaped like some of the Pacific Northwest bows. The blank originally had pretty thick sapwood so I reduced that down to a few rings. There are some violations ablve these sapweood rings but I am going to sinew back this bow.
  Here is what the bow looked like last week
 

 

Over the last few days I have been reducing the belly but this thing is still quite strong. Once I got 2" of tip movement at floor tiller I decided to give the tips a slight flip.
 
  The first tip bend very nicely but the second was going to be my problem child. It has a knot on one edge of the tip. As I was bending it I heard a crack and noticed the knot gave way. It was still attached to the tip and didn't really harm thev tip itself so I filled the crack with super glue. It is in a non working portion of the tip so I'm not worried. If you look close you can see the break at the forward end of the knot...
 

 

...and the end results...
 

[Pat B]

The first and last pic are the same. My bad!

[Roy from Pa]

Pat, I would love to spend a couple days with you in your shop. I'm not all that up on stave bows. Looking nice..

[Pat B]

I'll be having my camp-o-rama at the end of July, Roy. Come on down. We always have a fun weekend and build lots of primitive stuff.

[Pat B]

Pick Charlie(Stringstretcher) with ya!

[Pat B]

Got her bending a little more today...
 

 

[razorback]

That is looking real sweet Pat. If you leave the tips stiff for that long on such a short bow, do you have problems with parts of the limb doing too much of the work.

[Pat B]

RB, this bow will bend through the handle at full draw so the stresses are distributed throughout the bow. The flipped tips will keep the string angle less so less chance of stacking.
 
   I got her bending a bit more. Here she is at 50#@17", about 27# left to remove and this is without sinew. I'll be adding 2 or 3 courses of backstrap sinew and would like the final draw to be 50#@26"(if possible). Less length and/or weight if necessary.
 

[Pat B]

We have a nice rainy day today so I thought it was a perfect time to begin the sinewing process. I will document this throughout the process.
To begin the sinewing process I first "grooved" the back of this bow with a toothing plane from tip to tip. I then lightly sanded the back with 150gt emory cloth to remove any loose scrapings before adding the hide glue/sinew.
 

 

 

..more to come later...

[Bert Frelink]

Pat,
I am looking forward to "the rest of the story"
Nice work!
Regards.
Bert.  

[Pat B]

Thanks Bert. Me too! d;^)

[Roy from Pa]

Pat, sorry Bud but I hope it rains tomorrow:) LOL, looking forward to the sinew show..

[Pat B]

Well Roy, I had enough time today to get the sinew(at least the first layer) put down.
 First I needed to degrease the bows back. I wet it with warm water and scrubbed it well with Dawn dish soap. I then rensed it with boiling water poured down the limbs from the handle. Here she is all wet and naked laying across the hydrating sinew...
 

It was also time to rehydrate the hide glue. I used a stainless steel bowl to hold the glue and floated it in the crock pot half filled with water...
 

...after a few minutes the glue chrystals begin to desolve in the warm water...
 

Now it is time to put the bow in its form. I use a loop of sinew around the handle and hook it to a cup hook in the 2x4 base...
 

then raise the tips on to 2x4 blocks...
 

 

[Pat B]

Now it is time to size the back of the bow by brushing on the warm hige glue.
here is the fully disolved glue...
 

 I let the sizing gel before adding the sinew. Since the back was still somewhat wet the glue soaked into the wood well. Here is a pic with one limb sized. I used the foam paint brush to apply the glue...
 

When the sinew was well hydrated I seperated it into buldles and laid it out for easy access. There is another layer of sinew bundles under the damp paper towel...
 

Once the glue gelled I began to add the sinew. I started by laying the first bundle down the center of both limbs starting at the handle with the first bundle centered through the haldle area. I went all the way out each limb and over the tip to the belly side.
 

 

From here I continued adding sinew along both sides of the layer down the center working toward the edges until both limbs were covered. This is how she sits now. Tomorrow I will inspect the sinew and fill any bare or thin spots when I can see it well under natural light and it has dried some. If all goes well, I will let her sit where she is for at least a month to let the sinew/hide glue cure out. Then I will decide if she needs more sinew or not.
 

[snakebit40]

This is awesome. Great job!

[Roy from Pa]

Looking nice, Pat.

[Pat B]

Here she is this morning. The sinew looks and feels dry but I know it is far from that. It will be at least a month before I remove her from the form. There are a few thin spots that I will add sinew to today and then it is time for a rest so she can cure out well.
  Here are a few pics from this morning...
 

 

 

[Pat B]

I have a lot more tillering to do after the sinew is cured. Before adding the sinew she was 50#@17". My goal is 40#-50#@26". The bow is 47"t/t so I don't even know if I can get to 26" draw.

[Bert Frelink]

Pat,
a couple of questions, is your tiedown on your "form" sinew as well and you just go over top of it with the strands and do you just wet the sinew and lay it up on the seized bow back or do you still dip it in the hide glue before you lay it up?
Thanks, I have a piece of hickory I might want to do some sinewing on.
Regards.
Bert.  

[Pat B]

Bert, yes the loop holding the handle down on the form is sinew. After trying to figure out how to do this, knowing thread or string would compromise the sinew backing, I thought about uing the sinew. When I sized the bow before laying down the sinew I put glue over the sinew loop on the back of the handle and just layed the backing sinew over it. It has become part of the backing. When the bow is done and the sinew backing has cured I'll just clip the loop close to the backing and sand it smooth. I used this method on the 53" sinew backed osage I posted a month or so ago and it worked like a champ.
  I hydrated the sinew in warm water first then layed it out in useable bundles close at hand. Then dipped each bundle in the warm hide glue, squeegeed the bundle lightly with my fingers to remove the excess glue and layed it in place. It doesn't take much glue to stick the sinew down and too much glue just adds excess weight and can crack. The cracking isn't fatal to the bow but it can be to you. You know how your heart skips a beat when you hear a crack at full draw.
  A few years ago I made a copy of Jay Massey's Medicine Bow; sinew backed hickory  with a painted rawhide covering. It is a sweet bow but very susceptable to R/H. When I built it it came out 56#@26". A month later in our humid summer it had dropped to about 45#@26". I sent it out to a friend in Colorado to play with and after a month it was up to 65#@26". It still holds the same reflex, no matter the humidity and still shoots well even at 45# but it really shines at 55# to 65#. For a dry climate sinew/hickory is an excellant combo.

  Pat