Trying to make Juniper bow.....? Input please

[snag]

I was given this Juniper stave a few years back.  I looked at this site and read a couple of books...decided to take the plunge.  Still without someone to guide you through it I could have made several mistakes and not know it until later. The one thing I am wondering is do I leave the paper thin reddish membrane on the back of the bow or should I lightly scrape it off? Or does it matter with Juniper? 
I have the dimesions about 1/16" over the desired size so now I can slowly scrape and sand it down.  Floor tillering it the bottom and top limbs bend pretty evenly from the handle out to the tips. I guess the next step is to file some nocks and string it with a string 2" shorter than the nock to nock length to see how the string follow is....?  Then take wood away to get good string follow...?
The grip area is not as wide as it should be at 1 1/8". But the stave didn't give me any more than that.
In the next picture you'll see a knot that is in the lower limb.  As I was removing wood some of it chipped out. I can't take anymore wood away to even that surface out. Do I epoxy in the chipped out area?

[youngbowyer33]

I don't know about juniper, but most of the time you can leave "membrane on.file the nocks and start with a string that is a little bit longer than the bow. I don't know what exactly you mean when you say to see how the string follow is. I think you mixed up string follow with some other term. string follow is permanent bend in the limbs toward the belly caused by cell collapse, or something like that (someone will correct me if I'm wrong). I think you mean the string alignment, whether the string tracks through the tips and the handle. Or you want to see if the bow will have any string follow. or you mean the tiller, which is how the limbs bend. Either way it looks like a good stave and good luck. I am sure someone else will chime in

[snag]

Thanks for input. Yes, I am thinking of how the limbs flex in relation to the string being pulled. So, what do you think I should do with the chipped area?

[rileyconcrete]

you are talking about Tiller.  If you post pics of the bow being drawn we can help you along with that process.  I have never worked with juniper, but I would have left the wood a little wider around that knot and left it a little stiff while I was tillering it.  You can always sinew back the bow if it is in question.  I have seen guys fill holes like that with super glue gel also and that seem to work, though I have never done that yet. 

Good luck and keep asking questions.

Tell

[JackCrafty]

Juniper is one of my favorite woods to use for bows.  However, I have to stop myself from taking off too much wood when tillering because the wood is so soft...so be careful when you are tillering.  The bow will end up being thicker than you might think.

That void can be filled with epoxy, but I wouldn't fill it in right away unless you see that it is bending too much in that spot.  You can fill the void after it's tillered if you like.

[snag]

Thanks guys. The lower limb were the chip is seems to bend evenly throughout the limb. So I'll leave it alone for now.   Jackcrafty, would you leave that membrane on the back? Or scrape it off?

[JackCrafty]

Scrape it off. 

[snag]

I filed some string grooves in this morning and strung it at a very low brace height....3" or so. Just wanted to see how the limbs were going to flex. So far they seem to bend evenly. I'll have to make a tiller tree to proceed with tillering it and post some pictures for your critique. I also started to scrape off the membrane on the back of the bow.  It is coming off pretty easily.

[loefflerchuck]

 Nice looking stave! One think you will want to do is back it with something. Sinew or rawhide will do well. Juniper just does not last that long without it. I have had great juniper self bows for a while, but eventualy they all blow.

[snag]

That's good info Chuck. I was thinking about looking into sinew. I was reading about it in one of the books I have. Sounds like a necessity.  This changes my mind on how I dress out an elk or deer from now on! Where can you buy sinew?

[walkabout]

i soak knots in thin superglue, and then try to leave some extra wood around them just to be safe. if there are chips in them or cracks i fill them with sanding dust and superglue in layers.

[loefflerchuck]

look to www.hideandfur.com for sinew. Moscow hide and Fur

[snag]

Any thoughts on the synthetic vs the real stuff?

[walkabout]

you cant use fake sinew the same as the real stuff, it doesnt act the same as far as bow backing. fake sinew is ok for kids bow strings and similar stuff, heck i even made strings for longbows pulling 45# with is. but when it comes to backing a bow the fake sinew will probably fail. also it would be a pain to seperate.lol