Sinew backing? How fine do you shred yours?

[Easternarcher]

Getting ready to sinew back a Turkish horn bow, but I've never worked with the stuff before...so how fine should I be shredding the sinews? I have quite a few, so I don't need to scrimp.
Thanks

[Pat B]

For a horn bow you should distribute the sinew evenly with the same amount(physical weight) on both limbs. For good coverage I think the strands should be pretty fine. Contact James Parker(Ropbustus). He is our Asiatic horn bow expert with quite a few of many different styles, under his belt.

[osage outlaw]

I take the sinew down to strands around the size of a pencil lead or smaller.  I don't make hornbows so I don't know if it is different with them.

[crooketarrow]

  I always took my down to about the size of the 8 oz. fake sinew size. Thats about the size of 3 sewing treads swisted together.

[mikekeswick]

Nice and fine is the key to getting a really smooth finish on hornbows. Make sure the back(sal section) is flat when you have finished.

[Prarie Bowyer]

 see these asian guys combing it out with a super fine comb then aranging it into long sheets that are ready to apply.  What kind of comb are they using?

[PEARL DRUMS]

I use a pet shedder comb. It does pull alot out of the bundle, but whats left is angel hair soft and goes down flat and unnoticable under skins....or not. The flatter and smoother the matrix of glue and sinew is the better it will work for you.

[james parker]

im with mike on the sinew being fine to get a smooth finish on your sinew,, but if it has been worked down too fine, you may have more glue in the mix than you might want, then the glue will be doing a lot more work than the sinew,,, so far from all the composites ive built , i realize their ma be a happy meadium between the two, i had a very old chinese horn bow and it was very smooth across the surface and it had sinew that was very large , the size of large spaghetti, and that was when it was fully cured, no telling how big it was when freshly put on.. i break mine down to a little bigger than pencil lead size when its dry then it swells when wet. let us know how it goes no matter what you do .james

[Easternarcher]

Thanks for all the tips....I'll let you all know how it goes.
Still got a lot of pounding to do.

[Fred Arnold]

I have a question for all of you and I don't feel it's stupid although it may be. The back sinew that I process came off of the animal in one beautiful long sheet. It did a tremendous job of holding the back together while the animal was alive. It wasn't uneven, it didn't warp, never failed. Why should I shred it to make thread? Why can't I just lay it out in sheets that have already proven to be effective? Aren't we only making work for ourselves by trying to figure out something that mother nature has already proven works?

OK, let me have it, I'm ready.

[Easternarcher]

Fred, I'm no expert but.....the sinew needs to be dried first as I understand, so back sinew or leg sinew will shrink and shrivel to some degree...Would likely be very difficult to keep it flattened out.
As for me, I only have leg sinew, so they appear as long cables of material once dried and need to be pounded to separate the fivers. from there we reduce the strands to the sizes mentioned her to better saturate with glue in manageable bundles.

How am I doing guys?

[Fred Arnold]

Agreed but, the back sinew is a completely different ballgame. Soak it in room temperature water and lay it out on a towel to absorb the moisture. It flattens out again just like the back of your bow. Why shred it? Personally (not from experience yet) I wouldn't think you could improve on it by tearing it apart and then trying to piece it back together like a puzzle.

[Easternarcher]

Ya, maybe you're right....I dunno.

[Adam]

I might be completely wrong on this, but I think it's normally shreaded so the end of the fibers overlap each other, like how bricks are staggered.  If you have two sinew fibers meeting each other end to end, you have a weak spot.  By staggering the fibers, the tension strength of the sinew is more uniform.  If we were able to get a sheet of sinew as long as a bow, I think it would work great.

[Pat B]

Fred, there is a lot of connective tissue in leg and back sinew that should be removed before the sinew is glued down. Each of the individual strands in a sinew bundle go different areas, ie. muscles, bone. By seperating the strands you can unite them to all work together to strengthen and add cast to your bow.
  I prefer to use back sinew for bow backing because I can get a neater, more even layer of sinew for the backing.
 James didn't mention it but he lays his glue saturated sinew out in sheets the size of the limb and smooths it out before adding it to the limb. This assures a smoother, more even layer of sinew giving the maximum potential from the sinew. James' sinew backings looks as slick as glass.