Black locust and sinew?

[mikekeswick]

I was just wondering if any of you have ever tried this combo?
I've just sinewed a short bend in the handle b.locust bow, it's a belly split stave.
Stiff wood and not so stiff sinew.....can't quite make my mind up on how it's going to turn out! It's got about 18 - 3/16th of sinew on the crown.

[blackhawk]

Well let's see some pics and hear some more stats please ....I've never done it

[Prignitzer bowman]

Funny Mike, I have a Bl Bow strung backwards and sized with 2 coats of Liquid hide glue in my kitchen. I have been shredding tendons and might get round to putting some sinew on it tonight. I have steam bent quite a lot of recurve. The story is: I built this bow well over a year ago, and it never shot very well. I am relatively new so I tried; flipping the tips, reducing tip size, heat treating and trapping the back. All this raised the efficiency of the bow mildly but it still was not a good bow!! So I am now going to put sinew on it as a last effort. BUT you find very few people putting sinew on BL!! So is there a  reason or not? My bow tip to tip bent backwards and measured in a straight line (you understanding this?) measures 57 inches. If I can remember how to I will try and put a pic up. Give some details and pics please.

Peter

[JonW]

It's been awhile ago and I don't even have the bow anymore. I did a Molly when I was in my "molly" phase. Only put sinew on the working limbs of course. Made a good bow I thought. I'm thinking it was 62" and 60 pounds or so at 28" draw. It probably would have been a decent bow without the sinew if I was to be honest.

[Prignitzer bowman]

Hmmm I am rubbish with computers! Can anyone see this? Hopefully this is a pic of my BL bow before sinew, I have put a layer of sinew on today and will see if it needs more in a couple of days. If you put too little on is that bad?

Peter

[Cloudfeather]

Never tried it either. I've recently found black locust growing in abundance in the woods behind my house. I've done one with rawhide back and, even though it took a good bit of set, shoots really smooth and flat. I'm curious as to how this turns out as I've heard that BL is very fickle when it comes to compression on the belly. Maybe the sinew will overpower the belly? I don't know. I'll be keeping an eye on this for my own reference though.

[PatM]

Too much mystery about sinew and wood combos. Sinew works on anything. Tim Baker was of the opinion that it was best used on Juniper-like woods but people have had convincing success with the exact opposite types of woods. If you're stretching the sinew on the draw, it's doing something good for you.

[PEARL DRUMS]

Im mostly in that same thought boat Pat. I have sinewed short hackberry with great results. Its somewhat similar to BL in the fact it is better in tension than compression. I cant see how a properly designed BL bow wouldn't benefit from sinew Mike. Im sure a good tempering would be in your recipe.