ah oh bother, shouldnt have used that sheet

[stuckinthemud]

So I applied a nice thick layer of sinew, 1/3 of the bow by weight (including glue) then wrapped it nice and tight in bed sheet strips and heated it until the glue oozed through the sheet but when I unwrapped it the backing was stuck tight to the sheet and was pulled off at the tips as I un-raveled it. Should have used something a bit less 'fluffy' I'll use smooth  summer sheet nylon not the nice warm winter nylon didn't realise that sort of thicker nylon was going to cause so much trouble (its not toweling but I hope you understand what I mean).

I've repaired the backing but I won't be able to wrap it til tomorrow; I'm gong to try and pick up some of that elastic bandage Pat mentioned

[PatM]

I think I needed to add some video on how to gently ease the material away from the backing without lifting it.  I'm getting the impression a lot of people are just reefing it off or letting it actually dry to the sheet,

 However even if you lift it a bit you can still just wrapit down with the second wrap and warm it up again. The glue is still moist enough to re-activate it.

[PEARL DRUMS]

Maybe wipe it down with a damp cloth/sponge prior to peeling it away?

[burchett.donald]

 Exactly Chris...I use a spray bottle of water to saturate the sheeting...Then gently wind off...

[gfugal]

If it sits too long I can see this happening. If you wet it or heat up again it should come off regardless if it's a winter sheet.

[stuckinthemud]

I think that the sheet didn't allow the glue to soak through easily so I took a long time to heat the limb as I watched for the glue to bubble through - 10 minutes from one end to the other - consequently the one end had gelled and stuck to the fabric.  I didn't know you could wet the sheeting, so that's good to know.  Mercifully, most of the backing didn't lift too much (I was very careful unwinding it). Peak daytime temperatures here are 75 degrees, its unusually warm this summer, is that warm enough to sit the bow in the sun to bubble out the glue?

[PatM]

If you wrap the bow with  inner tube you can melt the glue in the middle of winter on a sunny day.   That's my preferred conditions because you can let the glue gel in minutes by just moving it out of the sun.

 You can wrap with fabric and then just lightly cover that with tubing to act as an absorber of the sun.   I often just lay a wide strip of tubing on like a backing strip and tape it lightly in place.

[stuckinthemud]

I wonder if the glue I made was a little thick at 25%, but I left the bow in the sun all afternoon then heated it a while with a hair drier and managed to coax only a couple of drops of glue out from the centre where the sinew is about 4 layers thick; couldn't get any glue out of the outer parts of the limbs which are one or two layers. The surface feels a little rough on the outers but is pretty smooth in the centre.  Now it looks like this:





Is it supposed to look like this? Do I fill, sand or wrap and heat some more?

[PatM]

Did you leave it in the sun uncovered with anything?

[stuckinthemud]

Just the nylon wrapping. I'm thinking I maybe used too much heat and it's gone past the gel stage? The thinnest part of the backing still feels a little soft but it's not spongy

[PatM]

Yeah, you were drying the  backing.  Once the outside dries you're not going to get any glue coming through it.

[stuckinthemud]

It's all a good learning experience. I'll put the bow away to dry for a month while I work on the stock if I leave it out where I can see it I'm going to perfect it to death

[Swamp Thang]

I find silk or thin thin curtain it doesn't stick as much.