Sinew strings

[wizardgoat]

I've only made a few, so my experience is limited.
I twisted mine up with dry sinew, then soaked it in warm water for about an hour. I hang a weight off it, and twist it up, and soak up the water being squeezed up. Then clip all the bits off.
This is worked for me so far, but I know many people make their strings with pre soaked sinew.
How do you guys make them?

[TimBo]

I am just getting ready to try this, so your timing is perfect.  I was just reading the Strings chapter of TBB2, particularly the description of how Ishi made his.  He used fresh or soaked sinew, which is what I figured I would try first.  It will be great to hear what others are doing.

[wizardgoat]

Well I had a discussion with Chuck about it. He uses soaked and says it's very important for the bonding of the string. My argument was I'm still soaking it, twisting it, and hanging a weight off of it, just in a different order. He suggested we do a break test of both, but we both admitted to not actually wanting to break our strings. They take too long to make

[Aaron H]

You should break them,  for the good of the community.   

[Ed Brooks]

I twist it dry, soak until bubbles stop (about 5 min) then take the wet string hang it from the ceiling on a nail. put the other end in a drill motor and twist it more it really tightens up. after the drill i hang a weight, the drill works for weight, you can give it another twist as it stretches. I hunted with this string almost all yr here in wet side of Washington. only in the late part of the late season did my string start to fail, it would stretch. I was loosing brace height. When this happened, I put on my all weather ABO plastic bailing twine. Ed

[TimBo]

Do you guys use one, two, or three ply for sinew strings?

[Ed Brooks]

Do you guys use one, two, or three ply for sinew strings?

I use 3 ply. Ed

[wizardgoat]

Thanks guys. Ed that's basically what I do.
I've only made 2 ply, but I'd like to try 3