I went to the fields the other day with my 60# Turk warbow. The flight bow had raised a few sinew fibers on the back so I removed the last layer and put down another continuous layer. The original layer was some water buffalo backstrap, it had a 'dry' texture when I removed it. This backstrap didn't allow me to reduce its thickness as much as I would've liked to, the fibers kept snapping when trying to go finer. I always try to get the fibers as fine as possible so that the glue gets to 'wet' more of the sinew. I think this is the reason the Turks only used leg sinew, it is softer and possible to split finer for the better wetting of the fibers leading to a more homogenous sinew layer. I put more sinew on than I took off so it is likely to be close to 100# when dry.
Anyway I really only went to test the machine as I had made a few changes. It is now working perfectly and is strong enough for the 100# plus bows I want to test out. The warbow shot best with arrows around 280 - 300 grain arrows and consistently put the best arrow 15 yards or so further than the rest. Best distance was 410 yards. The lighter sectional purpleheart/greenheart/Tonkin arrows didn't fly so great from this bow but still were going around 360 yards.
