62” Sinew-Backed Osage Recurve

[Will B]

I processed a bunch of whitetail deer sinew this past winter and decided I would try making a short (for me) sinew-backed osage recurve. I had a really clean piece of Osage that I cut to 62”. I steamed recurves into the bow and a week later had it tillered out to ~55# @ 20”. My friend Bob (Bassman here on PA) gave me a hand applying two layers of sinew with Titebond 3 glue. I reverse braced the bow and hung it in my garage for 6 weeks to let it cure.

I proceeded to tiller the bow out to 58# @ 28” with the help of Bassman. After shooting a hundred arrows through the bow it shot so well I decided it needed some snakeskins. I received a beautiful matching pair of eastern diamondback skins in exchange for a pile of turkey primary feathers from Bentstick54 here on PA ( thanks Brian). The tip overlays are ebony and the handle wrap is scrap leather I picked up from an Amish saddle shop. I finished the bow with six coats of Tru-oil sanded between coats with 0000 steel wool and a final coat of spar urethane.

The bow shoots really nice and is smooth out to my 28” draw. This bow will likely be my future treestand and blind bow for deer and turkeys. Thanks for looking!

[Will B]

More pics

[Will B]

More pics

[Will B]

Full draw

[Piddler]

Will B I am liking that one.
May I ask how far above center is the arrow rest.
Piddler

[Will B]

Thanks Piddler.  The rest is 1-1/4” above center.

[Pat B]

That's a well tillered, purdy one for sure. 

[Tommy D]

That’s a gorgeous looking bow - well done. I have a question about titebond 3 and sinew - does the sinew still shrink and dry in the same way as with hide glue?

[Will B]

Tommy I don’t think titebond glue shrinks with the sinew like hide glue does. Others on here likely have a lot more experience than I do as this was only my second sinew-backed bow.

[airkah]

Beautiful! I really love this one!

[SLIMBOB]

Very nice. Full draw looks like money. 

[bownarra]

That’s a gorgeous looking bow - well done. I have a question about titebond 3 and sinew - does the sinew still shrink and dry in the same way as with hide glue?

No! You would be best to heat treat/bend the blank into as much reflex as you dare then apply the sinew with TB. Most of your reflex should be added by reverse bracing and or heat forming prior to sinewing regardless of glue used. Even collagen glue/sinew won't pull much reflex by itself.

That bow is a beauty The snake skins really set it off.

[BowEd]

Good looking bow in all aspects Will B.
Tommy D.....When reverse bracing while sinewing bows of positions from 5 to 15 inches with hide glue on quite a number of bows the bow will still reflex around 3/4" more than it's reversed brace position for me on bows of at least 1.25" wide as sinew loves to pull even harder on wider thinner limbs.Which can be variable then.
Even while applying sinew in stages letting it dry a week to 10 days between stages ie. 6" to 9" to 12".That means the reverse brace string goes limp in that 10 day wait.That's using at least 1200 grains of sinew total then too.So approximately 400 grains of sinew applied in 3 stages.
I usually end up using around 400 grains or a little more of hide glue with that 1200 grains of sinew then too.
Using tite bond it just lays there with no extra reflex from reversed position.That means the reverse brace string stays tight.The sinew/titebond combo will help in reducing set though.
You'll get a bigger bang for your buck reflex wise using hide glue.All things considered ideal that the bow is properly tillered and I agree with bownarra that to get the best from sinew is to put it to work.

[Stixnstones]

Beautiful bow, love everything about it... great work

[bassman211]

Now you have the short recurve bow that you have wanted for a while to use as an all around hunting bow. Should work  well in a tree stand, and in a turkey blind. Happy for you. Now next up is a 62 inch Osage self bow. Your finish work turned out beautiful on this one, but no surprise. Bring it to my house , and we will shoot it through the chrony just for fun.