hideglue and pigment ???

[osage outlaw]

Does anyone have any knowledge they would like to share about coloring the back of a sinewed bow?  I have a hickory bow I sinewed last spring and I would like to color the back.  I am thinking black and red, but open to any ideas.  I was thinking of using charred wood scrapings mixed with hide glue for the black.  Would this also work to color the wood?  Thanks for any help.

[blackhawk]

Any dyes or stains will do the trick...if ya wanna go paleo you can use any of those methods I imagine. I dyed the sinew on a sinewed HHB...remember this one

 

[osage outlaw]

I just had an idea.  It's not very primitive, but will it work?  What about using koolaid powder as the pigment?  I have used that to dye feathers and it worked great.

[blackhawk]

Grab some n test it out..im sure it will....if you want a pink,blue,red,green,purple rainbow bow

[osage outlaw]

I don't know.  If I use koolaid, my bow might end up with a name like Cherry sparkleberry

[JW_Halverson]

Powdered Skittles. 

Shoot the rainbow!

[JackCrafty]

I've used a shellac & pigment paint on sinew-backed bows.  Hide glue will work, of course, but you'll have to seal it with something waterproof.  Shellac is a good paint binder and a good sealer at the same time.

With that said, hide glue has been used as a binder for paints for thousands of years.  If you want something truly primitive, go with the hide glue.  The only thing I would suggest is to use pigments or dyes that are not gritty.  Crushed charcoal is gritty but soot (lamp black) works much better.  You can also dye the glue with a natural, water based dye like beet juice, grape juice, cool-aid, etc.