American bison, horn bow w/sinew(pic update)

[FVR]

Wow, I never thought to cut a horn out like that. 

Looking good.

Thanks,

Frank

[JackCrafty]

Excellent thread....looking forward to the rest.   

[Timo]

Many threads on here about laying sinew so I will for go it for the most part,but here are a few pics I took yesterday of the process.

First thing I do is lay out my sinew bundles on a towel,lay another over them and then sprinkle with water until the towels are soaked,I get my glue rehydrating then after a few mins I remove the top towel ,(the bundles will be wet now) and I manage them in a better order,lay them on another towel and get them organized. Again laying over with a towel and keeping them wet. This just makes things run smoother.This whole sinew job only took about 30 mins.

I try to save rain water for my hide glue.Medicine maybe? ha I mixed it the same as I did for my horn/core glue up. Then it kinda old hat with the laying of the bundles.

I just went with one good layer here,with another strip down the center,also Tom told me to run a layer over the edge and overlap the horn about an 1/8".I tried the best I could to do that,but missed a spot or two. Terrible ugly right after the sinew is layed.I remember the first time I did some....I thought,"There is no way that is ever gonna look like anything"! The native americans get a tip of the cap from me I tell ya!



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[Timo]

Somthing of interest has arose. The bowl that I use for sinew is also the bowl I use to cook my  pine pitch. I always clean it well and burn it out before use. For some reason I couldn't get it as clean this time and went ahead and used it for my glue. Well.....when the sinew began to dry I noticed these lil black specs under the sinew. For the life of me I could not figure out where they came from......Finally figured it out when I was doing my clean up. The charring left from when I burned out the bowl had left some black residue similar to lamp black, but it was stuck to the bowl,(or so I thought)? The hide glue loosened it and it went into the sinew.So now my bow has black specs in it. Good medicine again? Or trouble later?

Here are a couple pics showing the black specs and the sinew over the edge of the horn. Actually kind a cool looking.

Gotta let the sinew dry for a spell so it will be a while before we move on. Thanks in advance for those with interest.

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[radius]

i like those black fleks, timo, even if you didn't intend for them to be there...

i'm looking forward to seeing the rest!

[FlintWalker]

Tim, you sure that ain't some kinda mold like stuff growing under or within the glue?  Every bow I've sinewed done that.

[Timo]

Perty sure it's not Shannon, As soon as the sinew started turning clear they showed up. I had a fan on it most of the day, so it started drying perty quick.I really noticed it when I was cleaning the bowl as the black suet started flaking off.I guess the hide glue loosened it.

I ain't gonna worry about it now.

[Timo]

Layed  another layer of sinew on the horn bow tonight.mainly just to fill in the low spots.had company come out of the wood work and there I was hide glue dripping off my elbows......Lots of locals now know a few things about sinew!

Wished this stuff dried fasters....i'm getting stoked to fire this lil bow up!

[hedgeapple]

Timo, awesome build-a-long.  I'm learning so much and not all of it is about horn bows.  Can't wait to see that little screamer finished.
Dave

[Hillbilly]

Timo, this is just too cool a ride, thanks for doing it. I would never have thought about cutting the horn out in a spiral like that, all of them I've seen done in books were cut out longways, limiting you to a short li' bow. Looking forward to seeing the rest of the trip, you've got me hankering to try one of these now.

[Barrage]

Hey Timo, great build along.

I was like you, saw that article in PA and knew it was time finally get at one of these.  The bison horn I have is quite a bit shorter (~10").  When you laid out your template could you get it fairly flat along the horn?  In order to get my template around the horn without overlapping, the template wasn't very flat.  So when I went to boil and clamp, the horn had a pretty good curve to it (not the coil curve; I mean if it was uncoiled and laid flat, it would look like a crescent moon).  Did you have this sort of issue at all?  Can you just muscle it straight?  The horn seemed to cool off very quickly and I couldn't get it to work out for me the first time out.  I have a couple horns though, so that was mostly just a test to see what worked best.  Also the horn seemed pretty brittle and dry after soaking a day and boiling.  How about yours?

Thanks for any info you can provide on this.  Yours is looking great so far, looking forward to seeing it done!

[david w.]

This is awesome

[welch2]

To keep the horns from getting brittle ,and to give me more working time , I soak them in milk or diluted hide glue .The Mongols do it this way too .
I soak them for a few weeks , When they are ready they will bend pretty good without any heat ,But I heat them up, still in the milk (newer not so stinky milk ) And when they are hot ,not quite boiling ,I have about a minute or a little more to get the horn clamped .  I think the water leaches and then cooks some of the proteins out of the horn...making them brittle.

Ralph

[Timo]

Tom Ressler sparked my interest in building these bows. He tole me that he got all the secrets from some native american elders. So I have to give him the credit,and he in turn will credit those who taught him,as it should be. He also has many more secrets that he has yet to devulge I think. Either way  it's very interesting as to how they,(native americans) came up with this. And how they did it all with stone tools?  Amazing stuff to ponder me thinks.

Ralph I have recently read about the milk and the hide glue soak.I just did the water bath as I knew very little about any of it,but I am learning now. Your thoughts gather my interests.

Hillbilly, I hope this ride ends with success!

Barrage, I used masking tape for my template, and yes it did not lay down real well,I just cut outside the lines a bit.I had a lil trouble with what you are talking about,but these horns where thin, so I could manipulate them fairly easy.I also set some drywall screws along the edges where I needed them to help hold the horn straight.Not sure if you can see them in the pics or not?I did  however straighten them more after I removed them form the form, with the heat gun.stuff is rubber after a couple mins of heat.  Didn't seem to dry to me.

Somthing of interests: I have had this bow over the air cond vent for a few days now and it has not reflexed any. Not sure as to why? Every bow I have ever sinew backed has reflexed.

[Barrage]

Thanks Timo.

I'll have to try it out on another horn and seen how it goes.  I had let mine soak in water for a couple days before I boiled - maybe that caused some issued with the brittleness.  I had also read about the Mongols soaking horns in milk for days; seems to make sense from a leaching aspect.  I actually noticed after looking at your pics again that you had some of that crescent curve when clamping too.  Not quite as bad as your horns are bigger.  Good to see you got them straight though.  Mine wanted to buckle in a couple spots while trying to get them straight.  I think a longer boil and more clamps might solve it though after looking at your setup and boil times.

I also thought about cutting them straight and doing a butt joint; anyone ever tried that?  Just creating a hinge at the butt joint?