short bows and sinew

[The Gopher]

I am working on a short (for me) bow, 50" long. I am planning on sinewing this bow. the stave is HHB. Right now the limbs are two inches wide and barely moving at all, it seems like once i get the limbs moving enough to sinew the bow there will be hardlly any wood left.

for HHB and sinew, should the limbs be narrower than 2"?

thanks, Dan.

[PatM]

I take a lesson learned by the Indians. A wide sinew backed bow should be a softer more readily flexed wood such as Juniper or Yew, a hardwood sinewed short bow should be narrow and deeper.
 Look at a West Coast bow and a Plains bow for examples.

[The Gopher]

1.25 or 1.5 wide?

[Pappy]

I probably wouldn't go over 1 1/2,you are right it will be really thin and easy to get a soft spot
that will fret. The tiller gets really critical when they get thin. 
   Pappy

[Shadow Walker]

i just had one snap on me. It was a maple @ 48'' long. I should have left it alone, I had it tillered good and shooting well, but, I wanted more poundage, so I added another layer of sinew. Unfortunately, as the sinew dried and pulled tight, it snapped the last 5'' of the top limb! It was 1.75" wide. I wish I had read Pappy's response to this post before I built that one! Live and learn! next time I'll go narrow and thicker.

[The Gopher]

i re-drew the bow profile at 1.5 inches wide and cut on the lines so i am just a hair under 1.5".

Next question, how far do you guys tiller the bow before applying the sinew?

[Shadow Walker]

I don't know if this is the best way or not but it seems to work for me. I tiller as perfectly as I can get it at 10 pounds under my intended draw wieght and then apply the sinew. I let it set for three weeks and then retiller if needed. I've only done a few sinew backed shorties ( I like 48 inch. but I have a hop hornbeam 44 incher on the go right now).
So, I would wait for others to chime in with their advice, as I'm sure there are far more experienced bowyers on here than myself.
I know pappy does a lot of sinew work, maybe he can shed some brighter light.

[Pappy]

I haven't done that many but the ones I have done I got them out to about 20 inches at about the weight I wanted and the tiller looking good,then sinew,wait a few weeks the finish the tiller
to weight and draw length I want. I usuall only do a couple of layers and haven't found it to add
that much weight. Maybe 6 or eight pounds. I think the more you add the less performance
advantage you get from it because of the added weight. Sinew will for sure help hold one together but if you have other Major problems,it ant the miracle cure.
   Pappy