Anybody out there wrap a bow in leather before? Wanna wrap a pyramid in leather,

[toomanyknots]

Kinda curious here. I am going to be making a sinew backed red oak pyramid bow. The sinew part is confusing as my handle will be narrow. On the sinew being on a pyramid bow, would I just end the sinew at the base/fades of the limbs? Maybe wrap a little around it at the end to secure it from lifting at the base? Or should I keep going and make a thin strip going across the handle? Any way, what this thread was about; I am going to cover this bow with leather as I don't wanna red oak colored pink bow and I don't wanna stain before I sinew, or stain and then sand the back as my water based stains I use go pretty deep. One thing I did think to do was cover up the back with duck tape before staining. This would give me a pretty bow. Does anybody know any good topics with leather wrapping/any thing leather wrapped? I don't know if I want to wrap strips around it or braid a sheet of leather over it. But more importantly, I don't know how. Anybody?

[Keenan]

 Wrapping the limbs with leather will slow the bow down and make for a sluggish bow. Any excess weight on the limbs will hinder performance. I would stain or snake skin the sinew if you don't like the look of the natural sinew. Also I would continue the sinew through the handle area so that the sinew will be less likely to pull free of the wood.    Keenan

[Pat B]

I made two sinew backed bow with the sinew stopping at the fades. I found out that the potential of the sinew was lost by not going all the way through the handle. I make bulbous handles and the limbs bend right up to or through the handle and that is where the bows took set, at the handle. On a rigid handle it might be different but for me I will go through the handle with the sinew from now on. You can run your last course of sinew down the center of the bow and through the handle. Down the center is where most of the stresses are with a crowned back anyway.
  As far as leather wrap, if you use thin enough leather you can do a complete cover without much loss of energy but I think you would be better not using leather but another option, like others have mentioned, to dress up your bow. Just wrapping a strip of leather around the bow wouldn't be very functional as the wrapped leather would probably slip loose and if you glued it down the glue is adding more unnecessary weight. You could cut the leather to go around the bow and stitch it down the center of the back or belly but that would be very tedious to do.

[toomanyknots]

"that would be very tedious to do."

Aww come on, I'm discussing a sinew backed bow, that is, a beat the crap with a hammer pull tear and swear with pliers and THEN pull into threads for eight thousand hours sinew backed bow. And you say stitching would be tedious? 

Pat: You say your bow that took the set where you did not sinew all the way through the handle, was the bow a bend in the handle, or slightly bend in the handle bow, like you see in selfbows sometimes, or was it a deep non bending handle? I don't understand what you I think about set in the handle? Or do you mean set next to the handle?

Heres an example of a leather covering like I'm talking about:

http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,5894.0.html

[Pat B]

My bows generally bend up to the handle and sometimes I can feel the handle give a bit when I hit full draw. By not tieing both sinewed limbs together through the handle they were independant of one another and the slightly bending handle took the brunt of the set. If I had continued with the sinew through the handle both limbs would have split the work equally and the handle area would not have taken as much set as it did. The bows both shot fine but they are not what they could have been.
  A rigid handle might be a different situation all together.
  That leather bow wrap in the link looks simple enough to install. Use craft paper to make a pattern. Once you get the pattern right transfer it to leather, punch lacing holes along both edge and lace it up.

[toomanyknots]

"Use craft paper to make a pattern. Once you get the pattern right transfer it to leather, punch lacing holes along both edge and lace it up."

Thanks. Thats very smart! My handle will be rigid, but I will still most likely take your guys advice, as I would not want my glue up riser/handle bending and coming unglued.