Apllying sinew, still hearing pops as I smooth it down, glue consistencey???

[1776J]

I'm looking at the sinew after its started drying up and it looks like perhaps "some" bits of the sinew perhaps either wasn't "soaked" enough on its ends or maybe more glue should have been added
as it looks a little "dry" here and there with a few ends of the sinew not laying perfectly flat, but rather just slightly protruding from the surface?

Take a look at the photos fellas,...

Would it be good to just wrap, heat and apply more glue.... or??.....
 

Thanks in advance!

[0209]

Well from my understanding, the plastic wrap doesn't allow for the moisture to escape from the hide glue/sinew so you'll never get it dry.  Could be wrong though, and hopefully someone else will chime in.

[1776J]

thinking of warming up the bow with a hair dryer (sinew area that is) and then applying more glue over top.  I don't want it to be to much glue though...when is "enough"??

[dragonman]

did you soak the strands of sinew in  water before using?  to soften them?

[shikari]

Those longitudinal cracks in the sinew are from the bow drying too fast,I just got done sinewing a composite bow a few days ago and i started by wiping the core with alcohol and then giving it 4-5 coats of 20% concentration hide glue and letting each coat of glue dry and then finaly laid on the sinew and it has held up very well,my previous bow which i blew up was dome the same way and the sinew was literaly fused with the wood,It took 4 days of soaking to get the horn and sinew seperated from the wood.I hope you are not using rabbit glue as it has grease in it and is used by artists for restoration work.

[1776J]

did you soak the strands of sinew in  water before using?  to soften them?

No, I simply let them soften in the glue for a while,... like for two minutes or so with each bundle.

I started out soaking them but they ended up like curly noodles and wouldn't lay down for anything!
So, instead, I soaked them in the glue, while holding them, switching off with my hands and sqeegeeing the bundle, working the glue into the sinew,
dunking over and over, swishing them around.

I kept the glue probably around 115 degrees or so.

[1776J]

Those longitudinal cracks in the sinew are from the bow drying too fast,I just got done sinewing a composite bow a few days ago and i started by wiping the core with alcohol and then giving it 4-5 coats of 20% concentration hide glue and letting each coat of glue dry and then finaly laid on the sinew and it has held up very well,my previous bow which i blew up was dome the same way and the sinew was literaly fused with the wood,It took 4 days of soaking to get the horn and sinew seperated from the wood.I hope you are not using rabbit glue as it has grease in it and is used by artists for restoration work.

I just did the sinewing last evening,... I didn't see any cracks in it.  its dry in the house but its not that dry to have dried it out that fast,... I couldn't imagine that when guys told me that it takes about a week for the sinew job to dry correctly?

[1776J]

Those longitudinal cracks in the sinew are from the bow drying too fast,

I hope you are not using rabbit glue as it has grease in it and is used by artists for restoration work.

That's axctually the sinew itself,...no cracks,...sorry the photos weren't great,...hard to get good photos of the sinewed backing!! 

I'm familiar with rabbit skin glue, nope I used hide glue, got it from a fellow on ebay, it was referred to as "musicians hide glue" a few fellows on here have used it to some great success.

[toomanyknots]

"I started out soaking them but they ended up like curly noodles and wouldn't lay down for anything!"

Next time take a pan or bucket or something and put just enough water to barely cover the sinews, so they don't go floating around everywhere and let all your sinew soak for a good while, like a half an hour to an hour or so. Just leave it all in there and take out enough to make a bundle for each bundle you make. The reason your sinews wouldn't lay down when noodle like is due to your glue, if you saturate the bundles with enough glue before applying, or if your glue is just not ready yet. The glue added to you smoothing out the sinew on the bow should be enough to stretch out the sinew and keep it from curling up in a noodle shape. Let the glue be thick and sticky if you can't get the sinews to smooth out straight, it will be harder glue consistency to work with but will hold down the smoothed sinews better. On the matter of using too much glue, you will smooth out the extra glue when smoothing out the sinews as you glue em down anyway, you seem to be worried about "too much glue" a little too much,  . Don't worry about too much, what you don't want is too little. The extra will be squeezed out when smoothing out the sinew as you apply bundles.

Edit: I would suggest using sinew glue. Don't have squat to back it up being better than hide glue, but it just makes sense that sinew would bond with sinew, and work better than hide glue. I don't trust any company not to adulterate any product with anything. Plus is puts to use those broken too short sinews you can't use, 

[dragonman]

the sinew wil only curl up if you soak in too hot water, if you soak in cold water  or luke warm water for half hour they go softer and much easier to work and absorb the glue better.. I dont know 115F, but dont go above 60-65C

[toomanyknots]

"the sinew wil only curl up if you soak in too hot water, if you soak in cold water  or luke warm water for half hour they go softer and much easier to work and absorb the glue better.. I dont know 115F, but dont go above 60-65C"

What da ya know?, never soaked mine in hot water so never happened to me. Good to know though. Thank you dragonman.

[1776J]

i had it very warm,,....to warm obviously 

[CherokeeKC]

Yeah you definitely had the water too hot.  I made the mistake of doing this a few times when i first started using real sinew for arrows.  A good rule of thumb if you don't have a thermometer handy is to get the water just hot enough where you can still hold your finger in it.

[1776J]

Yeah you definitely had the water too hot.  I made the mistake of doing this a few times when i first started using real sinew for arrows.  A good rule of thumb if you don't have a thermometer handy is to get the water just hot enough where you can still hold your finger in it.

That's the way I kept the glue,...just soaked it there,... TBB says he just swishes it in the hot glue, so I figured that would do.
I have a lot of horizontal cracks arcross the glue on the bow now.  Guess that's just normal?  It couldn't have dried to fast as its been sitting in a house where its about 75 degrees??

[shikari]

I put my bows in my basement where it is a little damp during the winter as the hot air from the heater literaly sucks out the moisture out of everything,you could put a layer of seran wrap on top of the sinew and leave the sides open to control the drying.