Cabling: It was time to back it with a cable. Dick Baugh posted an internet article on an Eskimo style cable backed bow where he use braided nylon string for his cabling. He stated that braided nylon had similar properties to sinew cable. Then he cited how much cabling some of these bows take and right away I decided nylon sounded like a real nice choice. SO I went to my local hunting and fishing shop to get some trot line cord. 100% nylon, # 36 braided, gold, 305 lbs. test. It seemed to be the right diameter. Eight loops around the nocks and two more that went nearly the full length but stopped short of the nock. I used soldier hitches and half hitches to get this bound. The great thing about this is the last 4 inches of each limb tip tapered in so the half hitches pulled into the wider section keeping them tight.
Tightening the cable: The Eskimos used ivory to make a cable twister. I chose the opposite of ivory ebony. Sort of. Persimmon wood was used historically to make ebony piano keys. It is a hard wood that takes a real nice, slick finish. So I again went to the wood pile for stock material. I found out right away that permission will split easier than maple or hickory. I broke off the curved end of more than one model. That only made me more determined to make one work! With that head butting contest out of the way I began twisting the cord. About 10 turns tightened things up. I then began the wrapping. While the twister was still in between the cord bundles I wrapped some cord through the gap and around the handle about 5 times and removed the twister. I finished by wrapping another five courses around the whole bundle and handle again. So far so good.
Its a wrap: To wrap the cable and keep it in place I needed to do a crisscross weave. To facilitate this I made two shuttles like the natives used to hand weave nets. I knew these would be handy when dealing with long segments of cord. I pulled out 20 of cord and wrapped one shuttle. Then I pulled out another 20 of cord. Without cutting the cord I began wrapping the other end around the second shuttle. This way I could use both shuttles to work one long cord around the bow evenly. That sounds more complicated than it is. I started with the handle stiffener section and wrapped on the stiffener then in front of it. Then I made X patterns all the way down the limb. I stopped short of the cable knots and wrapped it.
