Splicing Sinew

[bushman]

How do you guys go about splicing sinew when you make thread or bow strings and get the splices to be smooth and not much bigger in diameter then the rest of it? Do you tapper the sinew with a knife so that it looks the same as you would if you where using a bunch of loss natural fibers to make thread? Tried to make some thread but the splices didn't turn out very good, too large in diameter. Thanks.
Bushman

[gstoneberg]

Have you watched jackcrafty's youtube videos on making a sinew bowstring?  His youtube handle is AllergicHobbit and there are 5 videos.  He goes from dried tendon all the way through the finished string.  Well worth watching. 

George

[bushman]

No, I haven't seen his videos. When I get access to some high speed internet I will take a look at them, take forever on this slow dia up. Thanks.
Bushman

[Will H]

I second what George said 

[swamp monkey]

I am on dial up and have not seen the you tube vid but Jackcrafty also has a build along in the how to section of this website.  I learned a lot from it. 

[bushman]

Ok, thanks swamp monkey I will look it up.
Bushman

[YosemiteBen]

It a bright and sunny morning after the storms here in Yosemite! I am in the Public Information Office (PIO) answering phone sthis am so got some time for better responses. In the NDN Museum here we make string from dog  bane (Apocynum cannabinnum) and Milk weed (Asclepias speciosa)  when splicing make sure that your ends are not equal (one longer than the other) alternate thick and thin and choose carefully when selecting fiber to splice. The more attention you pay the finer your splice will become. Besides lots of practice. Google making string - there are lots of descriptions, still pics, drawings and videos that will guide you along.

[Jude]

I've only done one sinew string, a two ply reverse twist, but it wasn't that difficult.  With short fibers you tend to add new material constantly, as the legs thin out and it was pretty easy to see when you needed to add more.  I used the method from the Traditional Bowyer's Bible, #1 I think, where you pinch the working end of the twist with one hand, and tightly twist the individual bundle with the other.  Then you back twist it with the other bundle and advance the pinch, repeating the process with the other bundle.  You only twist one bundle at a time, very tightly, and it all evens out for the string as a whole.  You can feel the bundles thin out, so you know when to add more fiber.  I did mine with wet sinew, hung the loop over a dowel, and clamped a weight to the end, spun it a few times to reinforce the twist and tied it off to something so it wouldn't untwist.  When it dried there were lots of strands sticking out from where the new material was added.  These were snipped off and the whole string sanded down to remove any bumps.  The results were better than I was expecting them to be for my first try.  Here's a couple pics of it on the bow.  Didn't think to take any closeups of the string itself.

Julian