Ironwood that needs to be a bow

[FAW]

After setting up an aged and seasoned piece of "ironwood" to be a warbow, it has now become a 56" flatbow. ( long painful story ). Alas, the flatbow when drawn to 26" at approx. 70lbs developed a splinter on the back which I think I have repaired with TB3. However, it appears that sinew backing may have to be applied to make a useable bow possible. Two questions: 1. Can sinew be applied with TB3 and 2. Will that splinter be protected by sinew backing. I very much wanted this to be about a 45 lbs@28 selfbow, however, I see the draw as 26" to be successful here. I'm old but new to this bowmaking world - only one to my credit so far, this one in the works and a bamboo/ipe ready for my next one.

[turtle]

Yes sinew can be used with TB3 but you wont get the full potential out of the sinew with it. It should be applied with hide glue, but glue made from Knox gellatin is the same as hide glue and is cheap and easy to make. I would need to see a picture of the splinter to say for sure if i think sinew would protect it, but a lot of splinters have been glued down and wraped with sinew to save a bow. At that length and draw sinew backing will make it a much safer bow. If you are wanting a 45lb bow you should never draw it past 45lbs while tillering. Doing so puts unnecessary strain on the entire bow causing more set and potential failure. Keep us posted on its progress and with pictures if you can and someone here will always answer any questions you have.

[FAW]

Thanks, Turtle. I do have photos of the progress and the repaired splinter and I think I will try to sinew back it. And, if the hide glue will do a better job, I'll consider that. This may take awhile but I will outline the progress in a future thread.

[JW_Halverson]

I echo the sentiments on hide glue or unflavored gelatin.  TB III or II does not allow the sinew to do it's little shrink-y thing-y. That does not mean that it does not add the powerful splinter trapping ability sinew is famous for.  Just think of it this way.  If you are going to go thru all the effort and mess, why not get the FULL MEASURE of what the sinew can do for you?

Best of luck to you!

[Marc St Louis]

Frank
If all you want is to protect the area of the splinter then TB3 should be enough.  I have used a sinew patch, done in a similar manner as patching a bicycle inner tube, on bows before and it works, I did use hide glue for these patches.

[blackhawk]

Why hasn't anyone mentioned rawhide. If all you want is protection then just glue some rawhide down. It only takes minutes compared to many hours of labor to sinew. Rawhide is the better option IMHO.

[Dictionary]

I always think it is a waste of sinew to try and put it on an already half broken bow. Why not save it for your next....planned "Sinew backed bow" ??

[FAW]

Thanks again for all advice. I will update with photos when and if this ironwood becomes shootable.