Well, this is a bow I begun 3 years ago. Its old Osage and the heaviest and darkest I ever had, it was very oily but had a lot of drying cracks (vertical). the bow several times piked and new tillered, because I was not satisfied with the result. So it became shorter and shorter ...
At least I decided to make something like a plains Indian bow. but with unusual cross section (wider)and unusual sinewing (only the bending parts to save mass). I had to correct this piece several times (twist and alignment). Tipsare steamed back (20 min). The back was carefully prepared for sinew job (acetone, roughing the surface).
This bow was a NIGHTMARE !
She has thrown off the sinew backing in one whole piece and that for two times!!!!! What a mess.
See the pics, I wonder if I could use this layers on another bow, perhaps glueing on in one whole piece??
Suggestions please.
After a long long time, I gave her a third try:
I prepared the back again, washed with acetone (3x, got every time a yellersoup); then used oven-cleaner-foam. Now I believe this was the deal!
O.k. here is then the third and hopefully last attempt, I started in January. Three layers of sinew, strengthened with sinew bindings (red) After drying I painted the bacing with a kind of lightning (from heaven or hell ??). The upper tip is decorated with a horse hair tassel, glued on a little plug. The handle is brain tanned buckskin (got it from my friend Kare - thanks!)
specs:
48" ntn
62#/24"
string: 8strands 425X + 4strands of Dacron at the ear / bowyers knot
bending handle, stiff levers 5" each
deer sinew
simson