Hide Glue / No metal pot !!??

[JW_Halverson]

The primary benefits of sinew is that is allows marginal wood to be used safely and it also allows a longer draw length from a shorter bow (very useful when shooting from a horse).  The benefits decrease as the bow gets longer, primarily because the sinew/hide glue matrix weighs more than wood for a backing.  A properly made self-bow is plenty durable, especially if  "overbuilt"; that'd definitely be the way I'd go in a primitive situation, assuming access to decent bow wood.  Sinew backed bows are also more affected by humidity.  Of course, if you live in a desert, that wouldn't matter as much.  Sinew or hide scraps for making glue would need to be collected.  Hide glue would be useful for coating sinew wrappings on arrows, but not absolutely necessary; pine pitch/charcoal/fiber/fat mastic works well for mounting points.  The Powhatan Confederacy here in VA boiled deer antlers in clay pots to produce glue.  Pots don't need to be thick to cook in (thickness actually makes them less efficient).

I have heard of hooves/horns being used to make glue.  As yet, I have not seen anyone that can do so without a serious chemistry set, far beyond what any pre-Columbian culture could achieve.  As for antler making glue, I think that is something akin to alchemy.

[Thesquirrelslinger]

In TBBB it says that two non-sources of glue are hooves and horn...

[TatankaOhitika]

I'll stick with hide and sinew scraps  for making glue . And I won't back a bow unless I need something short for hunting in tight spots . Short to me is 48" . In my eyes long is 60"

[richardzane]

Pamunkey is right about thick pots:
 
 "Pots don't need to be thick to cook in (thickness actually makes them less efficient).
[/quote]"

and thick pottery is much more apt to blow up in the firing of them, as thick walls can hold in moisture or air bubbles.

an earthenware pot is porous and will absorb moisture though, so it'd be important to not leave heating glue unattended very long

[JW_Halverson]

an earthenware pot is porous and will absorb moisture though, so it'd be important to not leave heating glue unattended very long

Not necessarily, iowabow has been doing some work with ABO pottery and has had some luck making a smooth inner surface that is far less porous than simple fired clay. 

He's also figuring out how the chemistry works with the ground shell that he is using to temper the clay.  When I was at his place last week he was showing me ABO pots that had been fired traditionally.  The parts that fired in an oxygen deprived condition were really good and solid, but the stuff that had oxygen available saw spalls and cracking from the shell resorbing oxygen/etc. 

Those so called "primitives" knew their biscuits from their butts!  They busted their humps surviving so that their later generations could sit in front of computer screens and theorize how they survived. 

[richardzane]

yep, shell turns to lime in an oxidized atmosphere.... it will pit. so also will any gypsum crystals (fired ,they turn to plaster)
all earthenware pots are porous. Burnishing the interior with a stone helps, but they're still porous. water will seep through.
BUT, if you grease the interior of a burnished pot, you'll have MUCH better holding and much less seeping through.
when you cook with an earthen pot you must keep the pot from boiling dry..if the liquid is gone the fire WILL likely crack the pot.

[JW_Halverson]

Iowabow was telling me how he believes the burnished interior was improved by cooking greasy foods in the pot at first to "season" it. 

Many ABO cooking methods require you to watch the pot, so to speak.  Same happens when using a paunch pot or hide pot.

[richardzane]

yes, the grease helps, just like seasoning a cast iron skillet.
In New Guinea there's indigenous potters who cook a stew in a new pot, and throw it out, saying the first stew is no good.
I've made special pots for use for Navajo friends who need them for a ceremonial "sing". I grease the insides with olive oil .
(here's a pic of one I made for that purpose.)
Contemporary Navajo potters tend to use pinion pitch to seal their pots and for simply holding water this is fine.
BUT when cooking a stew, the pitch simply melts and collects in the bottom in a sticky mass and doesn't help the taste at all.

[Ed Brooks]

Can you use a skull to make the glue in?