Sinew Processes ?

[Aaron H]

Maybe this thread should be renamed "Let's talk about everything composite bows"   
Seriously though, good discussions and nice thread
 

[BowEd]

Yes I've catfished abunch in the past here.Just ate them though.Flathead and channel both.Had a big grass carp die from a freeze out in a pond a few years ago.I should of kept his bladder.I kept the skins.

[BowEd]

Aaron H....I feel it useful on any type of bow really.

[BowEd]

That illegal stuff might be about sturgeon air bladders.

[Aaron H]

You're right Ed, I guess it still applies to self bows

[gorazd]

StickBender:

Yes I mixed the home made fish bladder glue  with hide glue when gluing the horn. Worked well.

I Tested the strength of mixed-glue  (with which I glued the horn) - glued two pieces of black locust - with no pre-sizing (!!!) ...after one week I made hammer test- slashed hard and tried to separate two pieces of wood -  and glue held... wood teared out!

When I have done gluing horn - I sized  (both horn and wood) with pure fish glue ... Sizing coats stayed wet quite long - I heated the wetted horn and wood part with fan non-stop during sizing process - 20 coats

Then add hide glue to thicken the glue mixture... and put thick coat of this mix-glue before joining horn and wood .... gell time of this mixture was a bit quicker than pure fish glue for sure but managable to do the joint

[DC]

Use the carp bladders and do the world a favour too

[BowEd]

You might be right Aaron H.

[Stick Bender]

Very cool Gorazd  there's some pretty good size channel cats in some of the rivers around here ,maybe give it a shot , but for regular wood bows I really like this Rabbit skin glue that Ed recommended but if I could get some bladers to add could probably get a little more gell time to get all layers down before gel , the liquaid hide glue allows for that I have used it in the past with good luck I know some have not had good luck with it but I have never had a isue , this glue topic is as interesting as the sinew 

[BowEd]

I think as with sinew glue avoiding grease is the same when going after fish bladder glue.

[PatM]

Rabbit skin glue is not known as one of the better ones for structural purposes. Hard to beat Knox for all around quality.

If you're going to buy rather than brew I would just go that route.

[Stick Bender]

Pat I have never used the Knox , what kind of time do you have before gel with it ?  What I like about the rabbit skin glue it gives you a pretty fair working time !

[PatM]

Gel time never concerned me.

[gfugal]

Too thin of sinew is less desirable right? It can lead to white streaks on the sinew. Is this because it takes longer to gel? If so, longer gel time may not be good (unless you're applying horn?) so fish bladder glue, and rabit glue may not be better than regular hide glue for applying sinew. It still should work well though.

[PatM]

The truth is wildly different performance levels have beeen achieved by different sinewing methods and glue types.

I do know that a guy who claimed to do the best sinewing  achieved pretty mediocre results on the Salt Flats. Not even 300 yards!