Sinew or rawhide

[Ryan Jacob]

I have a decrowned tamarind stave. I’m planning to make a shorty out of it. I violated some rings though so what should I use sinew or rawhide? (I’m using hide glue by the way). Average humidity here in the Philippines is about 80%.

[Stick Bender]

Not familiar with that wood but I think it depends a lot on what you mean by shorty and how far you want to draw it , supposedly the fish bladder type hide glues are said to perform better in higher humidity , I have not used it so just going by what I have read but have taking my sinew bows with regular hide glue out for hours of shooting in 80% humidity & rain with no issues a lot depends on how you seal and store the bow when not using.

[Ryan Jacob]

By shorty, I mean about 50 inches ttt, 42 inch working limb, and I’m going to draw to about 20 inches.
I don’t really want something like a power layer, I only want a backing for durability purposes. I’m going to seal with lard and store it at 50% humidity. Will this work? Also tamarind is dense, strong, flexible, and has guava tension but with more compression.

[Stick Bender]

Maybe some body that knows the wood will chime in , do you have a pic of the violations your talking about ?

[Pat B]

Rawhide should work fine.

[Ryan Jacob]

Here are the photos




I’m gonna drill through those knots. Also, which is more water resistant, rawhide or sinew or are they both bad when it comes to water?

[Ryan Jacob]

Also forgot to mention that rawhide would cost me $15 for enough to back a bow and 10 pieces of free range cow sinew costs $5.
Here are the links to the pics in case the on before doesn’t work:

https://imgur.com/a/md1GH

https://imgur.com/a/zCfFR

https://imgur.com/a/SmK38

[Pat B]

I would not drill out those knots. They look sound to me and you can weaken the bow by doing so.
 After you strip out enough sinew to back your bow you might wish you had sprung for the rawhide plus the sinew will add weight where the rawhide will not.
 I think I'd start tillering and see where that takes you then if necessary you can add the backing later.

[Parnell]

The Philippines...interesting.  I lived there for awhile when I was little back in the 70's.  We'd escape summer heat in Manila and go up to Baguio.  No tropical hardwoods available?

[Ryan Jacob]

Pat B
So I should go for rawhide after seeing how it goes? Im still roughing out this stave o tillering may be a while. Still gotta get sinew for my arrows though.
Parnell
There are some hardwoods that I know of. Narra is a rosewood but I think it’s a bit brash and it spalts easily. There’s also a few different trees in Mindanao but as of now, that place is a war zone in some areas. I get my wood from my grandparent’s house in Batangas. Because of this I’m sticking to fruit woods that they own. Also a lot of species are threatened so I don’t want to risk it. Strange though, there’s a man who knows where to get osage hear, the area is private land though so you need to be the owner’s friend to cut some

[joachimM]

you might as well put on a thin layer of sisal fibers with hide glue. Will cost you close to nothing, and it'll be less work than pounding, shredding and combing sinew.
I have a decent shooting sisal-backed shorty 52.5" ttt drawing 51# at 26".

Joachim

[Ryan Jacob]

I don’t think I can buy sisal fibers here. If I wanted plant fibers to back the bow, I’d have to look for some raw abaca or pound some yucca or agave leaves (ornamental plants). Also, that’s sounds like a pretty good bow (I’m not yet at your level, just spoiled by pictures of other bows )

[StickMark]

agave or yucca, very interesting

[PatM]

I don’t think I can buy sisal fibers here. If I wanted plant fibers to back the bow, I’d have to look for some raw abaca or pound some yucca or agave leaves (ornamental plants). Also, that’s sounds like a pretty good bow (I’m not yet at your level, just spoiled by pictures of other bows )

Sisal is from Agave plants.

[Ryan Jacob]

PatM
I know, I just don’t have the best of reactions when I mess with agave. Also, yucca stains a lot of things green. I guess I’ll use yucca for this one, I hope that it works. How many leaves will I need?