Simple hunting set "Wicahcala Kin Itazipa Ehake"

[AndrewS]

@half-eye
I look on this with fascination. Go on with this impressive building

[burchett.donald]

    Nice job on the sinew Rich...Looks smooth and even...
                                                                                     Don

[Jakesnyder]

You make it look easy rich. Also I found out what you mean by it being hard to string those highly reflected short sinew backed bows!

[loefflerchuck]

I've always loved your work Rich and hope this will not be the last we see.

[Mounter]

Very interesting. I’m wondering how you prep your sinew? From the pictures it doesn’t appear to be shredded?

[half eye]

I use complete "as is" backstrap. It is all ready thin and flat so never saw any reason to shred it. I feel it gives me a lot more control on making the sinew even on each limb. Also it very easy to trim width to fit the bow, usually leaving thinner (width) pieces for the outer limb area.  Also you can work a lot of trapped air out from under a flat "sheet" verses a bundle of loose strands. I have made several bows that did not need any re-tiller after sinew by doing this....guess I'm lazy and try to keep everything as work efficient as I can.
rich

[Hawkdancer]

Rich,
Excellent tutorial on your technique!  Dodo keep passing on the Oglala tidbits, it may help preserve the language by encouraging others to learn it!  Too many languages have already been lost!  Old guys learn very slowly and forget faster, young folks don't get the encouragement to learn another language, it seems like!  Great job on the bow!
Hawkdancer

[half eye]

While waiting for the sinew dry thought I catch up on some other parts of this project. Going to be 3 posts of pics so please bare with me here.

I cut 2 circles from my whitetail raw hide. One is 8" circle, and the other is a 9" circle. The 8" is the one I cut up for these 2 items. I cut 8 feet of 3/8" wide and 4 feet of 1/4 inch wide strapping and stopped when I had a circle that would fit the bottom of my quiver. I hafted the knife and have 6 feet of 3/8 left. I then took the small "circle" , punched a few holes and laced the bottom of the quiver together with 6" of the 1/4" left.

The hoop for the quiver bottom is a small branch cut from some small ironwood about 2 years ago. I cut a flat side and then wrapped the green twig around a butt cut from the tree. It dried like you see in the pics. Enjoy the pics and please, if any questions or points not covered please ask.

Tomorrow , I'll cut the 9" circle and twist some cordage for the quiver strap and tie down units.
rich

[half eye]

next pics

[half eye]

last pics

[half eye]

Forgot a couple of things....sorry. The reason for rawhide hafting on the knife is more to keep my fingers off of the blade as the glue has the blade "locked" in plenty good by itself.....can start carving the antler handle at this point.

I usually do not make "round" bottom quivers, but rather fold them flat.....the reason is simple stone heads do not "bounce around if carried in a flat envelope. Since this quiver will also carry war arrows, they do better in a round flat bottom and not so good in the flat envelope type. So this quiver is round bottomed, and be stuffed with moss for the stone hunting heads and plain for the war arrows.
rich

[Bayou Ben]

Yes, moss! It was hurting my brain to think of a natural way to keep the arrow heads from damaging each other.   
Thanks for putting this together.  I'll be following closely. 

[M2A]

Thank you for taking the time to share your knowledge with this build. Great information here. Looking forward to the rest. Mike         

[half eye]

Spent about half a day in the Hospital with my wife this morning so not much done, but here is what went on.

Cut the 9 inch circle of raw hide to make some cordage (not string material) I cut the strap between 3/8 and 1/2 inch and got 16 feet from it. This is going to be simple single ply but I was not sure how much twisted cord I would get.....you wont believe how it came out 16 feet of finished. I think this is because the twisting shortens the string but stretching during the twisting must pretty-much equal out.  It is my understanding that the old way was to twist it up between two saplings enough to have some tension on the twisted string, and as it dried the tension would be kept up through out the process.

The second thing I thought I would do is treat my quiver plug to water-proof it before it gets installed. Kind of goes along with Jakes question about the finishes. This is the same stuff I sent to him. I have melted the finish into a shoe polish tin. I heat this gently with a heat gun/ hair dryer until it is soft enough to get onto a rag.  I then spread this paste all over the object ( quiver plug ) I then add heat a second time just enough to liquefy it and make it run into all the little nooks and crannies. I then buff all the excess (it sets up a little very quickly) I then re-warm a little to make sure everything has a nice evn coating....buff out once again and there it is..

Here are pictures, as always if any questions please ask.
rich

[half eye]

I forgot to say that the finish drys to the touch very nicely but never does get real hard. The ratio of pitch, wax, and rendered deer fat are varied based on geographic location. I had to make mine so it would stay pliable in very cold conditions but not get tacky or sticky in the summer. So, no it is not hard, brittle, sticky or any of that....and yes it does require that you check it once in awhile...redo if the object starts looking "dry".  Also by keeping your application rag it will have enough embedded into it where you can simply "rub the object down" where the finish will be renewed.
rich