Main Discussion Area > HowTo's and Build-a-longs
Asiatic Composite Build-Along
thimosabbv:
"I glued it on and there was a slight gap that was irregularly shaped, so I shoved a wedge of osage in there to fill the space."
Tom here I thought I was the only one doing stuff like that. LOL. I figured everybody else got everything machine-perfect prior to glue. :D
"
tom sawyer:
I should've, in fact this was the second piece I cut and it was still a little short.
I have seen xrays of artifact bows and they used little wedges of bone to fill in small gaps at the handle. So we're just being authentic.
tom sawyer:
I unclamped and cut off the overhangs, things looked OK until I noticed that about an inch on one end of the handle piece didn't glue properly. I must not have gotten the boo core scored (with a hacksaw blade) very well at that end. So I stuffed some 2-ton epoxy in there and reclamped. I'm concerned about reverse-stringing this for sinewing, this piece may well pop off at that point. I guess if it comes unglued I'll just reprep and reglue. It should be fine when I actually use the bow since it will be pinched in between the horn strips.
tom sawyer:
The epoxy didn't work worth a darn, the one side of the handle lam is still loose. I tried to pop the whole thing off by bending in reverse, but the rest of the glue joint is holding well. So I reverse-strung the bow a bit and proceeded with my sinewing job last night.
I had presorted my sinew into a couple of lengths, putting each bundle between the pages of a magazine (not PA, that would have ruined it). I had also combed the last couple of inches of both ends of these bundles, with a dog flea comb (a larger tined one). This got rid of a lot of tangles in the ends (where they are most prevalent). Both these tasks really help you get a decent looking sinew job.
I made Knox gelatin hide glue, I used 3 packets in a cup of water but had to add another half cup to make it the consistency I wanted. Too thick and it gets real sloppy. Kept it on a cheap hot plate on low. I didn't have to add any water, since the sinew was prewetted with water and a little of this carried over into the glue each time. I sized the heck out of the back of the bow, I think this is important in getting a good bond. I used to think it would be better to leave it kinda dry but everything i read says to coat everything in several coats of thin glue so it sinks in as much as possible, and I definitely see the logic in that.
I first prewet each bundle in water, squeegeeing it out repeatedly until it felt limp and you could see the strands separate and be parallel under the water. If I felt lumps I would keep squeegeeing and dipping, that would get the tangles mostly undone. Then I dipped the bundle in glue and squeegeed, did this a few times to get it soaked in good. At this stage you could really see the strands nicely parallel when it was under the glue. Like well-combed hair, only thicker stuff of course.
I did a final squeegee and this gave me a flat, reasonably uniform strip of sinew to lay on the bow. I started down both edges and then laid a strip in the middle. I smoothed things with my fingers, I wished I'd had a piece of antler like Hamm uses in TBB because at times the sinew would want tmo stick to my fingers a bit. Smoothing is definitely something you can do too much of, because when you pet it one way you run into the next bundle and it might pull up the ends of those fibers and then you have a bit of a mess to contend with. So I smoothed as best I could and went on.
I did one thick layer of around 3/16" wet, this will shrink down considerably of course. I ran the sinew up onto the siyahs, and went over the handle with a thick layer as well. I did not go over the sides, decided that might just add weight but no performance or safety. And I didn't wrap any ends yet, I'll let this dry down some and then wrap the limb/handle areas as well as the limb/siyah areas (where the horn ends) to keep everything from pulling apart. Might use sinew, but am considering thread and glue as an alternative. That would look nice, be plenty strong and use less sinew.
Anyway, there are a couple of pics of the sinew job in all its wet/sticky/messy glory, at the link I have above. Not much to see really. The sinew isn't as brown as that one pic makes it look, that is just a lighting thing. And disregard the mess on the workbench, I need to doze the whole shop again soon.
OldBow:
Really neat! Maybe ready for Bow of the Month -Backed Bows for November?
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version