Sinew

[Muskyman]

I have been wanting to make a bow backed with sinew and recently bought 20 pieces of backstrap sinew. Waiting for it to arrive and was wondering if it should be enough to back a bow appropriately 72 inches. The description says they are 14-18 inches long. Just wondering if I should anticipate having to buy more or if I should be good.

[superdav95]

I would say so.  Depending what animal they are from.  Deer is quite thin but moose and elk are gonna be thicker and weigh more this giving you more sinew fibers.  I find that deer is the best imo.  It’s easy to work into fine fibers and get consistent lengths.  Leg sinew is good too but lots of work getting that casing off to expose fibers.  I just posted 2 sinewed yew bows on another thread both at 62”ttt.  I laid 65-70grams on each bow.  I would say you would have plenty there to do your bow.  I have a bag of deer sinew that weights about 67grams and it has 14 piece of deer back strap.   Another thing to consider is wether you will go right to the tips with your sinew.  Depending on your build you could keep stiff tips and just sinew the bending part of limb and put a wrap to hold down where the ends of the sinew are.  Just a thought.  This is what I did on mine and laid down one long layer on each limb and then tied it off.  If your lengths are 14-16” no doubt you’ll have some shorter pieces in there when you start process it all into fine fibers and such.  Your lengths may not be an option on this bow but something to consider for down the road.  There’s a lot of different ways to lay it down.  Let me know when you get ready and reach out if you need any help. 

[Muskyman]

Will do Dave. Thanks. It’s deer back strap by the way.  Hopefully it will be as advertised.