I took some pictures of some trouble spots on the back of the new bow.
The first two pics show a natural concave area between two "lumps". I sanded down these lumps and violated the rings quite a bit. (This can be done with juniper as long as the back is well sinewed and the main body of the bow is sound). The concave area will be filled with two (maybe three) layers of sinew in order to compensate for the weak spot and to bring the surface level with the back of the bow.
I also sanded the small knots down flat and smoothed down the rest of the back without worrying about violating a ring or two. The ideal situation would be to use the wood just under the bark for the back of the bow, like with hickory, but a perfect juniper stave is a VERY rare commodity. The older bow's back was shaped in this fashion as well.
Ishi decrowned his juniper staves and violated growth rings quite drastically in order to create a wide, level, smooth surface for the sinew. I have not gone to that extreme with my bows (yet).
Before I apply the sinew over the knots on the edges of the bow's back, I will round off the sharp edge and apply extra sinew over the knots. There's a total of four knots on the back that are larger than 1/8" in diameter...two are on edges.
(As a side note: I've got two other juniper bows in the works with backs that are knot free and have not been violated.....but what's the fun in doing a build along with one of those? They're too easy.
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