sinew moisture resistance

[BowEd]

Has anybody out there done something on this order to help sinew resist taking on moisture or humidity.It starts with using distilled water[from a dehumidifier].Boiling this water with ground up oak bark a couple of hours to change the water color brown.Anyone who has steamed osage has seen the water change to a yellow.Now strain the heavys from it through a cheese cloth or cotton cloth.Leaving you just the colored water.Now this water has tannic acid in it the same acid that tans and cures leather for a vegetable oak tan.Smoking brain tan deer hides acquire the same acid for moisture resistance.I know this because I've brain tanned well over a hundred hides and can vouch for it.Now use this water for your hide glue mixture for your sinew to go into before applying it to the bows back.One of these days I'm going to try it.

[BowEd]

Have to see whether the tannin in the water has a negative effect on the hide glue as far as bonding goes etc.

[JW_Halverson]

IN the first Traditional Bowyers Bible there is a section on glues where they talk about adding tannin to help hide glue resist moisture. 

Couple years ago I filled a 5 gallon kettle with shredded oak bark, topped her up with water and proceeded to simmer that for over 24 hours.  Eventually I boiled it down to a gallon of water, added a bunch of scrap sinew and rawhide and made a nice batch of glue.  Black as sin, thicker than snot.  It's been sitting in the freezer ever since.  One of these days I need to parcel it out in smaller batches and send it out to people that are interested in doing some glue strength testing.  If it works, cool.  If not, I have a big batch of unsweetened oak flavored Knox Blox. 

[BowEd]

Wow!! JW you would'nt need to dye the back black before putting snake skins on would ya.Cool.I was just going to prepare some tannin water then freeze that and use a bit at a time to put some powderd glue in for sinewing.Either way it gets on there.Sounds like an investment of about at least a year and a couple of bows and standing in the rain hunting these bows to see if it has an effect.LOL.Or at least the bow not being affected by the humidity as much.I read that too about an engineer Tim Baker conversed with about the tannin water.You know the Indians left some of their bows hanging way up above their fire by the smoke flaps for reasons other than keeping bugs out of fresh bows I believe.Have a HAPPY HAPPY Fourth there young man.

[zinger]

 Hasn't anyone here heard about using skim milk with hide glue crystals instead of water for making the hide glue waterproof? Just heard about it a couple of months ago and will be trying it out w/in a few weeks or so.  Now while it may not keep the sinew in a backing from absorbing humidity, it does seem like it would be a step up. As far as the oak bark tea goes, I would naturally think that all that tannic acid would keep that the glue from ever setting up, but some have apparently experienced different results (bowyer's bible). Will post my results with the skim milk experiment.

[JW_Halverson]

I converted a large part of the batch into flakes just by pouring small heated batches into plastic tubs. When it gelled, I peeled it out and set the "chips" in the sun until it was fully cured.  From there I just snapped it apart into smaller flakes.

Hey Beady?  You interested in trying this stuff to sinew back a bow?

[BowEd]

Yes in time Jdub.Just have to organize priorities you know.Waiting on one sinew baked bow to cure right now.I used distilled water.Wow can this get more complicated or what.I thought these things were supposed to be simple.LOL.Not enough lifetimes to experiment all of these concepts.I brought it up though so I'll try to follow through.Sounds like your closer to ready with to use material than me.The skim milk mixture never occured to me.Have to see what happens on that too.That would be less trouble to make I would think.

[hedgeapple]

Interesting stuff.  I'm planning on sinewing a bow as soon as my pinched nerves allow me to work on it.  I'll be following this thread.

[PEARL DRUMS]

I just use good urethane rather. Just easy for me I guess.

[BowEd]

Yep I hear ya about just using a good finish being 95% the solution here.

[JackCrafty]

Funny, all this talk about making sinew moisture resistant.  Just about anything that forms a barrier between the sinew and the atmosphere will make it "resistant".  I've never heard of tannin doing the job, though.  Sounds interesting but I wouldn't put money on it. 

Ed Scott makes his sinew backings waterproof by applying the sinew with waterproof Titebond instead of hide glue.  This technique is controversial but I thought I would bring it up...  heheh

I've used titebond to glue down sinew wrappings and it repels water nicely.  The only problem is that you have to destroy the sinew if you want to remove it and re-wrap.

[BowEd]

My viewpoint on using titebond with sinew is that you would have to reverse brace it for sure to have the sinew work more.I'm sure it would add a certain amount of poundage to the bow and protect it.Hide glue is the only glue I know of that shrinks the most when drying thus enhancing the performance of the sinew.If I wanted to just protect a back on a bow I'd just put deer hide on it.I've never personally used titebond with sinew and would love to hear of someone who has used both hide glue and titebond on different bows.Just like I'd like to hear if someone has used tannin in their water with the hide glue.

[BowEd]

At this time I'm pretty certain tannin in the hide glue would do nothing more than cure the sinew like it does with vegetable tanned leather.The jury is still out as to the amount of moisture resistance it would do for the sinew.