Long time reader, first time poster here.
I am fairly new to bow building and am exploring some backing options. I am really interested in cord backing. I know the TBB guys have some anecdotes about backing with silk cord or nylon as a way to shift the neutral plane and take some tension off the back. I was thinking about using some rawhide lacing (1/8, 1/4, or 1/2 inch wide) to loop between the nocks. In theory, it seems like it would dry into some recurve, which could get rid of the need for the winding of the cordage. The only thing I am thinking could be an issue would be the the stretch or recovery properties of rawhide in that configuration. I know people use rawhide with glue in a single layer.
If anybody has any experience with cord backing or rawhide cord backing in particular, I would love to hear your thoughts!
Tex,
when I first read TBB, I was intrigued by all the different possibie ways and methods to build a bow. As an experimenter at heart, my best advice is to not try too many experiments concurrently on the same bow. You will have a hard time knowing just where something went right (or wrong).
two different uses for backing were addressed in TBB. Some backings are overlays to help to protect a back from dings or to prevent a splinter from lifting.
Other backings are a structural part of the bow and will hopefully add performance.
ERC needs something to help with the stress on the back, as it will not take as much strain on the back as most bow woods.
This was also the case with some of the conifers (spruce) used on the eskimo cable bows.
Eskimo bowyers had access to sinew from large mammals, but not much in way of the stronger plant based bast fibers commonly found in lower lattitudes.
cable bows I have built needed beefy nocks to keep the cable loops from splitting down the limb at full draw. extra thickness at the nock shoulder and padding on the loops helped. admittedly, I was experimenting with some modern fibers and was working with higher tensions than the original bows likely experienced
To get the most work out of a cable backing, it needs to be elevated above the bow back. The bridges are obvious in the haida bow pic whereas the sketch by mason shows sinew wrappings which not only helped center the cord, but also probably served to raise the cable some lesser amount.
