sinew curing question

[Marc St Louis]

Most traditional horn bowers use fish air bladder glue. This takes longer to cure than hide glue. A year may be overkill though.

Sorry but this is an error.  Pretty well all use hide glue for the sinew and horn with maybe a few using fish bladder glue.

[BowEd]

Well Marc I started with a 25lb. bow at 28 inches and I could get more poundage from the horn then heat treating the belly alone.Shooting for 55 pounds and am sure I have at least that right now with the sinewing of course.

[BowEd]

I wanted the composite material to occupy a higher percentage on the bending portions of the bow for overdrawing reasons and longer time left to being braced.Durability I guess.It's sort of an experiment for me.Might blow up on the first pull but I doubt it.

[loefflerchuck]

Excuse me Marc. I should not have said most, as there are composites in a few parts of the world. From what I have read Korea, parts of China(not Mongolia) used fish glue. Even the Turks used a hide and fish glue mix. These are 3 popular composite bow types. I am no expert like some of the ATARN folks, just like to dabble.
 There is no drawback to letting sinew season for a long time(except boredom), but the sinew will continue to cure for a long time even if you start shooting the bow in a week or two. Look at some of the California bows in museums with a huge amount of reflex that were said to have cured for a week. I have seen it in juniper and incense cedar bows with heavy sinew backings. I started shooting them in about two weeks and over the next year the reflex increases more every time they are left unstrung for a bit.

[Marc St Louis]

Some of them do use a mix to slow down the gel time of the hide glue.  This has no effect on the drying time

What can happen, and I have seen this, is that if you work a sinew backed bow too soon then the tiller will most likely change later on and that is a pain.  The more curing time you give the sinew the more stable the bow will be once you have finished tillering it.

[JW_Halverson]

I will echo Marc's opinion.  I have always called "differential curing"  Some parts of a limb just seem to take their sweet time curing out fully.  Bows I have had tillered beautifully after baking in a hot car for two weeks ended up being all outa balance a few months later. 

Anymore when someone asks me for a sinew backed bow I tell 'em they better be willing to wait 6 months at the very least.