crack in osage back

[episaacs]

Several years ago the late Joe Mattingly sent me a nice snaky roughed out bow that had a V-shaped crack on the back in the working portion of the lower limb.  From time to time I've tried to glue it down with epoxy, super glue, etc but it always seems to pop back up when the bow is flexed very much.  The bow is too thin to simply remove another growth ring. 

My question is: what should I back it with in order to repair this beautiful bow to be?  I'm leaning toward rawhide, but am not sure it will be strong enough.  Don't want to use glass, but that may be my only viable option   the back is wavy so a rigid backing is out; I've toothed the back to prepare for better grip.  I don't have a pic at this moment, but will try to put one on this evening.  Thanks, Ed

[snedeker]

I havent used rawhide but from what I hear it would probably calm the bow down and you could super clue the wood together first.

Dave

[Hillbilly]

Backing it with sinew might help.

[tom sawyer]

I second the sinew suggestion.  It'd work better than fiberglass, and take some of the stress off the cracked area.

What do you mean by v-shaped crack?  Is it a splinter coming off the side of the limb that is following a ring violation?  I assume both parts of the crack are running parallel to the length of the limb?

Did Mr. Mattingly know the blank was cracked?

[Pat B]

will you post a pic of the crack? that would help solve the problem.  Rawhide is pertty tough stuff. If you put the rawhide backing down then wrap the bad area you would probably be OK.  Or like Hillbilly said, what about sinew?   Pat

[Gordon]

Glue down the crack, back the bow with rawhide and then wrap the area tight with serving thread and that crack won't be going anywhere.

[GregB]

We've glued down cracks, then wrapped the bow with sinew. Only thing is it doesn't look very nice, but functional. Gordon's suggestion would probably be a good one, and would look better.

[episaacs]

Thanks guys.  I've been building selfbows for 9 years but have never backed one with sinew... been avoiding the task, but now might be the time.  Joe just sent me this bow as a gift along with another bow in a swap.  I guess he just didn't want to mess with it.  He was a great guy and was a regular on the old Leatherwall.  I miss him and really want to preserve this bow.