sinew backing a bow

[luke the drifter]

this year i am going to try to back a bow with sinew.  my question is this--is this process one that has to be done all at once or can it be done in sections, take a break and do another?  i am trying to learn patience and i know if i do it all at once, i will probably mess it up. any advice about doing it by sections would be welcome.  from what i have seen from various videos, it is a messy job.

[Pat B]

Luke, I've only made a few sinew backed bows but did them in 3 sessions with a layer for each session and a month between. Others do it all at once. I would at least do a complete layer at one session but thatmight not necessary.
Be sure your glueing surface is clean and do a light sanding to expose fresh wood so the hide glue is well absorbed into the wood. You might even do a few sizing coats before you begin laying the sinew down.

[sadiejane]

have only sinew backed one bow-so obviously my experience is very limited. tho i've read, as pat mentioned, that its about equal-the number of folks who do it all at once, and those who do it one layer at a time.
i only did one layer at first. mostly because it was a bit of a frustrating job for me. too much unknown and anxiety about screwing it up. but i got that first layer done and put it up in the rafters. about 3 weeks later i got everything prepared and added two more layers. it went smoothly with much less frustration.

so, for me, a bit of experience doing the first layer, really helped me move forward with the next ones.
follow pats suggestions about prepping the wood.
what i found really helpful was all the prep work of materials before i started. i had everything i needed out in front of me, sorta "assembly line" like.
had more than enough sinew prepped and ready to go. also found when needed, i could stop at any step and take a break.
when i'd finished the first layer, i sorta felt like id never be doing this again.
but after getting that over with and the second time round. i feel like, yeah, this is more simple than i made it out to be and yeah, i''ll be doing it again, when i have the appropriate bow needing it.

have a towel over yr shoulder and a bowl of water handy for yr hands.
whatever ya do, dont let yr glue get too hot.
if the sinew shrivels up, discard, get yr glue cooled down a bit and try another piece.
there's lots of great tutorials here and elsewhere and numerous vids on youtube.
the more ya study the more confident you'll feel when ya get started.

have fun, relax-its not that difficult.
but it is rather messy....in a sorta fun way.

[JW_Halverson]

I always keep a pile of old bath towels on hand, plus a 5 gallon bucket full of warm and slightly soapy water. 

I set everything up so that I work round-and-round in a circle.  The bow is on the bench and right on the right hand side is a small table I set up with several large pans of warm water and the prepped sinew.  I have three bundles soaking at one time.  Take a soaked-out bundle and squeegee out the water and turn 90 degrees to the next small table with the warm hideglue.  I dip in the glue, squeegee out the excess, repeat several times.  Then the glue saturated bundle goes 90 degrees to my right again to the next small table.  That table has a sheet of plate glass and a fine toothed plastic comb.  The bundle gets laid on the glass and is combed from the center to each end with the comb.  I slip a knife blade under the now flattened ribbon of gluey sinew and turn 90 degrees back to the bow on the bench.  Once it is layed up on the bow I repeat the process. 

I tried it with two volunteers once, but it speeded things up too much and the sinew was not soaking long enough.  It wouldn't hurt to have someone changing out the sinew soaking water once in a while to warm it up, or to warm up the hide glue though.