Art sinew for backing?

[mikekeswick]

Sinew can take an 8% stretch before risking failure. Wood only 1% hence the need for lots of reflex...
Pearl - ok 

[Gordon]

There is nothing special about artifical sinew - it's just nylon. If someone is determined to back a bow with the stuff, I'd recommend using a sheet of polyester instead. It would be a lot simplier.

[osage outlaw]

When I first got started in bowmaking I ordered a box of supplies from 3rivers.  In that box was a spool of artificial sinew.  I thought I would use it on everything.  I still have that spool and it is still about 99% there.  I used some to tie something up in the garage one time.  I have never found the need to use any when making bows, especially for backing them.  I could see were it would work well on leather crafts so maybe I'll hold on to it. 

I would imagine a bow backed with artificial sinew would be similar to a bow backed with real sinew and TB glue.  It would offer protection, but very little in the way of performance.  Just my thoughts on it as a backing 

[Gus]

Rick,

If you are needing some back sinew shoot me a PM and I'll send you some...



-gus

[toomanyknots]

It might work if you could find a glue that it was compatable with and that would stretch and recover the same as the art sinew. There are too many other approriate options for a protective backing to use art sinew. For performance real sinew can't be beat or substituted as a backing.

True that. A real sinew backing with the wrong glue doesn't even do what sinew backings are desired for.

[toomanyknots]

I would be interested to see the recovery rate of artificial sinew compared to the recovery rate of real sinew. Also it'd be interesting to know how many times you can stretch either material before recovery begins to decrease, and ultimately causes a backing failure.

Gabe

I believe the word is resilience, I have read sinew's is higher than rubber in general. Although the idea of a strong rubber backing, applied in reflex, sounds kinda fun to try?