100 foot sinew cable project completion!

[swamp monkey]

Back in June I started a project for making a sinew cable for a second arctic cable-backed bow.    My first arctic cable-backed bow was made with nylon cable and local woods from Missouri. http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,30234.0.html That was an experiment.

I want this second cable bow to be made with more authentic materials than my first cable-backed  bow.  This means the cable and wood choices have to change. 

So I started with the double strand, reverse twist cable.  Here are the final stats:
*I used about 25 white-tail deer tendons. 
*I pounded tendons for a combined 3 hours.
*I shredded and separated sinew strips for roughly 7 hours. 
*making cord took 13.5 hours and went at a rate of roughly 7.5 feet per hour. 
*trimming the cable took 1.5 hours.

I did not process all of the deer tendons from the legs.  I processed about 10,  the rest came from Patches (you have my gratitude Patches!). Cutting out tendons takes time too.  The 10 I did amounted to roughly 30 minutes of labor.  At that rate Patches likely spent an additional hour cutting tendons free from legs. 

So the grand total of time invested in making this cable is a whopping 26.5 hours.

The cable reached 102 feet and five inches before I concluded last night!   

Pics below show the cable before and after trimming, the full cable looped up, and the final image is of the cable stretched out down a driveway. 

The bow I make will have less than 8 hours in it, so the cable is by and far the largest investment. 

I am SO very pleased with this.  Thanks for looking guys.  Forgive me but I am proud. 

[bubby]

congratulations, you are an animal, now you might want to give your hands a nice ice bath,

[iowabow]

I can say I know what you been through brother!!!! Great job.

[autologus]

You going to make the bow from a White Oak barrel stave?

Grady

[stickbender]

     Dang!   That is a lot of work!  You going to go get some seal blubber for dinner?
     Man that is something!   So...... what are you doing now?  Why aren't you busy working on that bow?  Now that you show us the cable, where is the bow?  Don't you have any work ethics?   Man that is fantastic!

                                                                    Wayne 

[swamp monkey]

Thanks for the kind words fellas. 
Grady, I do intend to use an oak stave for the bow! You obviously know a thing or two about the arctic bows.   

Wayne, I am soaking my hands like bubby said!  I'll get to work after my spa treatment

I THINK that I WANT to tackle a bow like one of these below.  My trouble is I don't know if the whole bow is deflexed or if it is just the recurves (retrograde tips).  I looks complicated (like scary complicated  ) but If I am going to go to all this trouble I want to do it all the way.  Like a moth drawn to the flame I can't look away.

I think I have a disease . . . ya know?       A fun disease though!

thanks again guys.

[Ifrit617]

Awesome! That must have been a chore. Based on what I saw in the Alaskan museum, The bow was mostly straight limbed or even slightly reflexed, and the tips weren't necessarily deflexed, they were just weaker than the main body so appeared to end slightly more at brace. Hope this helps.


Jon

[swamp monkey]

Awesome! That must have been a chore. Based on what I saw in the Alaskan museum, The bow was mostly straight limbed or even slightly reflexed, and the tips weren't necessarily deflexed, they were just weaker than the main body so appeared to end slightly more at brace. Hope this helps.


Jon

Jon that is immensely helpful.  Thank you!

The cable took time but i broke it up over the summer.  If I watched a movie I made cord.  If I was in a lawn chair I processed sinew.  It is totally compatible with chatting and movie watching.  Thanks. 

[Joec123able]

WOw you have patience

[Gus]

Yes Sir Cool Thread...
And Great Work!

I'll be a-watching' for the Bow Build...



-gus

[neuse]

That's a great job making sinew cord.

[Pappy]

What a project,nicely done.
   Pappy

[Marks]

That's impressive. I look forward to seeing the grand finale.

[BowEd]

Ambitous job but if done right it'll be awsome.Hope to see it in the bow section sometime.It would get my vote.

[swamp monkey]

I found some interesting images of this five curve arctic bow.  Instead of searching for images of cable backed bows I simply typed Eskimo bow and came up with a lot more results.  Most of the time these bows are shown strung or at full drawn - seldom unstrung.  It's more dramatic that way!

These images show that the bows had five curves even when unstrung.  Two recurve bends and three deflex bends.  If there is a better name for this style of bow someone please jump in here.  It is different than the desert SW bows that have the opposite bend at every step.  Backwards five curve?  Cable backed five curve?  IDK. 

Jon was right about some of the bows being reflexed.  There are plenty of drawings and photos out there that show he is right.  The ones that have static recurves with bone or wood stiffeners on the recurve had no deflex.  I will post some pix later. 

Here comes my opinion. (warning!!  ) for these five curve bows I think they put some mild deflex in the tips and the main bow limbs.  Some set may have crept in but I think this was done on purpose for these bows.  I noticed most of them have wrapping around the recurve section also.  Most of pics are not good enough to tell if there is a stiffener in there.  I suspect not.  Again JMHO.

Ya'll jump in here and let me know what you think.   I am getting closer to having