another question

[Renacs]

  O.K.  I'm back in the bow shop after being away from home for months, due to work. So I'll be picking your brains alot.  My question is that if i was going to decrown a stave and sinew it. Would it be acceptable.  safe....Not following a ring just feels wrong to me.   
  I just got done working osage into a board and i felt so dirty. And its hard to make my mind feel like its ok.

[PatM]

Decrowning does not necessarily mean you don't follow a ring in the center of the crown but sinew will cover up almost anything,.

[Renacs]

yes, ill naturally follow a ring a bit, since the flat back look does'nt appeal to me.  its just hard for me to comprehend.

[mikekeswick]

Sinew will work much better on a high crowned back.
I definitely wouldn't de-crown if I was to sinew back it.
Sinew can handle an 8% elongation. Wood only 1%. You need to do everything possible to strain the sinew as much as you can without the wood giving up to get the performance out of it.

[occupant]

You still follow rings, just as parallel lines down the stave. a decent job of it won't need sinew.

[Pat B]

I agree with Mike, why decrown when you are gonna add sinew?

[Josh B]

I concur with Mike as well.  Decrowning can be a useful trick, but with very limited advantageous application.  I have done some decrowning on small diameter walnut, cherry and ERC for selfbows.  However that was done to spread the workload out over more wood on the back.  With sinew its simply not needed.  Josh