Well my friends several of you requested for me to do a real sinew string build along, so here it is. Sorry it took so long for me to get around to it.

I will be using a cup of water about a half of 1 buffalo back sinew, a pair of scissors and a ball of natural bees wax.

Here is some buffalo back sinew, I will seperate this into smaller fibers.

Seperate the sinews into strands about the size of a pencil lead. Dont shread to fine.

It should look something like this. Deer and Elk sinew work well also.

get all of the sinew into one bundle and trim off the edge nice and flush.

end should look like this.

seperate your sinews into bundels of 3. 2 will also work for a thinner string. Im using 3 for this demonstration.

take one bundle of the sinews and get them damp by applying water from your fingertips to the string. DO NOT SOAK!.

hold the tip of the sinews and roll them down your leg. Do this same step with with each group of sinews. This helps them stick together and helps with making an even string.

Take 2 of your rolled sinews.

cross them about 3" down and start twisting the two together. Twisting is done by rolling one string one way and the other the opposite way, So when they are wrapped around eachother they will twist together and wont come untwisted.

should look like this.

After you have twisted 3-4" of the string Take the top 3" of sinew and fold it down to where you stopped twisting, Now twist the 4 strands together. This will make our loop.

keep twisting the two together until you have only about 2.5 or 3" untwisted left.

now we will take two more of our twisted sinews and lay one on each of our existing sinews on the string.

lay these as close and even to your last twist as you can, this will help with a good splice and even string. Splice these pieces into the others using the same twisting method described above.

repeat this process until you get the length of string you need.

Dang Eric...you made that look easy....Great build-a-long! Thanks for posting.

when you get the length you want tie a knot in the end and pull very tight.

Cut remaining excess off the end of knot.

attach string to something you can pull against. By pulling the string you will take out much of the stretch of the sinew, and help set the fibers.

As i'm pulling the string i'm twisting it to make it tighter.

I then take some bees wax and coat the string several times.

Excellent buildalong, Indian Guy. Now what's the limit to the poundage of the bow you would use on that string? Jawge

And that my friends is how you do a real sinew string. It will stretch the first couple of times you put on a bow, after that you are ready to go. Happy shooting. Eric

Great thread Eric, I'm going to try this out real soon!

Very Nice!!

Jawge, I made this string for a sinew backed recurved bow I just finished thats a little over 60 # @ 20" the bow is only 42" long. But a string of this thickness would hold a 70 pounder without a problem.

Here is the Bow and set of dogwood arrows Im finishing up. 3 times as many hours in these shafts as in the bow. These dogwoods I cut last winter and tied them up for 6 months, I have been working on straightning them and working them to an even size for the last few months, They have self nocks and trade points. The wrapping and knock reinforcement is with real sinew. All that is left to do is fletch them. Eric

Still need to clean up excess glue from the bow. I will do that when the sinew has cured, and add a brain tanned handle.

Way cool, thanx for sharing

thanks now I have one more thing I will do in my life time one day soon God willing. You sure made it look easy but I guess sinew is kind of sticky when its damp. I have a time twisting b-50 with lots of string wax I make one loop ok and when I go for the other end I hit a wall and can't get it to twist braid and hold.

AAAHHHHH nice to be seeing you build again my brutha. As always I learned something from you, seems like I do that whenever you do a buildalong :)

Hope all is well with you and yours.

the other ERIC

That's amazing work indian guy. This site is as educational as it is entertaining. I'd realy like to see a bow backed with sinew build along. Den

Thanks Eric i've been wanting to try that for a bow.

Momassa! Greetings my brother, good to see your still around.

gotta whittle. You have to twist one strand one way and twist the other the opposite, once you figure that part out its simple.

Den, My wife had to take pictures for me as I need both hands for this one, if I can talk her into it I will do the next buildalong on sinew backing a bow.

Thanks Guys.

Thanks, I have some dry deer sinew and will now give it a try.

old school stuff is very cool!

Indian Guy, your time is appreciated. I have plans to sinew back a short bow, and it would only be fitting to follow your build along to make a string for it. One more thing to cross off the bucket list, thank you.

Forgot to mention on the end that is knotted, you secure that to the bottom limb with a timber hitch and the loop is for top limb.

Great build along. Thanks for sharing. Dan

Thanks Eric I always wanted to know how to do this.Im saving this thread.ttt.

Indian guy the end loop is the only part that wants to untwist the twist braid is not hard to master it just doing the ends the same and keeping them tight. without the timber hitch on one end never have used a timber hitch just don't look as neat.

Excellent job Eric! I made one a couple years back, but it sure didn't look that nice! LOL. It was plenty strong though! Thanks for the visual my friend!

You, Sir, are a many after my own heart. I love that type of archery. bows and arrows made from natural materials. Lord willing I'll get into natural strings more. May be this summer. :) Jawge

Fantastic thread! Thanks, saved it to my favorites for future use.

How does the string do when wet? Does it weaken or stretch much?

Chris

Chris you dont want to get the string wet, it will stretch. The old saying mentioned in many books that Indians didnt like to fight in the rain is true because of this very reason.

Thanks. That's what I suspected. Of course it'll be just fine for shooting in "good" weather. I'll give it a whirl.

Would smoking the strings (you know what I mean) help to make them water repellant?

Chris

The best thing I have found to protect them against the elements to a point of course is wax. I know when you heavily smoke a hide it does help repel moisture but It just wouldnt work on sinew.

Ok, plain wax it is then.

Funny you should offer a string build along. I was just wondering how strings were made. Now I know. I look forward to the sinew bow build along (if you can talk your wife into taking pictures, smile.)

Great build along. Thank you

thanks for the wonderful build along. just what i was waiting for!

Could you tell us a little about the bow?Thank's Griz

ny griz... The bow is osage and I put a recurve in the tips by steaming each limb 30 min, it is 1" wide in the handle and fades to 1/2" at the tips. The bow is not finished yet, the sinew is curing now. When thats done I will add a briantanned handle, clean up the excess glue and add some colored ocre to the sinew bands that are wrapped on each limb, the sinew itself applyed as backing on the bow will be also ocred red with a natural earth pigment, I will mix the pigment with hide glue to apply it. The bow is 42" long and will have a draw length of 20". I will post some pics on a new thread when its complete. Eric

Outstanding build along. The sign of a master craftman is that he makes it look so simple. Bill

I'll be watching for your next sinew project. Thanks Den

I'm going to try this with elk sinew this weekend. Thanks for a great tutorial!

Travis

thanks indianguy very interesting!!

thankyou indian;,,,,!!

...............ive learned alot from you over the years!...pics say a 1000 words and help ten-fold!!...always a pleasure!!.snake

ps...now i need too collect some sinew??....

Anyone ever try this with a three way twist and thinner strands? Would that make a stronger string with less stretch? It would be easy enough if you twisted it the same way you do a horsehair fishing line.

Thank you Indian Guy! I've been saving sinew from white tail deer for several years....going to give this a try! Great instruction. Your arrows and bow are also really awesome. Love these build alongs!

Timeless...Jawge

I forgot to mention in my last post, thank you or putting up this buildalong. I sure appreciate it when folks put these up. It helps out everyone who is trying to learn something new. It really looks amazing.

Hey looks good. Good build along. Hey is that for that AW bow with the shelf? Could not help myself Eric. Arvin

Thanks for showing Indian Guy, like going back in time an opening a time capsule. Added to my favorites list!!

Thread from 2010. Indianguy hasn't posted here in years. Too bad for the 'wall. He was a real asset to the site.

Wow you don't see that everyday. Thanks for sharing that information. That's another fine skill to learn.

Eric - if you are reading this - come on back to Leatherwall. You are missed, brother.

yes thnk you

I too thank you, This is an extremely interesting read. God bless, Steve

Yeah, Eric come back. Your posts were always so good. I always enjoyed them. You have a lot to contribute.

Great thread and build-a-long. Looking forward to the "backing" build. Thank you for your time and expertise.

I don't know about why you left Eric but I am enjoying my leather shirt. Arvin

I think I remember that right before Eric left, a couple of the more argumentative types on here blew him some shtuff and that was the beginning of us losing out on a lot of knowledge and some pretty good posts. I could be mistaken though. It's hard get a feel for the meaning/emotion of some posts, but I seem to remember some pretty harsh words for him and it pi$$d him off. Again, I could have mistaken something and I'm sorry if I did.

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