Category Archives: Primitive Materials

Osage R&D sinew backed longbow 52#@27″ (bow no. 22)

Trying to get your hands on osage staves in the UK is hard these days, which is a real shame as osage is one of my favourite bow woods, second only to yew (due to sentimental value mainly). I bought this particular osage stave from Anthony Hickman over in Texas who has an Etsy shop which can be found here: HickmanCreationsShop – Etsy UK

Anthony sometimes has some nice osage staves in his shop for a reasonable price (by todays standards anyway!) And the stave which this bow was built from caught my eye as being worth the near $100 price tag. I could see from the photos from this staves shop listing that the growth ring thickness (and the composition of late wood to early wood) was very good, and that this stave carried no propeller twist or potentially problematic knots/splits etc.

At 62″ long, this stave was a little shorter than I’d ideally have liked, however I would struggle to get a longer stave shipped out to the UK without incurring a massive increase in shipping costs. So after a bit of consultation with Anthony, he managed to secure a not too absurd shipping price, so I decided to pull the trigger on this stave feeling pretty sure it would make for a very nice bow. And I’m glad I did!

So total cost including shipping, this stave came in just a whisker under $200, which is an awful lot of money for a hunk of timber, but unfortunately this is just the going rate nowadays for osage shipped to the UK!

The stave arrived on my door step in only 12 days which was bloody good these days. And after a thorough inspection of it, I was happy with what I’d received. Since the stave had the felling date written on the end grain, I knew that this stave was still fairly green. So I was a little worried that drying checks might have formed during transit from the states.

But I couldn’t see any signs of drying checks, other than what was obviously already present on the sapwood. And Anthony had made me aware of these sapwood cracks before I bought it. Since all the sap was destined to come off, the sapwood checking didn’t concern me at all, as more often than not, the cracks rarely ever continues deep into the heartwood.

Osage heartwood can check quite badly if dried too fast though, so I immediately painted the staves ends and the sapwood surface with TBiii, before putting it aside in my spare room to dry out for another 6 months. I kept weighing it each week so I could see when the weight loss would plateau and finally cease altogether. That way I would know when the stave was dry enough to start working on.

And by the early part of the summer of 2024, the weight lost had completely stopped, and I finally felt confident that I could begin sapwood removal and general roughing out, without running the risk of incurring drying checks from the rapid loss of any remaining moisture.

The sapwood came off nice and easy and chasing a decent latewood ring on the back was made simple by the fact that the first ring directly under the sapwood was perfect in it’s composition by being nice and thick, so I chased this faultless first ring and made that ring the back of the bow.

Now I had to think about design. This bow was destined to finish out at 60″ nock to nock, so being a bit on the short side, I needed to consider incorporating some design features to maximise draw length potential, without over stressing the limbs. Ideally this bow would go back to 27″, but I’d have to wait and see.

A 60″ bow drawn beyond 24″ will experience some “stacking” towards the end of the draw cycle unless some reflex is incorporated into the tips. So I planned to flick the tips on this stave, but not enough to be able to call it a recurve.

But flicking the tips alone would add at least 3-4″ of overall back set to this stave since the back of this stave was essentially dead straight. That much overall back set would definitely create the potential for overstressing the limbs of a bow this short, since the working sections of the limbs would only incorporate a max of 20-22″ of each limb.

So to counter the back set created by flicking the tips, I decided to deflex the 3″ fades either side of the 4″ stiff handle. Ordinarily I would have steamed the desired deflex into the centre of the handle, but I could see a couple of tiny drying checks on the belly side of the roughed out handle section, which would most likely have opened out considerably if I had attempted to steam bend the deflex into the handle.

The fades however appeared free of drying checks, so with the help of the heat gun, a shaping form, and a pile of G clamps, I pulled enough deflex into both fades to cancel out most (but not all) of the reflex, which I had now steamed into the last 8″ of the tips. After subtracting the deflex in the fades from the reflex in the tips, I was now left with around 1-2″ of overall back set. Much more realistic!

I opted for a simple slender pyramidal face profile on this bow, as this design works very well for woods like osage and yew. Since osage (like yew) is so strong in compression, I didn’t feel the need to go super wide with the limbs, so opted for limbs around 1 1/2″ wide at the widest section just outside of the fades, tapering down to 1/2″ tips (which I would leave static for the last 4″ in order to resist the reflex being pulled out of the tips over time with heavy use).

The handle section in the roughed out state was nice and deep, even once the bulk of the splintery rubbish had been removed from the belly side. So at 2″ thick, I decided to keep the handle a little deeper than I normally do. This would also enable me to retain nice deep fades too, so I fancied shaping them up to a nice crisp sharp ridge to create a nice aesthetic leading into the handle section.

In terms of character, this stave had one simple clean and featureless limb, and one limb featuring a small hollow knot (which I pegged), plus four small pin knots aranged in pairs in two different locations. This limb also had a small amount of lateral wave to the grain, which presented some nice edge contour to the face profile of this particular limb.

This limb also had the remnants of an old impact scar which must have occurred whilst the tree was still living. This old scar presented throughout the entire width and thickness of the stave, including the sapwood, and appeared as a pretty cool looking lighter coloured diagonal line of grain about 4mm wide running across and through the entire width and thickness of the outer third of the top limb.

This kind of impact injury to a living tree is usually as a result of another tree falling, or being felled into it. The tree heals rapidly by reinforcing the cells within the injured section with additional lignin and other strengthening compounds.

This healing process creates dense and interesting grain changes, which not only look nice, but are also denser and therefore stronger in both compression and tension than when compared to the surrounding uninjured wood. As such, these healed wound scars can be left within the working sections of a bow limb without any fear of weakness. In fact these sections are stronger than the rest of the limb.

As this limb clearly held all the character, I opted to make it the top limb which places most of the character closer to eye level. And since this bow was going to be asymmetrical, this more characterful limb was going to be 2″ longer than the more plain (but likely stronger overall) bottom limb. Since bottom limbs tend to take more stress over the years of shooting and stringing, they benefit from any additional design decisions which ensure optimal strength in this limb.

Since this bow was a little shorter than I’d have preferred, I decided to sinew back it. This would add significant durability to the bow, and it would also significantly reduce the amount of set which such a short bow would ordinarily take when being drawn back beyond 26″. I also consistently find that sinew backed bows retain their zip much better as the years roll by too, (so long as they are stored and cared for properly!)

So once the shape was roughed out and the back was suitably prepared, roughed up and sized ready for sinew backing, I added 3oz of processed wild English Red deer leg tendon sinew to the back of the stave with my own home produced hide glue made from cooked down red deer rawhide and sinew scraps. After sinew backing was complete, I then wrapping the stave up with bandages and put it away in a cool dry spot to cure for another 6 months.

By the beginning of this year (2025) the stave was dug out of hibernation for an inspection and I was pleased to see that the sinew was now fully cured. An additional 1″ of backset had been drawn into the stave as the sinew had shrunk down, so the overall backset was now almost back to where it was before I deflexed the fades.

This is very normal for sinew backed staves and I felt confident that after tillering, this extra 1″ of back set would likely fall out leaving something close to a more suitable1-2″ backset. And sure enough, after tillering to 27″, the stave was now back to around 2″ overall backset. Perfect!

After a good bit of early shooting in and a little fine tuning of the tiller, the bow seemed to settle into and hold the 1/8″ positive tiller really well. She was turning out to be a nice quiet snappy shooter, and a very enjoyable bow to accompany me about the woods stump shooting for a few weeks. not only did she not kick at all, but pound for pound, I recon this bow is possibly one of the fastest shooting bows I’d ever made.

Now to finish her up I decided to cut an arrow shelf into the handle as I personally love an arrow shelf and knew it would enhance the pointability of this bow significantly. And for the tips I went for wild red deer antler overlays.

Whilst the sinew backing on this bow provided great functionality, it did look a bit plain, so I decided to cover up the rather bland looking sinew with a couple of nice dark brown/purple cobra skins I’d had lying around for ages. The edges of the skins where then sealed and decorated with white dots made from ground deer bone dust mixed with glue and applied with a sharpened stick. I find that this edge work really helps to make the skins pop.

For the handle I ended up contouring the back of the grip to create a very slight pistol grip with the dip pulled up nice and tight to the arrow shelf so as to keep the arrow as close as possible to the top of the index finger of the bow hand. I really find that this little detail allows me to shoot a bow instinctively with considerably more accuracy through enhanced pointability.

After sanding I sealed her up with 8 coats of danish oil. Then the final extra fine sand and pumice polish was finished off with my favourite home constructed linseed oil/bees wax paste wax polish, setting her up for a nice deep satin look to compliment those snake skins and the wonderful golden yellow of the osage heartwood.

For the grip I found a nice rustic piece of home produced bark tanned red deer leather laced up with some roe deer leather thong. And for the arrow pass/shelf I fitted a couple of nice pieces of natural coloured hair on bark tanned red deer shin leather. Which is a better looking wild and rustic version of the commercially available “calf hair” leather the archery suppliers sell!

Fitted with a custom built ultra low diameter fast flight sting, I put a dozen or so 50# 550grain doug fir arrows over the chrono to see how she performed. The chrono recorded an average arrow speed of 168 FPS, which is about what I’d expected given how spicy she felt when first shooting her it. Easily capable of being classified as a “hunting bow” and very accurate and enjoyable to shoot split fingers and instinctive.

This bow is now available to purchase through the Southmoor Bows Etsy Shop, listing available here:

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me either here, or through the shop!

Here are her stats, hope you like the photos and video!

Draw Weight: 52lbs at 27”
Mass: 650 grams
Length NTN: 60” (asymmetrical limb layout)
Width: 1 7/16″” at widest part
Tips: last 4” static reflexed, 1/2” wide
Back: Crowned with undulations. : Pyramidal face profile
Belly Profile: Working limb sections rounded D shaped, transitioning at the tips to a ridged cross section.
Tiller: Eliptical. 1/8” positive
Brace height: 5.5″

Sinew Backed Primitive Elm R&D Longbow 48# @ 27″(bow: 20)

It’s been ages since I made myself a bow. So when I uncovered a forgotten Elm stave which I’d had up in the barn rafters for a couple of years, I rather fancied turning it into my next favourite stumping primitive.

Whilst the stave was fairly clean, it did have a knarly looking end section which looked more trouble than worth the effort to work around. So I opted to cut this end off. This only left me with 61″ to play with. That’s not much for a white wood bow.

A white wood bow this short, intended to be drawn back to my 26″ draw length, would stack unless the tips were flicked. But flicking the tips on an otherwise short and straight stave would probably overstress the limbs.

As the added reflex was only to reduce stack, not add speed, I opted to deflex the handle section/fades so that it would cancel out the added stress from the recurve induced throughout both outer thirds. This is something that I tend to do routinely now, as even just a whisper of R&D makes for a much smoother, less stacky draw.

And as this white wood bow was always going to be a tad on the short side of ideal, to make sure that there would be no risk of his bow blowing up on me in a few years time, I decided to sinew back it with 3oz of Red Deer leg tendon sinew. Whilst it’s always a hassle and a massive faff to sinew back a bow, in addition to the extra durability sinew backing brings, it don’t half add some resistance to set, not to mention a fair bit of extra zip!

The stain on the wood is iron chloride, and the light dark effect on the sinew was achieved by painting the rough sinew backing jet black using my local “bideblack” earth pigment mixed with TBIII, which was then sanded along all the high spots to reveal the underlying natural sinew colour standing proud above the black sinew valley bottoms.

Edge work was done with the same black paint and the white dots are deer leg bone dust mixed with glue. I personally really like this kind of edging as it really makes the face profile pop.

Tip overlays are wild Red deer antler, and the handle/ arrow pass is covered with my home produced traditional spruce bark tanned wild roe deer leather. The wood was finished and sealed with shellac.

Given the sinew component, this bow took a full year to build from start to finish, but I’m really happy with how she came out. She is fast and light in the hand, and produces zero hand shock. Quiet as a feather and very pointable too. Whilst I’ve yet to put more than a couple of hundred arrows through her, she is already rapidly becoming one of my favourite woodland bows.

Here are the stats:

Draw Weight: 48lbs at 26”
Mass: 660 grams
Length NTN: 59.5”
Width: 1 3/4” at widest part
Tips: 5” semi static 3/8” wide at the nocks.
Back: Moderately crowned with a pyramidal face profile.
Belly Profile: Working limb sections flat with rounded corners, transitioning at the tips to ridged shaped cross section.
Tiller: Elliptical. 1/4” positive
Brace height: 5 1/2″

Here are the photos/video.

Sinew Backed Yew Primitive 46# @ 27″ (bow no: 19)

Since gaining a bit of a reputation locally for being the guy who makes “Character bows”, I’ve been “gifted” rather a lot of “character staves”! And not wanting to appear ungrateful, I’ve become prone to accepting these staves, rather than politely declining the “generous” offer of yet more firewood!

Actually, once in a while, some of these typically low diameter branch staves don’t look too bad, (at least upon initial inspection) and the bow featured in this post was built from one such branch stave which was donated to me in 2022.

Despite the low diameter and general knottiness of this particular branch stave, there was one face which looked quite nice and could make for a sound back. So other than a couple of branch whirls to deal with on the belly side, I could easily envisage making a simple but effective primitive bow from this stave. So in the spring of 2024 I set to work on it.

Roughing out was straight forward enough and I was pleased to get past all the pith without running low on heart wood material. I decided to keep the face profile fairly narrow so as to minimise the amount of sapwood which was curling around the edges towards the belly due to the low diameter and high crown on the back.

The stave was fairly straight other than a tiny amount of deflex right in the middle where I’d lay out a stiff handle with fades. I decided to leave this deflex alone since I only had 62″ of overall length to work with, and really hoped to get 27″ of draw length out of this bow. I figured that lightly flicked tips could possibly work since the deflex in the handle would help cushion the extra strain that any reflex might place on the relatively short working sections of the limbs. Flicking the tips would help reduce any stack experienced which might result from the short length.

A stiff 4″ handle with 3″ fades, and 5″ stiff tips would reduce the overall working sections of both limbs down to around 20″, which isn’t a great deal to support the load that a 27″ draw would place on a bow as short as this one. So after roughing out and steaming the tips into a light reflex, I decided to sinew back this stave and leave her to cure out over the summer of 2024.

By early autumn the sinew backing appeared to be thoroughly cured and a little bit of overall reflex had been drawn into the stave as the sinew had shrunk down tight. This often happens when enough sinew is used, which is why I typically apply my sinew backings by weight to ensure enough (but not too much) sinew is applied.

I find that a total of 3 ounces of sinew (an ounce and a half of dry processed sinew per limb) is the perfect amount for a bow in the 58 – 64″ range. 3 oz is plenty enough sinew to add significant extra power and resistance to set, but not so much sinew that the added weight of the sinew starts to add power robbing mass to the limbs.

I find that more than 3oz of sinew on a bow this length crosses the point of diminishing returns, and the extra weight the additional sinew gives to the limbs can actually start to decrease arrow speed and create a fair bit of limb vibration too. This vibration post string release is typically felt as an uncomfortable form of hand shock. So when it comes to sinew backing a bow, more is not necessarily better!

So 3oz of dry sinew is about perfect, so long as the bulk of its distribution is along the working sections of the limbs, as opposed to the handle section or the last 6″ of the tips, which will not be improved one bit by the added weight of a full thickness layer of sinew. In fact the tips really only want as thin a layer of sinew as is possible. Just enough to cover the visible surface of the back. Enough to add structural integrity but not weight.

The stave was brought into shape and a rounded D shaped belly was chosen so as to get as much sap wood off the belly corners as possible. This allowed for the retention of as much heart wood as possible and resulted in an overall ratio of around 50/50 sapwood/heartwood. Which was pretty good for a low diameter branch stave.

Three of the small knots presenting on the belly were a bit weak looking so I opted to dig them out and fill them with a mixture of epoxy and yew dust so as to add back some strength whilst retaining as best a natural look as possible.

Before putting the long string on for the first few pulls the stave held about 2″ of overall reflex, but I new that a fair bit of that overall reflex would disappear once the tillering got well underway. And as expected, by the time 26″ had been reached the overall reflex had reduced to about an inch. My expectation was for it to drop another inch by the time full draw was reached and the bow had been properly shot in, and my expectation was spot on.

So after a thorough shooting in period, the overall reflex/deflex reduce to about neutral, which was ideal for a bow which was going to end up only 60″ nock to nock. The light reflex in the tips had held it’s shape, even with their relatively low diameter, and the 1/4″ positive tiller had stayed true throughout the shooting in period.

46# at 27″ was about right for a stave of this nature and she was pleasant to shoot too. So to finish her up I fitted her up with a pair of red deer antler tip overlays. To decorate the back I fitted a nice King Rat snake skin which I had squirreled away. As well as looking quite cool, I also like that snake skins are pretty water resistant and afford a sinew backing quite a bit of extra protection from water/humidity ingress, which is always a bonus in a humid country like ours!

This snake skin wasn’t long enough to run tip to tip so I left the tips bare to show off the sinew backing. The transition from the snake skin to the sinew at the tips was wrapped with deer back strap sinew to tidy up the termination of the snake skin. The snake skin and the sinew wrappings were then edged with a black paint made from my local black earth pigment (Bideblack) mixed with hide glue. And the cream coloured dots added to the black painted boarder were made from mixing hide glue with deer bone dust.

The bow was finish and sealed thoroughly with 8 coats of danish oil made satin in appearance through a final pumice polish buffed down with wax paste. I opted to cover the slightly contoured handle with a nice piece of my home bark tanned red deer leather in a nice natural red tan colour, laced up with some leather lace cut from a roe deer hide I bark tanned last year.

The arrow pass is a piece of red deer shin leather which I tanned with some of the hair still on. It’s a bit like a rustic primitive version of the calves hair leather pieces you can buy from archery shops, only cooler!

I really enjoyed building this bow and found her to be really pleasurable to shoot. The chrono consistently recorded speeds of around 150ft/sec from a 400 grain arrow which is quite reasonable for a character branch stave.

The balanced tiller and flicked low mass tips helped mitigate any hand shock and the slightly contoured handle made for a nice comfortable grip. I can imagine this bow giving someone many years of enjoyable and reliable shooting so will be offering this bow for sale in my Southmoor Bows Etsy shop, the listing can be found here:

Specifics are as follows:
Draw Weight: 46lbs at 27”
Mass: 725 grams
Length NTN: 60”
Width: 1 3/8” at widest part
Tips: 5” working 3/8” wide at the nocks.
Back: Moderately crowned with undulations with a pyramidal face profile.
Belly Profile: Working limb sections D shaped, transitioning at the tips to ridged shaped cross section.
Tiller: Elliptical. 1/8” positive
Brace height: 5 1/2″

Here she is, hope you enjoy!

Sinew Backed Ladies R&D Yew Primitive (38#@26″) Bow no. 18

This bow was built from a short, thin but nice straight English yew stave which had been propped up in the corner of the barn for at least three years. It was too short to make a bow fit for a 28″ draw, and it was also a bit too narrow to produce a draw weight much above 30lbs.

After a bit of thought I decided to see if I could turn it into a short ladies or teens bow. The stave was pretty straight and without much wiggle. The sapwood was about 10mm thick so I reduced it down to about 6mm. The growth rings were a couple of mm thick so staying true to one growth ring on the back was quite easy.

Since the stave was so short, I wanted to reflex the outer thirds of both limbs in order to reduce any stack experienced at full draw. In an attempt to avoid over stressing the bow with too much overall reflex, I also wanted to deflex the handle as a means to minimise the risk of the limbs taking on excessive set. This was a fairly short stave after all.

After roughing out, the R&D shape was achieved by using a mixture of both steam and the heat gun to persuade the stave to conform to the shape of one of my wooden R&D forms. After the desired shape was achieved, the stave was sinew backed using wild Red Deer leg sinew and hide glue.

After being put away to cure out for 6 months, I finally got around to digging the stave back out for tillering. As is often the case with pre shaped staves, this one tillered out very quick and came off the tillering tree roughed out at around 42# at 26″.

After a good bit of shooting in, and a quick retiller to let off the top limb a bit more, she was finally pulling around 38# at full draw. And after a bit more shooting in and with the tiller now holding fast, I was ready to think about decorations, overlays and general finishing.

For tip overlays I laminated a couple of pieces of deer leg bone onto some buffalo horn. As a decorative backing, I chose to use a couple of nice wild sea bass skins which came from a cracking lure caught open reef fish which I’d been very fortunate to catch on the north Devon coast last summer (photo of the fish at the bottom). The reef bass often take on a nice dark colour around this part of the world and I’d been itching to use some as bow backing material for ages, so was keen to make this my first attempt.

The skins were fitted with TBiii and were edged with a black paint made from a mixture of hide glue and a locally produced earth pigment called “Bideblack”, which I’d collected from the cliffs directly behind the reef beach where the bass was caught. The white dots where made from mixing deer bone dust with hide glue and were applied with a pointed stick.

The handle cover is my own home made spruce bark tanned wild red deer leather, died with some Iron Chloride which I’d earlier made from wire wool mixed with vinegar. The Iron chloride reacts with the tannins bound within bark tanned leather, turning the leather dark black.

The lacing is done with my own bark tanned roe deer hide, and the arrow shelf/pass is bark tanned red deer shin leather cut from an edge piece which still had some hair on it. After staining the leather black I thought the natural golden brown colour of the hair stood out great, giving a pretty cool unique look. Deer shin leather makes for great arrow pass/shelf material as it is very dense. This makes it super tough and durable whilst still being nice and thin.

As you’ll see from the photos, there were three knots in this stave, I wanted to incorporate all three knots into the bow’s character so I deliberately left them nice and thick and wide to avoid any likelihood of them producing a weakness, or an unsightly pinch.

Two of the knots were unsound and needed to be dug out and refilled, so rather than dowel them like most do, I decided to improve their aesthetic appeal by filling them both full of with a mixture or epoxy and natural/stained yew dust. This gave both knots significant extra strength, as well as a much more natural knot like appearance. I think they look far better that the customary heartwood dowel and glue approach which most bowyers use to fill knot voids.

After sanding buffing and burnishing she was treated to 8 coats of danish oil and a buffing down with fine pumice and oil. Then a final application of paste wax to leave a nice satin finish.

I was really pleased with how this one turned out. She’s a smooth drawing, whisper quite little thing and the sinew helps send a 380 grain arrow out there at an impressive 145ft/sec. Not bad for a R&D primitive with only a 26″ draw!

This bow is currently available to purchase and can be found in the Southmoor Bows Etsy shop listed here:

Specifics are as follows:
Draw Weight: 38lbs at 26”
Mass: 532 grams
Length NTN: 55”
Width: 1 1/4” at widest part
Tips: 5” static 3/8” wide at the nocks.
Back: Moderately crowned with undulations with a pyramidal face profile.
Belly Profile: Working limb sections D shaped, transitioning at the tips to ridged shaped cross section.
Tiller: Eliptical. 1/8” positive
Brace height: 5″

Hope you like her!

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This was the Bass from which I used the skins in the build. The black sooty looking pigment on the shale rocks behind is what I used mixed with hide glue to make the black paint which edged the skins.

Sinew Backed Yew Holmegaard 70#@28″ (bow no. 17)

Back in the spring I was contacted by Ross, a friend of Matt who had purchased the character yew flatty I blogged about here: Primitive Character Yew Flat bow 52#@28” (Bow no. 14) – Southmoor Bows which Matt had bought through the Southmoor Bows ETSY shop. Ross really liked Matt’s bow, so he got in touch with me to ask if I could build him something with a primitive vibe, but a bit heavier. Ross came from a ELB background and was accustomed to shooting bows in the 65lb plus bracket.

After a bit of discussion we settled on a plan. I had in my possession a rather nice and character laden Yew branch sucker stave, which I could easily envisage being turned into a Holmegaard type longbow. This stave measured 71″ so was both long/wide and clean enough to produce a heavier draw weight bow built in a classic Holmegaard/pyramidal/flatbow type design, as opposed to something more like an ELB, which is a widely accepted design, recognised as being well suited to bows intended for higher draw weights.

Ross and I had settled on a target draw weight of somewhere around the 65-75lb mark, so I had to now figure out how I could optimise the bows design and features to encompass the heavier than average draw weight, as well as all the wonderful characteristics of this particular stave.

Rather than go full on Holmegaard and get all anal about precise authentic dimensions, I decided to let the stave dictate the overal profile. And to ensure long term durability I opted to incorporate a robust application of sinew backing to minimise both potential set, and vulnerability to wear and tear over time.

So my plan was to build a straight limbed pyramidal profiled long bow with semi lever like needles for tips, and a completely static handle section. The bow would end up 70″ nock to nock and have 8″ static tips. These none bending tips, combined with a 4.5″ stiff handle with 3″ long flowing fades, would leave me with just about 43.5″ of working limbs. Since this wasn’t a massive amount of moving wood, I decided to lay the bow out asymmetrically so as to give the bottom limb a bit more support over the long term.

The intention was to maintain the original crowned shape of the back, whilst adopting a rounded D shaped belly cross section throughout the fades and working sections of the limbs. The tips would transition in cross section from D shaped to ridged to reduce mass whilst remaining static. The handle would remain deep and relatively straight with no shelf as the chap who asked me to build this bow was a fan of shooting off the knuckle.

The stave had no overall natural reflex or deflex, but the 6 sets of branch whirls which were evenly distributed between both limbs did have some contour, thus giving the false impression of deflex where the grain flowed around the knot whirls. These flowing lines would need to be incorporated into the final profile of the bow as my intension was not to interfere with the natural shape of the staves side profile. Fortunately, this particular stave was completely absent of any twist or snake, so other than working around the knotty branch whirls, laying out the intended profile was, for once, a doddle!

The Heartwood/sapwood ration was about right too, with this stave having no more than 1/4″ of sapwood under the bark. Subsequently, I only had to get the bark off in order to expose what would end up being the back of the bow directly below the sinew. This meant that the final composition of heartwood/sapwood would end up being around a 70/30 ratio. Perfect!

So after roughing out the face profile and reducing the belly to facilitate better drying, I set about the arduous process of applying 3.5 oz of wild red deer leg sinew, applied to the back of the stave with my own home made sinew glue cooked up from a bunch of sinew scraps and tendon sheathing material. After applying all the sinew and given the glue plenty of time to set up, I wrapped her in gauze and left her to dry and cure out completely for 6 months. And what a long wait that was!!

The sinew backing came out great, so after what felt like an eternity, I fitted a pair of stag horn tip overlays and got a long string on her for a few short pulls. All looked good and after a bit of tweaking here and there, she was soon at brace and being pulled to 26″

As usual, I like to spend a fair bit of time shooting in a bow before attempting to get the last couple of inches of tiller finalised. So I spent a week putting her through her paces so that she could settle in and reveal any tiller correction that might be necessary before calling the job done. For once this bow didn’t budge off tiller, and had settled in to a nice 1/4″ positive tiller, which felt very well ballanced at full draw.

Final touches included a stag horn inlay for an arrow pass, and a gorgeous piece of my home produced bark tanned red deer leather as a handle cover, all sewn up with lace cut from some flank leather from the same hide. To seal her up I saturated the gorgeous grain of the wood with several applications of raw tung oil, caped off with half a dozen coats of Danish oil to fully protect her from dirt and moisture. Last but not least, the glossy Danish oil finish was sanded smooth and polished with fine pumice powder to leave her with a beautiful satin finish which sheds water and really shows off the grain.

I really enjoyed building this bow and will definitely build another “Holmegaard” like this one just as soon as I get my hands on another suitable stave. She’s a little on the heavy side for me personally, but I did enjoy the speed and power that was greater than what I’m used to. The loud whack she delivered when sending my stumping arrows on their way never got boring! She turned out to be quite nippy across the chrono too by consistently sending 550 grain arrows over the sensors at between165-175Fps, which, I’m sure you’ll agree, isn’t too shabby for a simple English yew branch stave!

Specifics are as follows:
Draw Weight: 70lbs at 28”
Mass: 850 grams
Length NTN: 70”
Width: 1 7/8″ at widest part
Tips: 8” static 1/2” wide
Back: Crowned with undulations. : Pyramidal face profile
Belly Profile: Working limb sections D shaped, transitioning at the tips from semi circular, into ridge shaped cross section.
Tiller: Eliptical. 1/4” positive
Brace height: 6″

Anyway, here she is. Hope you like her!

Spring 2025 Edit: Ross has kindly sent me a couple of video clips of him shooting his bow which I’ve added at the end. So far he’s been sending his roving arrows out to 200yards! Phew!!

Native inspired Yew HLD R&D Longbow 46#@28″ (bow no 16)

This bow started out life as a fairly short branch stave at 62 inches, but I had to lop off another couple inches due to deep drying checks in both ends. This left me with around 58 inches to play with, which isn’t really enough to produce a bow intended to reach a typical 28″ draw length, so right off the bat I planned on being content with a 26″ final draw length, if she survived the plan!

The stave had a small amount of natural reflex at the middle of the handle section, and natural deflex in what would be the inner third of the top limb, so rather than fighting with that, I opted to add the same amount of deflex to the inner third of the bottom limb to balance the natural shape of the stave.

Since the stave was quite short, I also opted to flick the tips to counter the deflex a bit, plus, since she would end up quite short, the recurved tips would significantly reduce any likelihood of uncomfortable stack at the end of the draw. Whilst shaping the bottom limb I also took the opportunity to improve the overall string alignment by tweaking the outer third of the bottom limb in order to make the alignment of the tip section straighter, which in turn pulled the string back in line with the centre of the handle.

I always seem to find that deflex reflex profiled bows tiller a lot quicker and easier than straight limbed bows for some reason, and this bow was tillering out nicely. That was until I uncovered a significant and unavoidable delamination in one of the heartwood growth rings in the top limb. The ring was so deep that the only way I was going to clear the delamination was by digging out most of the heartwood. Since most of the heartwood was going to have to leave, I was left with no choice but to opt for a mild hollow limb design as all I was left with was mostly high crowned sapwood to build from. Fortunately I’d not removed any sapwood at this point as i didn’t feel the need to chase a ring, so I still felt confident that I had enough wood to make a bow.

Personally I prefer a yew heartwood/sapwood ratio of around at least 50/50, but this bow was going to end up more like 40/60. Many bowyers would condemn such a ratio, but in my experience, for flatbows at least, an almost entirely sapwood yew bow will still make for a snappy shooting and durable bow if tillered well. And this bow did not disappoint, despite the loss of so much heartwood.

In order to emphasis what little heartwood I was left with, I decided to fume this stave in ammonia, which really added some character by giving the wood a unique, almost antique like look which only yew can bring about. I’ll definitely be fuming more yew bows in the future as the results I’ve experienced so far have been fantastic!

This stave had a couple of potentially problematic knots in the top limb which needed to be delt with before putting any significate torque on them, so after drilling the soft rotten material out, I decided to plug them both with yew heartwood, as there was quite a cavity left after all the muck had been removed.

After getting to brace height I decided to rawhide back her with wild red deer rawhide for extra durability, which left me with quite a canvass to decorate after tillering was completed. Since I had nothing in the way of snake skins to back her with, I opted to use a native design which I’d seen in the Bowyers Bible Vol 1. So after shooting her in I mixed up some of my local Devonian earth pigments with my own hide glue and set about painting the backing in a pattern inspired by the “Hupa” Western Indian tribes recorded from the Northern California/Southern Oregon region.

Tip overlays and arrow passes made from red deer antler were fitted, and the handle cover was made from a gorgeous piece of Bark tanned wild red deer leather, which I tanned myself in sitka spruce bark that came from the very same group of trees which are in the background to the photos bellow. The leather grip is also sewn up with red deer leather lacing.

After a lot of shooting in and a little re tillering to balance things out post settling in, I was really pleased with the end result. She’s super pointable, snappy, light in the hand and performs without any hand shock at all. And she turned out to be a nippy little thing, consistently hitting speeds around the 150FPs mark shooting a 500 Grain arrow. She would make for a great hunting bow, especially in a blind as she’s so manoeuvrable due to being so short.

She is now listed in my Southmoor Bows Etsy shop and can be found here:

Specifics are as follows:
Draw Weight: 46lbs at 26”
Mass: 630 grams
Length NTN: 57”
Width: 2” at widest part
Tips: 4” semi static 3/8” wide
Back: Crowned with undulations. : Pyramidal face profile
Belly Profile: Working limb sections undulating to mirror back, transitioning at the tips to D shaped/ridge cross section.
Tiller: Aggressive eliptical. 1/8” positive
Brace height: 5.5″

Here she is:

4 Secrets to Making Your Best Antler Bow Tip Overlays

The Antler series Part 2

I love using deer antler for tip overlays on primitive bows. Not only does antler function well as a material for tip overlays, it also looks amazing. And given that primitive bow hunters both past and present have relished the opportunity to hunt deer, it seems fitting that a material from such a prestigious quary species should be used to enhance and embellish a primitive bow.

In this article I’d like to share my 4 most important principles to making beautiful, functional and efficient deer antler tip overlays.

For this project, you will need the following tools, materials and equipment:

  • An unfinished bow stave without nocks already fitted.
  • Suitable sized pieces of deer antler cut from the coronet end of an antler.
  • A wood saw with small to medium sized teeth.
  • A rasp/coarse file/belt sander.
  • Titebond III wood glue.
  • Spring clamp.
  • Vice.
  • Wet kitchen towel.
  • Tile saw (optional).
  • Chainsaw file.
  • Sandpaper 80/100/120 grit.

Principle # 1 – Select the right type of antler.

For the purpose of making deer antler tip overlays, you will not want to use a piece of antler which is full of the pithy porous honeycomb like structure that you will typically find in antler from sections anywhere other than the coronet end of the antler. Antler from the coronet end is very nearly solid all the way through. Antler from anywhere else is effectively hollow from all the micro holes. Maximise the strength of your antler tip overlays by ensuring that your overlay material of choice is solid, or at least as close to solid as is possible.

For this tip overlay project I’ve decided to use red deer antler. The piece on the left is the coronet end from a yearling red stag and is perfect. The piece on the right is cut from the middle of an antler and has the typical hollow, porous appearance. I’ll be using the piece on the left.

Principle # 2 – Achieve the basic shape and profile of your tip overlays BEFORE you glue them on.

Don’t be tempted to simply saw your antler into blocks and then glue then on with a view to shaping them later. Shape then first before gluing!

This antler has some nice features which, with care and planning, could be carried over into the final appearance of the tip overlays.

I often see people take a tip overlay material such as antler and simply glue a chunk of it to the tips of their bows. Once the glue has set, they will then set about shaping the overlay.

The problem I see with this method is that the desirable character of antler is mainly at the surface level. It therefore cannot be optimised for inclusion in the final shape and appearance of the overlay unless these characters conform to the desirable shape and profile of the finished overlay.

If a chunk of antler has simply been glued on to a bow tip before shaping, the shape of the chunk of antler will likely be nothing like what is required of the finished overlay. As the functionality of the overlay will take precedence over its beauty, optimising shape and profile will rank more important than aesthetic appeal.

The absence of appropriate shape and profile will necessitate the removal of the surface material. This will result in the removal of much, if not all of the surface material along with all of the desirable characteristics and features of antler.  

For example, if a chunk of antler with beautiful pearling is simply stuck on to a bow tip before shaping, the likelihood of that pearling remaining within the final shape and profile of the overlay after surface material has been removed is very low.

To put it another way, the amount of material which will need to be removed in order to obtain the final shape and profile of the overlay will have resulted in much of the antlers character being removed.

By shaping your overlay before gluing them on you will be able to optimise the inclusion of desirable features whilst prioritising the removal of unwanted material from areas which have undesirable feature. Examples of a desirable features might include the natural colours, shapes and pattern of pearling. Example of undesirable features might include the porous backside of the overlay or a plain spot which lacks any colour or features.

Once I have selected a good piece of antler I will select which part I want to use based on its appearance and its internal structure and integrity. The piece I choose to work with will then be ripped down the middle to create two equal albeit oversized slabs of antler.

The pithy middles of the pieces in this picture is minimal and will be ground away as the profile is finalised leaving behind solid antler for maximum overlay strength. By prioritising the removal of material from the back of the overlay I will be able to retain as much character from the upper surface as possible.
Here I’m using my Shinto rasp to flatten the sides of my overlay pieces so that they are easier to grip in the vice. By doing this first I will be able to secure each overlay well enough to rasp away the undesirable portions of material whilst retaining and incorporating the desirable features into the final design.
Rasps are useful tools when it comes to shaping antler. Rasps remove material fast and efficiently so are ideal tools for achieving the basic shape and profile requirements.
Basic face width ready to be reduced into the basic shape and profile.
Now that I can grip the pieces in the vice, I can work on using my rasps to shape the basic top profile. I want to retain some of the colour and pearling whilst at the same time achieving an efficient design.
By mounting the Shinto rasp in the vice, I can grind the antler pieces against the cutting face and shape the face of the overlay with ease. This method helps keep everything nice and flat.
Basic rounded top profile achieved. Note how I have retained enough of the dark brown colour to contrast beautifully against the ivory cream colour of the exposed underlying internal antler material.
Now I’m switching my attention to the back side of the overlay. This is where the bulk of the waste material will be removed from. This will facilitate the creation of the classic wedge-shaped taper which enables a beautiful, natural and functional transition from the overlay to the back of the bow.

It is important that the angle of your overlays taper is nice and low. I aim for around 10 degrees. This will allow for easy stringing of your bow. If you choose too steep an angle, you will find that when you come to string your bow, the string loop meets the transition to the overlay and comes to an abrupt halt rather than slipping smoothly over the overlay and into the string groove.

Here I have gripped the top end of the overlay piece in the vice so that I can rasp away at the underside of the overlay to produce the basic wedge shape. I have pushed a scrapper in underneath the bottom end of the overlay in order to stop it from getting pushed down into the jaws of the vice as I apply top-down pressure from the rasp.
Here I am finalising the wedge shape and thickness. By simply dragging the overlay towards me across the fine face on the Shinto rasp I can rapidly remove excess material from the underside of the overlay piece. Used this way the Shinto rasp is a great tool for creating a perfectly flat base. This makes matching the overlay to the back of the bow tip much easier later on.
A final functional wedge shape has been achieved whilst retaining maximum aesthetic appeal. Notice how the small amount of porous pith that was previously visible has now gone. I’m now just left with solid antler which will maximise the strength of the overlay. If I’d chosen a piece of antler from further up the antler then the pithy middle would still remain a considerable part of the overlay and would therefore compromise the structural integrity of the overlay once the string groove was cut in. The retention of the pith would likely result in a break at the string groove at some point in the future.
A view from on top. You can see that this overlay has been left much wider than it needs to be. This excessive temporary width is helpful at this stage and throughout the gluing stage. The final width can easily be achieved once the overlay is secured in position.

Now that the basic shape and profile is complete, there will be very little work to do to the top of the overlay after it has been glued on. Since there will be no need to take any more tools to the top of the overlay, the risk of damaging the back of the bow where the overlay transitions to wood is reduced significantly.

Principle # 3 – Create the strongest bond possible.

A bow is only as strong as its weakest point. Any joint is likely to be a weak point. With that in mind it is critical that all joints be made as strong as is possible.

Your bow string will sit directly on top of your tip overlays and receive the full force of your bows draw weight. Any torque will be felt by the tip overlays too. It is therefore imperative that the bond which you establish between your tip overlays and the back of your bow is made as strong as possible. We can maximise the strength of our tip overlay joint by ensuring three things have been attended to.

Firstly we must maximise the contact surface area between the components which are to be joined. In this instance we are talking about the roughly shaped overlay being jointed to the wooden tip of our primitive bow.

By making sure that your tip overlays are at least 1” long we are providing adequate surface area to create a large enough contact area to create a strong enough bond. Personally, I like to make my overlay a little longer than this and typically make my overlays between 1 ½” and 2” long. On static tips you could make your overlays even longer of course.

Let us assume we have made sure that our tip overlays have a contact surface area which is at least 1” X 3/8”” wide. Now we must optimise the contact between the two surfaces by making sure that the two faces to be joined together are as well fitted to one another as is reasonably possible.

Creating a flat surface on the limb tip to optimise the fit between the overlay and the back of the bow tip.

By flattening the stave tips ready to receive the overlays we can begin to check how well the two surfaces match up. I like to take my time here and make sure that the two contact surfaces meet up perfectly before gluing. Don’t rush this part. Take the time to make sure that the two surfaces match up without any gaps.

Go careful when you start to flatten your bow tips. It is easy to get carried away and compromise the growth ring which forms the back of your bow. If this happens beneath your overlay, then it will not be an issue as the overlay will distribute the stresses back to the outer growth ring.

If, however, you accidently cut through the growth ring on the back of your bow ahead of your overlay then you will likely break the whole tip off your bow when you come to draw it. Always make sure that the transition from bow back to overlay occurs on the actual growth ring which makes up the back of your bow.

Once the rasp has levelled the tip and the overlay has been tested for fit, sand out any tool marks so that you do not have to try and removed tool marks after the overlay has been fitted.
Once both surfaces are matched up perfectly and all the tool marks have been sanded out of the back of the bow tip, don’t waste any time getting you overlays glued up and clamped.

Wood absorbs glue much more readily when freshly exposed wood cells make up the surface layer to be glued. If you leave your prepared bow tips for any amount of time then, the freshly exposed surface layer of the wood will lose some of its ability to soak up the glue. Freshly exposed wood is hydrophilic. However, even after a short amount of time has lapsed, the exposed wood surface soon reverts back to being somewhat hydrophobic. So, get you bow tips and overlays matched up and glued up ASAP for the strongest possible bond.

Stave tips ready for sizing up with TBIII.

The second thing to consider when trying to create the strongest possible bond is which adhesive to use. I’ve tried all kinds of adhesives over the years but always find myself coming back to Titebond. I’m currently using the MK III stuff and am happy to report that it really is a great adhesive for gluing most natural materials to wood.

TBIII applied liberally but only on the contact areas.

If you are planning on using a stain on your finished bow then try and avoid getting glue anywhere other than the contact surface of you overlay area. Any glue that gets on the back of your bow will get soaked into the surface layers of the wood. This creates an impermeable layer which can prevent the absorption of stains at a later date. If this happens then you may need to intervene in order to avoid unsightly patches of unstained wood. You may have to scrap/sand away the upper layers of wood cells from affected areas in order to allow a stain to penetrate evenly across all parts of the bow.

I always like to glue up both contact surfaces. I also make a habit of leaving both glued surfaces to soak up some glue before positioning the two surfaces together for clamping. I believe this “sizing up” habit allows more time for the freshly exposed wood cells to suck up more glue. In fact, with wood that has been dried down to below 10% moisture content, it is often the case that more glue needs to be added after 5 minutes of sizing up. This is because much of the glue will now have been sucked up into the wood emphasising the need for an additional application of glue before placing the overlay in situ ready for clamping.

The third consideration to be made in order to create the strongest bond possible is the method of clamping used to press the glued surfaces together.

Making sure the excess glue is wiped off whilst it is still wet. I use a wet piece of kitchen towel for this.

I find that if I apply significant compression to an overlay immediately after gluing up, all that happens is the overlay slips off the tip. To avoid this from happening, I only use slight pressure from a spring grip type clamp for the first 10 – 15 minutes of drying. This allows the glue to soak as deep as possible into the wood and start to grip the overlay into position. By doing this you will stop the overlay from simply slipping off the stave tip when the compression is increased to full pressure.

After 10-15 minutes I remove the spring clamp and insert the bow tip carrying the overlay into the jaws of my vice. From here I can crank up the pressure to make sure that the bond is really good and strong. The pressure which can be exerted from the vice will ensure that no gapes appear at the joint line. 

Be sensible with the amount of pressure applied to the overlay/bow tip and use something reasonably soft as a packing material to protect the bow tip and the overlay from damage from the metal jaws of the vice. I use scraps of leather for this purpose.

Here is the bow tip with the glued-up overlay in situ, set in the vice to cure under pressure. I leave it set up like this in the vice overnight.

I’ve never had an overlay come off when the join has been prepared, glued and clamped it the manner described above. The same can’t be said for the common practice of using superglue and a spring clamp!

Principle # 4 – Maximise strength, minimise mass, emphasis beauty.

After at least 6 hours of drying time, you should now be able to finalise the shape and profile of your tip overlays. Before you grab your tools and start working on the final appearance of you bow tips and overlays, take the time to ensure that the strength of your overlays will not be compromised by their final design.

The maintenance of strength needs to be given priority. A broken tip overlay is a significant repair at best, a broken bow at worst. Very fine bow tips are very popular these days but as tempting as it may be to reduce the width of your tip overlays to the bare minimum, antler is quite brittle and can snap under load if reduced too much.

An overstressed antler tip overlay will typically break at the string groove. To mitigate against this, I like to leave at least 5mm of material in the string groove. In order to achieve this, I find that an antler tip overlay needs to be at least 7/16th” wide and 3/8th”thick. I also like to leave the bottom overlay bluntly tipped because the bottom tip is always more likely to get knocked than the top tip.

Whilst you could leave your overlays much wider and thicker than this, by leaving excessive material at the tips you will be leaving unnecessary mass in the very tips of your bow. This additional mass will affect the performance of your bow albeit in a very subtle way. If maximising speed and minimising hand shock is important to you then aim to achieve a final shape and profile which reduces mass to a minimum whilst preserving strength.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. That said, long thin antler tip overlays are very easy on the eye. Especially if a suitable amount of antler colour and pearling has been retained during the shaping process. Play with a few different shapes and profiles and see what works for you.

After a night to dry I work the tips down to a basic profile with rasps, files and 80 grit sandpaper. The top tip will be pointed and the bottom tip will have a slightly more blunted appearance as a hedge against knocks.
Filing out the rasp marks once the basic shape has been achieved.
The bottom tip overlay ready for string grooves.
The top tip overlay ready for string grooves.

Note that I will often leave both tip overlays oversized until after tillering is complete. Then I will refine the shape and profile to suit my overall bow design and appearance.

I use a tile saw to cut the initial tillering string groove on antler tip overlays as it removes material fast and accurately. Once tillering is completed, I’ll finish off the string grooves with a chainsaw file and sandpaper.

I like quite fine tips on willow leaf shaped limbs. These overlays are on a bow with some character. Since these particular limb tips are angled out due to the naturally curved out limbs, it was necessary to carry the string groove around the sides of the overlay to ensure that the string did not slip off the sides. This can happen on crooked limb tips which only have a groove cut across the face of the overlay.

Finished antler tip overlay (bottom nock). Note the rounded profile I’ve gone for on this lower limb nock. This design is simply to minimise the effects of a potential impact with the ground.
Bottom limb tip overlay viewed from the side.
Top limb tip overlay. Since this overlay will be less likely to impact with the ground etc I’ve gone for the more typical pointed profile.
Top Limb tip overlay viewed from the side.

So to recap, before you embark on your next antler tip overlay project, be sure to take the time to:

Select the right type of antler first. Then make the effort to achieve the basic shape and profile of your tip overlays BEFORE you glue them on. Work through the steps necessary to create the strongest bond possible. And finally finish your overlays in a way which is guaranteed to maximise strength, minimise mass, whilst emphasising the beauty of this magnificent natural material.

Until next time!

Sinew Bow String

11 Secrets to Making Your Best Sinew Bow String

The Sinew Series Part 4

In this article I’d like to share with you my 11 secret tricks and tips for making a high quality, functional and beautiful primitive sinew bow string.

For this project you will need about 1-1.5oz of fully processed and prepared sinew, although most of my sub 68″ sinew strings usually finish around 1oz in weight.

I have already covered the acquisition, preparation and processing of sinew ready for use in bow string making in two previous articles. You will find these articles here:

The Sinew Series Part 1: https://southmoorbows.com/the-sinew-series-part-1/

The Sinew Series Part 2: https://southmoorbows.com/the-sinew-series-part-2/

Tools needed:

  • Something to act as a weight which you can tie your finished string to (bucket of water/kettle bell etc.
  • A strong hook/nail/screw etc, fixed aprox 7-8ft off the ground.
  • A couple of G clamps.
  • A sink or medium sized bowl full of water.

Regarding your work environment, you will want to build your sinew bow strings in a dry place which has a reasonably clean floor to prevent your sinew from getting wet and dirty during the building phase.

Tip One:

Build your string from dry sinew. Some primitive bowyers like to build their sinew strings from wet sinew. Personally I find it much harder to get the right sort of tension into the twist required to produce a good strong reverse twist string when the sinew is wet. Dry sinew is so much easier to grip between your index finger and thumb when applying twisting pressure, so nowadays I build all my sinew strings with dry sinew. We will discuss the soaking of the finished string later in this article.

1-1.5oz of dried deer leg sinew should be plenty to make a bow string long enough to fit a 66″ bow.

Tip Two:

Initially build your top loop one third smaller than you would like it to be once fully stretched and dried. Once you have finished building your string, you must stretch it. Stretching is done after soaking the string and by adding a weight to the end of the string. The string will then be hung from a hook until it is completely dry. The wet string will be under load from the added weight and the whole string including the loop will stretch considerably during the drying process so if you make your loop the required size before soaking and stretching, you will end up with a loop which is much larger than you would like.

Soak you string in warm water for a couple of hours before stretching.
This top loop initially looks small but will stretch out by up to a third in size so start out by building your top loops slightly smaller than you would like them to finish out.

Tip Three:

Build your dry pre stretched string to be one third thicker than your desired final thickness. I aim for a finished sinew string thickness of no less than 4-5mm (3/16”). A 4-5mm thick fully stretched and dried sinew string will cope adequately with bows weighing up to 70lb draw weight. Once you are up above this weight then a minimum thickness of 5mm would be your target. Since most of my bows are sub 60lb draw weight, I aim for a finished string width of 4.5mm which means starting out with a string 6-7mm before soaking and stretching. A 6mm dry unstretched/unsoaked string should finish out about 4.5mm after a good soak and stretch and plenty of time to dry thoroughly.

This finished Sinew bow string measures 4.4mm thick and has served a 50lb bow well for many years without showing any signs of failing.

Tip Four:

Splice in fresh strands of sinew by placing the new strands across both halves of the string as illustrated in the picture sequence below. Aim to add in a fresh piece of sinew after every two twists. By splitting an equal amount of sinew across both halves of the string before twisting it in you will splice in an equal amount of sinew into both halves of the bow string. This will maintain an equal thickness between both halves of the string throughout the entire build. This method of one fresh piece of sinew laid equally across both halves of the string every two twists produces a very uniform thickness of string along the entire length.

Place a fresh strand of sinew across both halves of the string.
Now twist each halve of the new piece of sinew into whichever half of the bow string it lies across.
Then use a normal reverse twist rotation to bring both halves of the string together. Every two twists, add another piece of fresh sinew. Continue like this through the entire build.

Tip Five:

Do not let any thin spots develop. If you follow the splicing method detailed in tip 4 then you should not end up with any thin spots however if you do things differently and notice a thin spot then stop building your string and back up. A bow string is only as strong as the weakest point. If you have a noticeable thin spot then that spot will be significantly weaker than the rest of the string. Even if it means undoing a substantial section of your string to get back to your thin spot you must fix it before you proceed any further. Take the time and effort to fix thin spots with extra splices of sinew as soon as you notice it. You will never have confidence in a sinew bow string with a thin spot. A broken sinew string is scrap. Given the time and effort required to build a good sinew string, go the extra length and fix thin spots before they fix your string to the bin!

Tip Six:

Perform your reverse twist from a hook or some other means to secure you top loop. I secure a bolt in the jaws of my vice and hook my string loop over the bolt. This enables me to use both hands to twist both halves of the string at the same time (see pic below). Many good sinew strings are made with a reverse twist performed with one hand pinching the built section of string and the other hand performing the twists. Personally however, I find that by hanging my loop from a hook I can now twist my string up with both hands. This allows me to apply significant and equal twisting pressure to each half of the string. This produces a very tightly twisted string which has a very equal appearance. Because the string is hanging, I also find that I can pull hard of the string at the same time as applying the twists which also aids in keeping the twisting tension equally distributed across both halves of the string.

Performing a reverse twist with both hands allows the creation of great tension and twist in your bow string.
Splicing in a new piece of sinew. Notice how the new piece is laid equally across both halves of the string.

Tip seven:

Initially build your dry string no longer than the approximate length of your bow nock to nock. Your dry string will stretch by as much as 6 inches after it has been soaked and weighted. If you make your string longer than the bow you intend to use it with then you will end up with a string much longer than is required to produce a bowline/bowyers knot suitably positioned to brace your bow appropriately. This excess length ends up getting cut off or wrapped around the bow bottom nock which is wasteful and unsightly. 6 inches of surplus sinew string can also add enough weight to your bows bottom limb tip to throw out the timing of you bows limbs.

A Bowline knot works well with a sinew string. Note the minimal tag end length.

Tip eight:

Stretch you soaked string with as much as 10kg of weight. Make sure your weight stays off the floor so that it is hanging freely throughout the entire drying process. Keep an eye on you weighted setup as your string slowly stretches out. You will likely find that your sinew string weight slowly drops to the floor, especially during the first couple of hours of stretching. If you start out with 3 inches of clearance between the ground and your weight then after 2 hours of stretching you weight will likely be on the ground. Keep the weight clear of the ground by raising the height of your hanging point as necessary throughout the entire stretching and drying process. Your weight should still be well clear of the floor 24 hours later by which time your string should be fully dry if left in the right air-drying conditions.

I stretch my soaked sinew strings with a 10kg kettle bell attached to the tail of my string via a couple of G clamps.
I use a hook over a door frame to hang a short string from for stretching and drying a string post soaking. A longer string might need a higher hanging point in order to keep your weight well clear of the floor.

Tip Nine:

Spin you wet string up with 30 twists before weighing it for stretching and drying. By inducing extra twist into your string during the stretching phase, when you sinew string is still wet, you will maintain a nice tight even pattern of twist throughout the entire length of your string. Remember that your soaked and weighted string will stretch in length considerably whilst drying. This addition of extra length has the effect of diluting the initial twist you created when building your string with the reverse twist method previously shown. The extra twists now spun to your hanging string will compensate for the loss of twist which results from the stretching phase. If you notice that the coils of twist in your string are still pulling out during the stretching phase, then simple keep twisting up your string via spinning your weight until your string coils look nice and tight again. Continue to monitor the twist as the stretching and drying phase continues through to completion.

Tip Ten:

Brace your weight so that the twist does not spin back out. You will notice very quickly that after spinning your chosen weight 30 times, the newly applied string twist will want to spin your weight back the other way to undo not only the twist which you have just spun in, but also the initial twist that was achieved through the reverse twist building phase. Prevent any spin back by bracing you freely hanging weight so that it physically cannot spin back on itself.

Tip Eleven:

Leave your string to fully dry before removing from the stretching hook and weight. If you become impatent and remove you sinew string from the drying/stretching hook before your string is completely dry then you will have a string which will continue to skrink in length not thickness. You will end up with a plump string which might end up drying out too short for your bow. In adition to these issues you will also notice that your string will have lost much of the twist that you put in because, as the string continues to dry, it will uncoil without any mechanical means to prevent the string from untwisting. The resultant string will retain a great deal more elasticity than a properly stretched and dried string. this increased elasticity will dramatically reduce arrow speed when you finally come to shoot the bow which has been fitted with your new string. I’ve seen bows suddenly lose 10+ ft/sec when shot with poorly stretched sinew strings. This is invariably the result of increased mass and elasticity brought about by a string that has been allowed to shrink up in length as opposed to thickness.

This string is now fully dry after 24 hours of indoor air drying. Note the amber colour of a completely dry string.
Trimming tag ends off after the drying and stretching phase has been completed.

Tip Twelve:

Once your string is fully dry and all the tag ends have been trimmed off, Keep your string dry at all times. If you are intending to use your sinew bow string outdoors in a climate like ours then, keeping your string dry is not quite as simple as some might think! The best mitigation measure for a sinew string getting wet is to treat your finished string with a water proofing agent. I achieve this result best by treating all of my sinew bow strings to a good rubbing down with a bow string wax. Whilst this could be done with a modern string wax made from bees wax plus additives, I personally prefer to use a homemade string treatment composed of the same natural materials that our ancestors would have used. vigorous rubbing helps to melt the wax into the string improving the water proofing effect of the wax.

In a future article I will detail how you can make your own string wax which doubles well as a natural wood sealer too.

Until next time!

11 Steps to Making Your Own High Quality Sinew Glue

The Sinew Series Part 3 – Sinew Glue

In the previous two Sinew Series articles we went through the various processes of sourcing, extracting, drying and processing deer leg tendon into usable sinew material which you can use for your next primitive archery project. If you haven’t yet read these previous two articles, then you can find them here:

Sinew Series Part 1: https://southmoorbows.com/the-sinew-series-part-1/

Sinew Series Part 2: https://southmoorbows.com/the-sinew-series-part-2/

If you have followed along through these first two articles, then by now you will have a nice pile of perfectly prepared sinew material which will be pleading with you to find a permanent home for it!

If your intention was to use your sinew for making cordage/bow strings etc then you might need to wait until the next article where I will cover making strings from leg sinew. If, however, your intended use for your carefully processed sinew is to back a bow then you will next need some hide glue, or better still, sinew glue.

In this article I will show you how I make my own sinew glue.

I’ve messed about with “animal glues” for several years only to conclude that simple sinew glue is strong enough, flexible enough and easy enough to make for it to be my go-to adhesive for many primitive crafting projects. It’s a good all-round glue for sticking things to wood, including sinew.

Sinew glue is also great for sticking down leather, rawhide, fletchings, wrappings, points etc although I think that pitch is a better option for arrow construction for reasons which we will discuss in a moment.

I’ve personally never tried to use sinew glue for bone/horn/antler tip overlays etc so I don’t know how well it would bond to these semi porous materials however I’m sure it would probably work well enough, as long as the glue joint was kept dry and away from high humidity.

On the subject of moisture, we should discuss the weaknesses of sinew glue before trying to use it for everything. Moister is the enemy of all animal glues, including sinew glue. I can’t imagine sinew glue, or any other type of animal glue, having much application in a very wet or humid climate unless the exposed sinew glue has been very well sealed from moisture.

The downside to sinew glue, and all animal glues for that matter, is that they are very water soluble. Unlike pitch, without some kind of water proofing, all animal glues will begin to dissolve if exposed to water or even just high humidity.

Making any animal glue also requires a bit of time and effort, however it is not at all difficult to make, and the time factor is mostly as a consequence of the cooking process which requires minimal input once cooking commences.

Nowadays I only really use sinew glue for sinew backing and for that purpose it is excellent. I seal all of my backed bows and keep my bows in an indoor environment which has very consistent temperature and humidity so I never have to worry about moister ingress damaging any bonding achieved through the use of sinew glue.

Many primitive bowyers report better shrinking and subsequent reflexing of sinew backed bows when sinew is bound to the back of a bow with sinew glue rather than hide glue. Personally, I haven’t experienced much difference between hide glue and sinew glue in this regard.

The main reason I tend to use sinew glue over hide glue is that I’ve always had a surplus of sinew scraps and sinew rich tendon sheaths at my disposal. Since after processing out all my sinew I end up with all this scrap material anyway, I might as well make use of it and make it into sinew glue.

One thing I will say is that the purest, cleanest and possibly strongest sinew glue is made from pure clean sinew minus all the chaff and connective tissues which often ends up in the pile of sinew scraps. All this none sinew chaff gets created when the pounding and splitting of dried tendons take place.

Tendon sheaths also contain a lot of fasciae and other none sinew connective tissues too. Some of this none sinew material contains little to no collagen so will provide no real benefit to your glue. It is the collagen content that makes sinew and hide glue a strong, flexible adhesive.

As with hide glue, the less fascia/connective tissue/muscle tissue that ends up in the sinew glue the better the purity and corresponding quality of the final glue product. All that said though, for our purposes, small amounts of contamination don’t appear to reduce the strength of the final product by much. So don’t be afraid to cook up your scrap tendon sheaths whole. I’ve never noticed any measurable reduction in a glues performance even when I’ve known the glue to be full of impurities.

Dried deer leg tendon sheaths make great sinew glue.

Hide glue is a great alternative to sinew glue and the making process is essentially the same. The only thing to consider is that the raw hide which is required to make hide glue requires processing first. Making rawhide is a lot of work, whereas sinew glue can be made from all the sinew scraps and tendon sheaths.

If I’ve been processing a pile of sinew to back a bow, then I will have already created a bunch of tendon sheaths and sinew scraps as a by-product of all the tendon processing. Which I’m going to be doing anyway hence the need for a backing glue in the first place!

So on with the program, let’s make some sinew glue. First you will need the following materials/equipment:

  • 2 0z of dry sinew scraps or a dozen dry/raw tendon sheaths (see sinew part 1 article).
  • A slow cooker/crock pot with a low setting (approx. 85- 90℃)
  • One litre of water.
  • Tubs/jars for glue storage.
  • A dehydrator (optional).
  • A blender/coffee grinder (optional).

Step one:

Place your dry or raw sinew scraps/tendon sheaths and the water into your slow cooker/crock-pot. Make sure that the temperature which you set your slow cooker to is less than a simmer. If the sinew is boiled, then the collagen proteins, which give sinew glue its strength, will break down reducing the strength of the glue considerably.

A small amount of very gentle bubbling around the edges of you cooking pot is fine but a simmer is definitely not. A rolling boil will completely destroy your glue so be warned!

Approx 12 deer feet produced this much tendon sheath.

Step two:

Let the sinew slowly and gently stew for at least 12 hours. I don’t time mine, but I do leave it cooking at least overnight. I leave my slow cooker out in the garage as the smell of slow cooked sinews are not to everyone’s liking!

I use a small slow cooker. The low setting keeps the contents below a simmer which is perfect.

Step three:

First thing in the morning, lift the lid on your sinew stew and check the water isn’t simmering. If all looks good take a pair of scissors and snip your sinew scraps/tendon sheaths up as small as you can manage. This should be easy now that the sinew has had chance to cook the tendon sheaths down to a tender state. Cutting your sinew up will expose even more of the sinew’s surface area to the hot water further extracting the sinew’s collagen out into the cooking water.

Once you’ve snipped up your sinew nice and fine replace the lid and continue cooking for another three or four hours. Longer will be fine if you accidently forget about it!

Tendon sheaths all snipped up ready for a bit more cooking time.

Step Four:

Once your tendon sheaths/sinew scraps have had at least 12 hours of cooking, turn the cooker off and allow the sinew stew to cool for half an hour with the lid on. Your sinew stew should stay warm enough to move on to the next step but if you’ve left it too long and the mixture has gelled then simply warm it up enough to turn the mixture back into a liquid form. (Careful not to let it reach a simmer or worse still a boil!)

Step Five:

Your sinew stew should have a viscosity which is something like warm syrup. If it is very watery then it will likely need reducing a bit. This can be done by continuing with the cooking process with the cooker lid removed. It can also be done by drying the gelled liquid at a later stage. We will cover this later.

Place a metal sieve/colander over the top of a bowl and place both items in you sink. Pour the sinew stew into the sieve/colander and let the stew juice pour through into the bowl below. Remove the sieve/colander and dispose of all the bits which the sieve/colander has caught.

Pouring the juice through a colander to separate out the tendon sheaths.
I find a good squashing with a potato masher helps force some of the juice out.

Step six:

Now you will have a bowl full of relatively clean translucent light brown liquid. If it looks clouded up with tiny particles, then you could pass the liquid through a fine sieve or a muslin cloth to remove the last few bits of gunk.

Still looks a bit bitty!
I would typically expect one of these takeaway type tubes to be more than enough glue for a complete sinew backing project.

Step Seven:

Now test the gelling quality of your glue. If your glue gels well then it will make a good, strong and flexible glue. To test the gelling quality of you glue, take a teaspoon full of your glue and drip it onto a cold clean plate to form a small puddle of glue. Leave it at room temperature for ten minutes. After ten minutes, test how well your glue has gelled by pushing your fingertip into the edge of the glue puddle you made. If the viscosity of your glue has stayed the same then, ask yourself if the room temperature might be a little too warm to let the glue gel up.

If you feel that the ambient temperature is perhaps too hot to allow the glue to gel up, then place the plate into your refrigerator for another ten minutes then try the same procedure again. If your glue has now started to set up into a gel and can be pushed up into a ridge of jelly, then your glue is good.

Test the gelling quality of your sinew glue. Pour a spoon full of your glue onto a cold plate and leave for ten minutes.
After 10 mins try pushing up the edges of your glue puddle. If it has gelled up all is good.

Step Eight:

If your glue is gelling up fine, then the next job is to arrange your glue for storage. Pour your still warm liquid glue into a large enough tub, bowl or tray and leave to set into a gel. You may place it in your refrigerator if it is a hot day.

Once your glue has set up into a gel you can either freeze it if you’re planning on using it soon or you can dry it down to a solid form which can be rehydrated when needed at a later date.

This batch of glue has gelled up completely after leaving for an hour at a room temperature of 20℃

Step nine:

If you wish you dry your glue into a solid form for long term storage then take one of your trays of gelled glue and cut all the gel up into small cubes.

Spread the cubes out on a large tray and allow to air dry in a clean and airy location. This can take a few days depending on drying conditions however if you have access to a dehydrator then you can speed the process up by placing the gel cubes into shallow impermeable trays and drying them in a dehydrator set to the very lowest temperature setting.

Remember that heat will revert gelled glue back to a liquid so make sure that the tray which the gel is placed into is not likely to leak your liquid glue out into the inside of your dehydrator. With my dehydrator set at 38℃/100℉ I can get my gelled glue down to a thin sheet of solid glue in about 12-16 hours.

Step Ten:

Once your glue is in a solid form then you can store it like this, or you can take it one step further and break the sheet of dry glue up into pieces which you can then grind down into a powder using a blender or a coffee grinder.

I store my glue powder in glass jars kept in a cool dark place. Keeping the glue powder in glass jars keeps the contents from being eaten by rodents and insects, both of which will dine on your hard work with glee!

Be warned, rodents will also make a meal of your sinew and raw hide too so always keep these materials away from hungry critters. And by critters I also mean dogs!

Step Eleven:

To rehydrate your glue simply add enough glue powder to half a litre of hot water to re-create a viscosity which is akin to that of warm syrup. By “hot water” I mean at about the temperature which you can just about put your fingers into without getting burnt. Hot but not too hot!

Simply place two or three dessert spoons of your glue powder into your hot water and mix thoroughly.

Remember, you’re aiming for a consistency of warm syrup before application. If your glue is still too thick and you’re sure that your water is hot enough, then add more hot water. If your glue is too thin, then add more glue powder. If you do not have more glue powder, then you will have to slowly reduce the water content by warming your glue over a low heat until the viscosity looks right.

Just a quick note on working with all animal glues including sinew glue. If you are embarking on a gluing up project which might take a fair while to complete such as sinew backing a bow, you will need to keep your glue at a temperature of around 40-50℃ throughout the whole process. If you don’t keep your glue warm, then it will start to set up into a gel again. I keep my glue in a liquid state by placing my liquid glue in a shallow metal tray which I place on top of my oven’s plate warmer. This keeps my glue at the perfect temperature for application.

So there you are. Go and give sinew glue a try. If you only have raw hide at your disposal then follow the exact same procedure with good clean rawhide instead of sinew and you will produce very high quality glue fit for many of the purposes useful to a primitive archer.

Alternatively, if you can’t be bothered with making glue but want to get your hands on some ready-made glue then I do sell jars of dehydrated sinew glue powder. Give me a shout via the contact page if you’d like to buy some. I also sell by weight, dried red deer leg tendons which you can be processed into sinew. I also sell dried leg tendon sheaths for glue making if you wish to give glue making a go from scratch.

Keep your eyes open for one of my next articles where I will go into detail and explain how to go about taking your dried, processed sinew and your glue and backing a bow to produce the original primitive composite bow!

Until next time!

7 Important Steps to Processing Your Own Sinew (Guide)

The sinew series part 2 – Processing dry Sinew

In this next sinew series article, I’ll attempt to show you how to take the dry tendon material which we created in the previous article and process it into usable sinew.

If you’ve arrived here before reading Part 1 of the sinew series which can be found here: https://southmoorbows.com/the-sinew-series-part-1/ then it may be worth going and reading that article first. If, however, you already have a bunch of dry leg tendon material which you are eager to convert into something which you could back a bow with etc then read on!

Step 1 – Organise you tools and your environment.

First, three tool which you will need:

  • Hammer (most types will do)
  • Wooden stump/round of timber for anvil
  • Blunt knife, or strong thumb nails!

If you wanted to go totally old-school, then replace the hammer with a smooth rounded stone about the size of a large baking potato.

A quick note on your working environment. You want to keep your tendons, anvil, hands and your tools dry and clean at all times. This is not a job that you want to do outside in the pouring rain amid mud, dust and general outdoor detritus. Find a spot under shelter or at least pick a dry day and work in a dry, relatively clean space.

Step 2 – Pound your tendons:

The tough, hard, stiff, dry leg tendons which we made in the previous article will now need to be separated out into thin string like sinew threads. Before this is possible the tendons will need to be softened and separated enough so that the tendons can be pulled apart from one another. The simplest way to soften a dried tendon is to pound it. You don’t have to go nuts and batter the thing into oblivion, but they will need at least a looking at with a hammer or stone before you will be able to pull a tendon apart.

In all seriousness though, if you beat the living daylights out of your tendons then you will damage the stringy structure of the inner sinew. You will know if you have been too heavy handed with the pounding process as over beaten sinew will fall apart into short bits of woolly chaff as opposed to nice long strong stringy threads which are about the same length as the tendon was before you started pounding it.

I find that using a wooden anvil helps to protect the sinew from excessive damage. I only revert to pounding onto a metal or stone/concrete anvil when I’m trying to break up the ends of tendons which have the notoriously stubborn forks in them (read below for details).

On a similar note, if using a hammer as your pounding tool of choice, do make sure you strike the tendon square on. Don’t strike the tendon with the edge of the hammer as this will likely chop at the tendon damaging the inner sinew. What is actually desired is to simply soften the tendon up so that you’re then able to separate out the fibres which are currently entwined together.

Regarding using stones as your pounding weapon of choice, the same rules apply. Sharp edges on your hammer stone will destroy your sinew. Keep your hammer stone smooth and rounded. And if you do choose to use stone/concrete as your anvil, make sure this is also smooth.

Since we have already removed the outer sheaths from the larger thicker tendons, we have significantly reduced the work involved in breaking these tendons apart into usable sinew. If you have dried your tendons with the sheath left on, then you are in for a fair bit of extra work. Tendons dried with the sheath on will need a fair bit more pounding. The tendons used in this demonstration have been separated out from the tendon sheath before drying so minimal pounding will be required.

I prefer to use a hammer with no sharp edges and a timber round for pounding deer leg tendons.

Take one tendon at a time and hold it by the end. Start by gently pounding away at the middle of the tendon.

The middle section will generally be a little more rounded than the ends which is why I start the pounding in the middle. As I gently pound the middle of the tendon, I will roll the tendon in my fingers so that each hammer stroke makes impact with a slightly different face on the tendon, but in approximately the same section. This will start to break the fibres apart in this area. You may also notice the outer membrane begin to detach from the inner sinew.

Start pounding the tendon in the middle. Notice the colour change of the tendon. Unpounded tendons are amber, after pounding they go a cream colour.

Now, whilst continuing to rotate the tendon between your fingers, start to pound away from the middle up towards the end which you are not holding. What this will help to do is avoid creating a flat spot on the tendon.

Flat spots are often how the ends present themselves. These flat areas are difficult to strike at from the side. This makes it harder to break up the ends unless you work up to the ends from the middle. When you work up to the ends from the middle you will transfer the roundness of the middle up into the ends helping to break them up better.

Flat end made round by rolling the tendon whilst pounding up from the middle.

If the tendon you chose that you are pounding has a large fork in one end, then this fork will require a bit more work than the rest of the tendon. The fibres in the fork are interlocked which makes the separation process a bit more challenging. The fork is usually hard to strike at from the side too which adds to the difficulty of loosening this area up.

Just do the best that you can for now and if need be, you can always come back to the hammer again later if the fork fails to break apart once the pulling apart process starts.

The tendon fork is a particularly tough spot. Come at it from the sides as best you can. You might have to come back to it once the pulling apart phase begins.
Here you can see some of the outer membrane coming away.
Outer membrane removed.

Step 3 – Remove outer membrane.

Once you can see and feel that the tendon is softened and beginning to separate you can begin the pulling apart process.

If the tendon is one of the larger types, then there will be an obvious membranous material hanging half on half off at this point. Pull this away from the sinew. Don’t throw this membrane away as this is tendon fascia, and it contains quite a high amount of collogen. It can therefore be added to your pile of sinew scraps which don’t make the grade. All of these sinew scraps and tendon fascia make excellent glue. Save it all!

Step 4 – Begin to pull the tendon apart.

I generally start the pulling apart process at either the end without the fork, or in the middle. Whichever is the loosest. Try first to divide the tendon in to two halves. I usually do this by inserting my thumb nails into the middle and working the sinew apart with my fingertips in order to form a hole roughly in the centre of the tendon. If your thumb nail isn’t doing the job for you then you could try starting the hole with a blunt knife tip of even a small, slotted screwdriver.

Once you have formed a hole then you can push your fingers through it and rip the sinew in two, straight down the middle of the tendon. If the tendon is too well bound together to allow you to do this, then start at the none forked end of the tendon and begin to pull this end apart into 4 – 8 pieces. Rip these individual pieces apart from one another. If they detach from the rest of the tendon completely then excellent. Put these detached pieces to one side ready for further processing later.

If your tendon had a fork in the other end, then the likelihood is that your efforts to separate out the pieces comes to an abrupt end once the piece comes up against the fork.

Pieces of ripped out sinew still bound tightly together at the fork.

When I find that all the pieces of tendon remain tightly bound together at the fork, I usually end up returning the whole tendon back to the hammer and anvil. After a bit more pounding of the fork itself, (not where the pieces meet the fork but the fork itself) I will try and tug at each of the separate pieces individually to see if one of them is starting to release.

Once one piece starts to come free then the other pieces will soon follow. Further gentle pounding of the unseparated parts of the fork may continue throughout this process.

After a bit more pounding the fork gives up and splits down the middle.

Step 5 – Break down your tendons into workable pieces.

Once the fork starts to break apart then it is usually no more of a problem. Simple keep pulling on each of the already separated pieces until one of the pieces pulls completely free from the fork. At this point the fork is usually ready to come completely apart.

Whole tendon split in half.

Now the fork has lost its grip on the other pieces, begin to pull each individual piece apart from the others. A thick tendon should break apart into about a dozen straw thick pieces.

At this point most, if not all, of the membrane will have detached from the sinew leaving you with a pile of coarsely separated sinew fibres and a small but not insubstantial amount of fascia and chaff.

One whole tendon pulled apart into a dozen or so pieces.

Take all of your sinew pieces and put them to one side as you move onto the next tendon. Keep running through the same process as before until all of your tendons have been pounded and pulled out into strips of coarsely separated sinew.

To give you an idea of how many tendons you will need to back a bow then let me give you a very rough guide. A long bow, say 66″, I would expect to use at least 3oz of fully processed finely stripped out leg tendon sinew. Maybe aim for 4 oz if you are planning 3 layers.

On a long bow, 2 layers of sinew should suffice as a long bow doesn’t need much assistance in the tension plane. This is because the long length of the bow spreads the tension load well enough without the need for additional support. To be honest, I only ever sinew/rawhide back long bows if it’s a real character bow with a ton of potential weak spots like knots etc.

On a short bow like a plains style bow, there is much more stress on the bow due to the short working section of the limbs. So, on a short bow I’d suggest aiming for 3 layers of sinew.

Even though a short bow has less surface area to back when compared to a long bow, since you are adding an extra layer to a short bow, you will probably still want at least 3oz of dry sinew.

So, the general rule is aim for at least 3oz of fully processed sinew. That normally works out to be about the amount of sinew that you will remove from 8-10 red deer feet.

Step 6 – Reducing your sinew down to final thickness.

Once you have pulled apart all of your tendons you should have a fair pile of very coarsely separated sinew. Keep it dry and clean until you’re in a position to start the finer processing.

I usually save my fine sinew processing for a rainy day at home in front of the fire (AKA YouTube!). Put the kettle on and get yourself comfortable.

Grab a piece of sinew and find the middle of it. As you did before, insert your thumb nail or a blunt knife tip through the middle of the piece. Now tease it apart so that you have two roughly equal pieces. By now these two pieces will probably be about the thickness of baler twine.

Get comfortable, make a brew and take your sinew pieces to your work-station. Grab a piece of sinew and get to work splitting it in half.
Find the middle and separate the piece into two halves.

Now take one of the two halves and do the same again. Find the middle, part it into two halves and separate them out into two pieces.

Take one of these pieces and do the same again.

Keep going like this until your sinew pieces get down to about the thickness of spaghetti. They will not all be especially round however so don’t be concerned if your sinew looks more like waxed nylon thread. Actually, it is worth mentioning here that white waxed nylon string/thread is a great fake sinew! B50 bow string material is also a good gauge of thickness to go for when splitting sinew.

Aim for about the thickness of spaghetti or B50 bow string material.
You might find that your final sinew pieces are all curled up and difficult to lay flat and straight.

Step 7 – Straighten your sinew for easy storage and use.

Most of your final sinew pieces will have curled up a fair bit due to the pulling apart process. This makes them awkward to lay flat and pile up neatly. A simple solution to this is to pinch each final piece between your finger and thumb and scrap your thumb nail down the flat side of the sinew piece. Then spin it over and do the same on the other side. This will straighten each piece out nicely so that they will now lay together much flatter. This little tip will help you to arrange all of your finished sinew into nice tidy piles. This helps a lot latter when you come to apply your sinew.

So, there you have it! By now you should be able to take your dry deer leg tendons and process them down into a nice big pile of usable sinew.

In the next Sinew Series article, I will show you how to take all of the sinew/fascia scraps which you will now have, (or the tendon sheaths saved from the first article) and make a glue which you can use to stick your processed sinew to your next primitive archery project.

Top Left – Sinew/fascia scraps. Top Right – coarsely separated sinew. Bottom centre – finely processed sinew.

Until next time!