New bue from a 7000 year old design

[Pat B]

I started working on my "Elg Bue" today. This is my representation of the 7000 year old Danish bow that Bue posted earlier this year.
I cut out the back and side profiles on the bandsaw and brought it down to the lines with a farrier's rasp, Nicholson #49 and a scraper. Worked up quite a sweat. Now I remember why I prefer winter for bow making but I'll just suffer along with it.
Here's a few pics. Not much to see yet but I'm about ready to start reducing the limbs and get them bending.



Mark posted this drawing and it's what I was using for a model. I think he got the dimensions from what Bue posted.

[Roy from Pa]

Looking nice Pat

[KenH]

Lookin' good there Pat.  Git 'er built!

[Mad Max]

Elm ? How long are you going? watching

I did all the math and Did a drawing
The short one is the 7000

[Pat B]

This stave is 65.5" and I'm using every bit of it. I will sinew back the working limbs and through the handle with a slightly bendy handle at full draw.

[Mad Max]

This stave is 65.5" and I'm using every bit of it. I will sinew back the working limbs and through the handle with a slightly bendy handle at full draw.

James Parker said it take a full year for the sinew to dry on his Horn Bows.
What are your thought on this?
I know you don't wait that long but do your bows gain any pounds after a year has passed from your original pounds ?

[Shredd]

  Nice...  Enjoy your Build...

[Pat B]

Mark, you can watch James' horn bows curl up from month to month as the sinew cures, eventually having the tips cross over the back of the bow. I have noticed sinew backed bows increase in weight over a one or two year period. Around here, where the humidity is high during the summer the ones I've made have softened up during the summer but increased back as the air dries during the winter. It will probably be late fall or winter before I add the sinew to this bow just because it works out better then. And I let them cure out for a few months before I strain them. Even then the weight will increase over a year or two.

[Mad Max]

Interesting 

[Longcruise]

Had no idea sinew took that long to dry!

Woner how the NW coast NAs dealt with it.

[Pat B]

Some of the Chinese horn bows cured for 100 years or more. Whether that was overkill of not you'd have to ask the Chinese.
I often wondered about the sinew backed paddle bows of the NW being it's so wet there too. They probably dried/cured them around the smoke hole of their shelters. The creosote from the smoke probably helped with the waterproofing also. 

[Buemaker]

Interesting Pat. Some of my thoughts on sinew backing. When the first layer is on I usually lay the next layer within a few days staggering the ends. If longer I wipe the first layer with a clean cloth and warm water before laying the next layer. When drying in a heated room, using a pin moisture meter the glue sinew matrix is as dry as the belly of the stave, in a couple of weeks. But the sinew will cure and strenghten for a long time. Some years ago I made a 50 pound sinew backed bow for a friend. After a few years he felt the bow had become too heavy so he asked if I could adjust it. When I weighted the bow I found it had gained several pounds. When a bow have cured a month or two I will finish it, see no reason to wait for years.

[KenH]

Drying time on sinewed bows is affected by the glue you use -- pure hide glue versus a mixture of hide and fish glue, and the species from which the hide and fish glue were obtained.  It's not the sinew that takes time to dry (unless you didn't de-grease it properly), it's the glue.  I know a number of hornbow makers and only 1 or 2 of them cure their bows for more than a few months.

[Pat B]

Bue, I do similar to what you do with sinew backed bows although I don't have a moisture meter. I let the first layer dry over night or just enough to clearly see the dried sinew then fill in and voids or thin areas. Once the sinewing is done I let the bow rest a month or so before releasing it from the back bracing. I usually do the sinewing in the winter when the air id drier and our wood stove keeps the R/H in our house low.
It's been so humid lately I can only work an hour or 2 before I'm totally soaked with sweat. We have had rain for the last 15 days with anywhere from as little as .01" to the 4.06" we got yesterday.
More to come...

[Pat B]

First straightening to get things basically aligned. I'm sure there will be more.

[Buggs]

New "bue" ??

[Roy from Pa]

From Pats first post.

I started working on my "Elg Bue" today. This is my representation of the 7000 year old Danish bow that Bue posted earlier this year.

[Mad Max]

Old bue

https://www.tradgang.com/tgsmf/index.php?topic=178571.0

[Buggs]

Ok, got it. Bue is Norweigan for Bow. But's what's a ELG?

[Pat B]

Elg is Norwegian for moose. The sinew Bue sent me was Norwegian moose.
I think elk is a European name for moose. Our "elk" are wapiti but early settlers mistakenly called them elk.