Does this bow need sinew backing or maybe rawhide?

[badbadleroybrown]

My uncle started this bow and gave it to me to finish.  I believe it is mulberry...I'd have to ask him to be certain.  My question is whether or not a rawhide backing would suffice or should I use sinew?  Thanks for the advice.

[KellyG]

How long is it? Are you just try too protect the back or add draw weight?

[ChristopherO]

Depending of design it doesn't necessarily need either.  It appears your Uncle left raised pin knots an extra layer from the ring above the back ring.  That was a good idea.
Show the whole bow for a better idea what you have.

[Eric Krewson]

Islands around a pin knot is BAD idea and a good place to raise a splinter that will take the lower grain with it.

I have made a few bows and bought into this myth early on. Islands around pins didn't work for me.

Clean up the islands and your bow won't need to be backed. I would scrape the back smooth,looks like it was gone over with a toothing plane.

[Osagetree]

That should be a nice bow without a backing. Just follow the advice above.

[John Scifres]

Backing with rawhide prevents splinters and is good when you have really thin rings or other issues.  It is simple and easy to do and pretty cheap.

Sinew is appropriate for bows less than 60" to take over most of the tension work.  It will also help to prevent splinters from raising but should not be used just for this.  It is not simple or easy.

Mulberry is decent bow wood.  Make an overbuilt, Comstock ("The Bent Stick") whitewood style bow and it will do fine.

Remove that early growth around the knots.  The tree built up extra thickness there in the late growth to protect itself.  Take advantage of that.  I have had early growth left around a knot pop and drive a splinter into the next layer of late growth.  This required an ugly patch on what should have been a beautiful bow.

[ChristopherO]

I defer to these men who have made many more wood bows than I have.  I remember reading in the Traditional Bower's Bibles that leaving extra build up around the pins is a good practice for a new bowyer.  I never have due to asthetics but took it as gosple.  Eric and John, though, are two bow makers I will trust with advice.

[Art B]

I have to agree with Eric and John also Christopher. I think the difference of what you read in the TBB and what we've noticed is due to long term bow usage. Could be wrong but that's just my feeling..........Art

[SEMO_HUNTER]

I'd trust all three of them, and Joe is a tv personality now. Did you see his segment on the local news? He practically had his own special on bow making! Great job by the way Joe, I thought it was a real nice piece. I wish our news would highlight some topics like that.

Just for what it's worth and I don't know if I'm right or wrong on this, but I'm sure you all will correct me if it's wrong.
But when I'm working down to the ring I want I generally knock the tops off the pin knots and then leave the final ring up on the edges. Larger knots I leave a couple of rings worth around them. Mainly because I don't like little bumpies all over the back of my bow.
Am I doing this correct, or will it come back to bite me?

Didn't mean to stray off topic too much I hope.

That mullberry is some nice looking wood.

[Eric Krewson]

Jim Hamm started the trend of leaving islands around pins on osage. May work great on Texas osage but sure doesn't on Alabama osage.

[Art B]

I think I read where Hamm likes really long bows so that may be the secret to his success. Shorter hunting bows like we use that have a tighter bending limb radius probably is where we're noticing a difference......Art

[John Scifres]

One of my favorite things about laying out an osage (or in this case mulberry) bow is teasing out a difficult ring around small branches and pins.  It's almost like sculpting.  I have taken it to extremes at times but that was just for fun.  If you are going to lay rawhide down on that stave, you can smooth over those pins a bit.  Don't go too far though.  "What's too far?", you ask.  If it breaks I guess you'll know you went too far