neck sinew glue

[JJ]

Hello All,

I received a box full of sinew. Unfortunately it?s cows neck sinew and I can?t use it for bowmaking...

Now I?m thinking about making some glue out of it. It has a pretty gelatinous consistence.

Does anybody have any experience with that? Will it be usable?

Best regards,

JJ

[Jake Levi]

Cattle leg sinew is used often for bows, I expect the neck sinew would be the upper end of the backstrap sinew, I have never used any back sinew but I have read of it being used for bows, anyhow I wouldnt hesitate to use it for making glue, after cooking the keratin should be easy to separate away.

Good luck, let us know how it turns out, use the same consistency as other keratin glues.

[alex27]

don't see why it shouldn't work. If it is sinew it has collagen and you can make glue out of it.

Never heard of neck sinew. How long is it?

[Kviljo]

I got a bag of this stuff too some years ago. I dried them but eventually threw them away. Its consistency when fresh is similar to rubber, and is very different in visual structure from back or leg sinew. When dry they fracture quite easily.

Of course, it would be interesting if you chopped up one of them, put it in the blender, and made glue from it. Perhaps it works well. They are really elastic when fresh at least.

[Pat Menzies]

Cattle leg sinew is used often for bows, I expect the neck sinew would be the upper end of the backstrap sinew, I have never used any back sinew but I have read of it being used for bows, anyhow I wouldnt hesitate to use it for making glue, after cooking the keratin should be easy to separate away.

Good luck, let us know how it turns out, use the same consistency as other keratin glues.

Keratin?

[traianj]

Test them on a piece of bamboo , or other wood.
I think, you can use .

[Jake Levi]

Hi Pat

yup, my bad, collagen. Three stripes with a wet piece.

[Uli]

from the biological aspect the neck sinew (ligamentum nuchae) is the ligament with the largest amount of Elastin protein (in addition to Collagen). thats why there is the elastic "rubber" effect.
other sources of Elastin are ear and nose cartilage for example.

[Jake Levi]

Now thats interesting, come deer season I will see if I can save some and give it a try.

[mongolianarcher]

Lukas Novotny has mentioned that some Turkish and Persian sources refer to using neck sinew exclusively for their bowmaking. But he hasn't been able to make it work as far as I know. Next time I talk to him I'll ask if he's found a method yet.

[Jake Levi]

Lucas is that as sinew or also glue?

I am going to have to buy more sinew, my deer sinew from last fall isnt going to be enough. Not nearly.

I have a lot of projects going right now that will need it including some selfbows that I want to add sinew to, an osage orange and a black walnut. Plus some shorter Plains Indian horse bows, 3 of them.

I did , maybe, find a supply of hide glue, I am testing some of that this weekend on splices.

[mongolianarcher]

I don't have the exact texts. But the reference was that Lukas said 'they used neck sinew' and that was even confirmed by a person that called Lukas saying that his Turkish father taught him about making horn bows and that neck sinew was used.

Perhaps someone ought to try it out.

[Jake Levi]

Did Lukas say in which form it was used? As glue or as sinew? I would expect it to work well either form.

[Bede]

The major source for the concept of using neck sinew in Turkish and Persian bow making was Payne-Gallwey in in his article on Turkish bows. He came to the conclusion that it was neck sinew from soaking a bow in hot water and collecting the sinew.

When the sinew which comprises the back, or outside when it is strung, of a Turkish bow -- however old it be -- is dissolved it hot water, it disintegrates into hundreds of short pieces of from 2 to 3 in. long and about 1/8 in. in diameter, each as ductile as indiarubber and almost unbreakable by hand.

This result was explained by Adam Karpowicz in his book on Ottoman bows as the effect of the hot water on standard leg tendon; it becomes denatured by the heat.
The neck tendon from my experience never breaks down into fibres and a dried slab of it does not look at all like sinews dried on a bow. If it could be used for glue, it might have interesting properties. It is certainly an experiment worth trying.

[alex27]

Thank you Bede


JJ if you don't want to make glue out of it, please sent it to me

I'll put it on a bow