Backing you bow with hemp

By Howling Moon

Sinew is probably the best backing you can put on your bow. However, it isn’t always easy to get hold of. Hemp, on the other hand, is readily available from most hardware shops. And hemp makes a pretty good backing. It will not pull a bow into a reflex when drying as sinew will do, but you can use hemp to keep a bow in a reflex if you follow the right procedures. Hemp will also pull the bow straight again after a shooting session.

One of the most important things to do to when putting hemp backing on a bow is to work as clean as possible.

Use a sharp hacksaw blade and scrape the back of your bow. This is to give the glue and fibres a place to hook onto.

Then you can degrease the back with sugar soap and put the bow in the sun to dry.

Getting the hemp fibres ready:

  • Sort the fibres into bundles of ± 1,5 inches wide and 6 to 12 inches long. About 16 bundles should be enough, but keep a few extra.

  • Arrange the bundles within easy reach.Borrow your wife’s oven pan and fill it with water. (Remember to ask her permission)

  • Place the hemp bundles in the water in the oven pan.

  • Important: Make sure your whole work, area is spotlessly clean. Use a spray can to spray water lightly over the whole work area after you have cleaned. This keep dust in place.

It is best to use hide glue. Here is how to make the hide glue:

  • You will need two pots; one must fit inside the other. (See figure1)

  • Fill the big pot with water and bring to boiling point.

  • Put a cup of hide glue (or clear gelatine) in the small pot and cover the glue with warm water for 5 minutes.

  • Mix extra water in until the hide glue turns into gooey stuff.

  • Put the small pot in the big pot and then bring to boiling point.

  • Keep stirring the glue.

  • The ideal viscosity must have the texture of warm, flowing syrup. If the glue is too thick, mix some of the boiling water from the big pot in. Just watch out that you do not overdo it.

  • Bring and keep the heat to a simmer.

Now you can put your bow in the bench vice and start working. Remember to put some padding in between the sides if the vice and the bow handle to protect it from damage. You can also put the bow in a reflex jig, before you start backing it. In another article we will show you how to make a simple jig.

Gluing the hemp to the back of the bow:

  • Take the bow (and jig) and secure it to the bench vice.

  • It is importune to size the surface by using a clean brush to paint a layer of glue on the back of the bow. Make sure the whole back area is covered.

  • Take a piece of hemp at the one end and squeeze the water out of it with two fingers of your other hand. Now dip the bundle into the warm glue for approximately five seconds. Twist the hemp while dipping it in the glue to insure saturation. Take the bundle out of the glue and with a fast movement down the length of the bundle, using the middle and index finger, you squeeze the glue from the bundle. This can be a little painful, but you are not a sissy. Take the bundle by the other end and do the same.

How to stick the hemp to the back of the bow.
Start in the middle of the bow and paste the hemp bundles to the bow in the following way:

  • Place a piece of hemp on the limb and press flat. Make sure the hemp is flattened evenly on the back. Then place a second piece in line with the first piece, but so that it overlaps with an inch. (See figure 2)

  • Continue this way, working towards the tips until you have a layer of hemp forming a line on the back of the bow, from tip to tip. ( Figure 2)

  • Then you start in the middle again with a new layer of hemp. Place the strips so that it overlaps slightly with the previous line of hemp and in such a way that it creates a matrix, like bricks on a wall. (See figure 3)

  • You cover the whole back of the bow in this way. It is better that the hemp overlaps then it is to have open areas with no hemp on the back.

Now leave the bow for 12 hours inside the house with a fan blowing on the bow.After 12 hours bind a bicycle tube carefully, but tightly around the bow. Keep the tube stretched at all times while binding it around the bow so you get even pressure and in order not to push the hemp or glue skew.

Leave the bow until the glue starts to drip out of the openings of the tube.

Now you can take the rubber off the bow and you can place the bow in the sun to dry – preferably in a little wind.

After 24 hours the backing is ready to be worked on. You can now use a file to work the hemp backing by flattening the humps that the rubber tube has formed. You can work the backing into an even surface or you can leave a little unequal surface – according to you taste. Just do not work the backing too thin to be of any real use.

You can now test your bow. It should have picked up quite a couple of pounds and it should have a reflex if you reflexed it in the jig. The bow will also tend to loos stringfollow after use, since the hemp backing will pull it back to its original position.
Best of luck, and remember, this is a rather messy job. But this will not deter a hardy person like you. By preferring to shoot traditional you have shown that you have guts.

 
Updated: Wednesday, February 1, 2006 3:06 PM