Something about sinew

That?s quite interesting.
I think it will work, I?ve often glued vegetable tanned leather to wood succesfully.
I guess that there is tannic acid within those fruits.
Maybe you should do a test- glueing before backing your bow.
Michael

I am also curious how it will work

Acorns (oak fruit) have enough tannin in them to be poisonous to horses and humans. But not to pigs, apparently.

http://www.wzrb.com.cn/system/2007/07/2 ... 7576.shtml

china sinew string for a Musical instruments ， a kind Plant also use for sinew,( the Gardenia jasminoides Elis,化学性质　含栀子甙（geniposide）、羟异栀子甙（gardenoside）、山栀甙（shanzhiside）、栀子新甙（gardoside）、栀子甙酸（geriposidic acid）、栀子黄素（gardenin）、番红花甙-Ⅰ（crocin-1）、番红花酸（cro-cetin）、鸡矢藤甙甲酯（scandoside methyl ester）等。

the sinew strings made by 24 steps, it add to bladder glue then sinew soak about 10 hours, why......for what?

if you are eating or eated, don't see them down:


got some water form your body use it soak sinew , you can see what hapen, then dry it , Surprise！

There is some interesting technical information in the website quoted by Jiao; I have tried a non-machine translation.

"琴弦制作牛筋弦整个生产过程主要有24道工序：
Creating sinew strings for a Chinese zither requires 24 steps.
取本地健壮黄牛背上牛排筋；
Use the backstrap sinew of a healthy, local water buffalo;
剔除牛排筋上的肉；
Remove the meat;
把牛筋放在砧板上敲捶；
Break it down using a rice hulling roller;
把牛筋上肉末泡洗干净；
Soak it to remove any remaining meat;
溶入配方和适量碱粉等；
Soak in a correctly formulated sodium chlorate solution [base powder?]
冲洗干净，去掉牛筋上的油质；
Wash off the solution and remove any remaining oily matter;
晾干；
air dry;
把粗牛筋分瓣成一根根牛筋丝；
split up the large strips of sinew into threads;
把牛筋丝分成长条丝和短条丝；
Separate threads into long and short lengths;
把牛筋丝粗细拉匀；
sort the threads into equal thicknesses;
以长丝为主线、短丝为副线揉搓成粗线条；
wind the long threads for the main strings and the short threads for sympathetic strings;
绑在柱子上拉紧；
tie to a frame and stretch them tight;
定型后再拉成直线；
when they have stabilized, pull them straight;
用剃刀把牛筋线上的毛头、小结剃刮干净；
use a razor-blade to remove hairs on the strings and clean up any small nodes;
取黄枝果煎成黄色碱水；
Make a brown solution from the fruit of Gardenia Jasminoides (Elis) heated in a pan;
取黄鱼鲛和黄枝果水浸泡牛筋线；
use the solution together with some glue from yellow croaker air-bladder to soak the strings in;
浸泡10个小时后，取出洗净，再晾干；
After soaking the strings for 10 hours, wash them out and air dry them once again;
上釉和修坯；
glaze and polish them;
再次绑在柱子上绞紧；
tie them to a frame again and stretch them tight;
晾干水分，以防收缩；逐段严格查验，若发现毛结，再作加工；
Remove all moisture so that they will not shrink then examine them carefully. If there are nodes then the above procedure must be repeated;


S

Interesting. Tannins will bond with collagen in the sinew to make it more resistant to water (as is the case with leather), which could be helpful in the case of strings, but I do not see how it can make it better on a bow? Proteins change structure (denature) in tannins, phenols or formaldehyde, so their properties change as well, such as flexibility, strenght etc.

Adam

Here is the fruit:

he told that i have to grind this and poil it in water and when it gets cool i've to put sinew in it for 30 minutes and then it'll have better performance in flexibility,strenght and gluing :D
i think i'e to test it if i had time.

These look like 'oak galls' or 'oak apples'. They are not fruit but an oak growth caused by reaction to a parasitic insect larva which exits the small holes seen in the side.

Adam Karpowicz wrote:

Interesting. Tannins will bond with collagen in the sinew to make it more resistant to water (as is the case with leather), which could be helpful in the case of strings, but I do not see how it can make it better on a bow? Proteins change structure (denature) in tannins, phenols or formaldehyde, so their properties change as well, such as flexibility, strenght etc.

Adam

The explanation of how the instrument strings are made contains a lot of material familiar to me from discussion on how bows were made in Sichuan (Wu Shusen's granddaughter, Wu Ronghua). There was also talk about the sinew used for the back of the bow being applied with a glue that required the addition of mineral salt and/or human saliva.

The addition of human saliva may, on the other hand, just reflect an ancient tradition (relating to smelting of bronze also) that human hair, nail clippings or saliva is a vital element in the 'bonding' of glue or bronze.

I remember from the article on bowmaking in Chengtu "sugar of lead" was added to glue. Sugar of lead is lead acetate, which will make the glue unpalatable and toxic to insects.

I think saliva, having detergent properties, can help adhesion. Birchbark was licked (again the Chengtu book) before applying to cover the bow.

Adam

Adam Karpowicz wrote:

Birchbark was licked (again the Chengtu book) before applying to cover the bow.
Adam

Excellent information. Thanks a lot! Only applying saliva before wrapping? No glue at all?

No, you lick the glued surfaces before wrapping. Yang Fuxi used to tell me this as an example of what an unpleasant job bow-making was.

i think i can accept lick form my hornbows,two hornbows enough i use , the original Birchbark is not dirty, the water form Birch is very good smell, maybe tannin work for Birchbark for got more flexibility ?

i see some people in china heilongjiang province they has fish hide tradition clothing, they lick the bigest sturgeon bladder glue strip then apply glue on it,we can find how slobber works on Birchbark form microscope

Proteins change structure (denature) in tannins, phenols or formaldehyde, so their properties change as well, such as flexibility, strenght etc.

wonderful!

Jiao you mean it will make sinew better in strengh and flexibility or destroy it?

i quote some words form adam, if somethings works the Proteins change structure, maybe the sinew will be shrink like the shirr you can draw the sinew longer, the too impetuous shrink effect like boil sinew is not we want,ha,lot test need do it

today i see the tannins on chemical shop , it is acidic base will make the sinew swell and also has shrink effect, it is two incompatible effect,when it in air will turn black, after i can do a best archer,i will start make hornbow i can know how good my bow and enjoy it, so , go on.......