Greasy sinew

For backstrap I remove all the pieces of fat with a knife and scrub the sinew with lacquer thinner and a brush. After breaking up, I sometimes put it all in a glass jar with lacquer thinner and shake vigorously.

White gas, like used to be used in camping stoves and lanterns is also good and does not leave residue. Do this outside and away from your shop.

• JJ, Jack has described it accurately. scraping with a knife, and then in the bottle with acetone. see how much dirt will remain in acetone :D. I like this method.

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Guys, thank you very much. I will try the bottle trick next time I have purchased acetone or white gas ;-)

Last time I poured 1 litre of acetone into a bowl and washed the sinew in it. Horrible smell ;-)

This sinew is hard to scrape cause I got it already dried and twisted a lot. When I process sinew myself for sure I scrape away every fat that remains.

Now I separated the fibres first and now have it lying in water with dish soap for some hours...

I will see how it works out when I glue it on a bow tonight.

JJ

JJ,
frequent changing of detergent and water and rinsing in between should get rid of any residual fats. I would tend to use acetone at the end rather than the beginning. All the comments about scraping away the fat first are valid. The less fat to dissolve means you use less detergent. washing up liquid worked for me. I have sinew I prepared 20 years ago that has not gone rancid.

With really problem tendons, partially beat them out and wash them again.

i can sure old time has no acetone the bowyer not use it , use the powder of flour or alkali absorb or erasure the oil, possibility?

bede, can you show the pics of sinew save for 20 years?

Jiao,
It was only sheep sinew for wrapping nocks, but it you still want a picture, I will take one and post it here.

yes,it is important for me, did you find what change the sinew after save it for 20 years?
thanks

Jiao,
I will photograph it solid and beaten into fibres. The fibres look as strong as ever. Since it is so short, I never tested it for strength. It was not for bows but for wrapping arrows.

Very useful tips, thank you JJ for rising this subject!

I just approached a fullbox of old sinew that wasn't cleaned well and faced a similar problem.

Bede, did I understand correctly: wash the sinew once it's separated into the final size strands? At least, that is what I'd plan to do.