Preparing sinew

This is interesting. I think I make more waste per tendon than that.

The deer tendons that I use come quite thick, with a 'fist' of four cartilige like 'knuckles' at one end. After hammering it splits into a main tendon in a sinewy sheath. I continue to pound the pieces, until I can tease apart fibres using my fingers. Some of the sheath is unusable, but most of it is good stuff.

Do your tendons initially look like the thing I describe? (I'll upload a photo if needs be) If so, how much more massive are they?

Do you prepare them any differently?

That sounds familiar, I've had a some of those tendons too. They produce some more waste. I also find that the moose tendons does not have as interlocking fibres as the deer tendons, which makes it easier to get long fibres. For the same reason the ones from deer seems to take a little more time to shred also, but other than that I find them very good too.

I have not harvested these tendons myself, so I don't know how they look when in the animal.

Thanks Kviljo, this is very helpful. My proportion of thrash is higher, so I have to work on my technique. How long do you need to process one such sinew?

M Hardman, I find deer tendons rather tough to split and process. Ostrich tendons are much easier to work with and produce longer fibers. That seems to be the case with moose, too - right, Kviljo?

I haven't tried the ostrich yet, although I've had one for a few years. I will try it some time soon.

I did not take the time I used to prepare this one, but I bet somewhere around 3-4 hours. Focusing on the task it would be somewhat shorter time, but I like to do it while watching something on the computer.

my classification is as follows: most easily divided (also with a little scrap) ostrich sinews. the second is moose sinews. follow deer, and end - ox sinews.

Does anyone know a source for elk sinew in europe? Moscow hide & fur doesn't deliver outside the US, and the other shops in the US might send some, but there seem to be restrictions on importing such products

My guess would be to look in Sweden or Finland.

Arry wrote:

My guess would be to look in Sweden or Finland.

The German word might be misleading:

Elk =/= Moose

With moose it's the same problem as with elk sinew. Lots of places to buy in the US, nothing to be found easily via the net here. As for the length that I'd like to have....dictum has some backstrap, but it costs 3x as much as in the US. :(

here you get elk tendon:
http://www.hudsons-bay.com/shopware.php ... tegory,312

Peter

Thank you!

Fennec, did you try to contact the member of this forum - Hartung is his nick, who offered processed leg and back sinew of "Cervus elaphus" on "Where can I get ... " subforum not so long ago ? You can try to contact "local hunters club" if you like cheap tendons or game processing plants for bigger amount. Another possibility is to "convert" into ostrich tendons and find nearest bigger farm ( you can contact alex27 or PAZUZU by PM ).

Mike, for you I am attaching pictures of the back side of deer/elk hind leg prepared for removing every available tendons. Suppliers usualy cut off one whole bunch of tendons with outer sheats too, which contains these 3 types of tendons. Such thick bunch usualy smells to some degree, because of "not fast enough" drying. The outer two tendons are commonly used for sinewing work. I am attaching also ostrich leg picture, where the situation is slightly "more complicated".
Easiness of dividing tendons into sinew fibers depends greatly on the type of sinew ( flexor, extensor, backstrap, bifurcated or not, thick or slim ) and whether they are prepared, dried and seasoned well ( freshly fast dried tendons are amber colored with tiny visible cracks , while long time seasoned /after fast drying/ ones are more whitish and you can divide them more easily ) .
Hope this helps you !

I just remembered that Hartung posted great tutorials about "How to get useable tendons from the deer/elk corpse" with many detailed pics on one french forum :

http://www.webarcherie.com/forum/index. ... rf-elaphe/

http://www.webarcherie.com/forum/index. ... rf-elaphe/

I am attaching one more picture with several types of tendons, where you can see the difference between only just dried and well seasoned ( more than one year on naturaly ventilated loft ) tendons. If there is an interest I can add some more details about these tendons later.

Jano, this is very interesting - are you saying the tendons that were seasoned for a longer time become whiter and come apart easier? Does the lighter color results from the fissures in the tendons? I did not notice that in my work, even in tendons that were kept in the box for many years.

The Hartung's method is OK, but I am not sure why he partially skins the leg. I insert the knife into the channel where the tendon sits within the leg (from the knee end) and cut upwards along the tendon through the skin and tissue to open the channel all the way to the fork. Then lift and undercut the whole tendon to free it. The entire operation take no more than 10-15 seconds.

I have no experience with backstrap,, but I found deer (NA whitetail) to split easier than moose. I suppose the European deer and elk should be the same. While shredding, I put short strands 3-5 inches in a pile to use on grips or to fill in voids, etc., so the waste is minimal.

Adam

Fennec wrote:

Arry wrote:

My guess would be to look in Sweden or Finland.

The German word might be misleading:
Elk =/= Moose

Yes, I thought you meant moose. But interestingly, according to leo.org, both elk and moose translate into "Elch", with the additional meaning of Elk = "Wapiti-/Rothirsch"

Hello Adam,

maybe it is only my impression :-) , but I was able to defiber also the "toe parts" of such cattle and elk tendons without difficulties. They released their fibers better already in pounding phase. What is the reason of lighter color I can only assume like you, but most probably you are right about the fissures. These tendons were kept on the well ventilated loft for several years too and undergoes every weather changes - temperatures from around -20 deg C to +40 deg C and corresponding changes in RH, which I suppose is main difference from keeping them in the indoor box, which caused whitening.

I think that Hartung ( but he skins the leg completely - on the second page ) have the use for hides, bones and hoofs too and it is easier to remove thin extensor tendons ( which are very valuable too ) from the front side of the leg this way. Maybe he will chime in here to explicate.
I did it similarly, because I like to use such hides to cook my own glue ( hence I do not waste them ) and moreover it is a pastime, not work for me, hence I am not in a hurry :-) . I suppose that foot hide is very strong and good for many other purposes ( it becomes really thin after processing and drying ).

Adam, here is detailed picture of the difference between only dry ( harvested at half of December 2012 ) and "fully seasoned/whitened" ( many years old ) tendons. The Central parts - between bifurcations - of european kind of elk "Cervus elaphus" deep flexor tendons from back sides of hind legs are displayed.
I have to add, that I noticed also some "genetical/growth" differences in workability of tendons of the same kind of the same species of animals, when some had more "crossed" fibers than others.

I have experienced this difference in colour with ostrich sinews.
The source where I get them send me a bunch of sinews once that where completely white insead of the normal brown colour, almost like paper. The sinew was very easy to take apart.
I asked why these were so white. The tendons had been frozen fresh and dried after this. He told me that the brown tendons were dried immediately.

I always process the tendons in larger batches in exactly the same way (collect, clean, dry) every year and some dry dark and some dry very light. It seemed older animals had darker tendons, but that needs to be confirmed.

It is interesting about the freezing before drying. Water will freeze within the tendon as ice crystals. Perhaps the process helps to separate the fibers? I will try it on the next batch.

Adam

When frozen before dried they are very easy to process, almost don't have to pound them with a hammer. But ostrich tendons are easy to process anyways. i haven't experienced difference in quality.

Maybe the same effect can be found for other animals. Would be interesting.

i has some white cow deg sinew, yes, very easy to process, it can tear sinew from Y shape become two part(form Y to ||),haha , i use ten years more than 10 sinews do it success, know the sinew stirngs structure

if soak the normal brown colour sinew in water and frozen, it will be white?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/93548270@N03/

it is one sinew break to two

http://www.flickr.com/photos/93548270@N ... hotostream