Ancient skills sinew cordage

[Woody girl]

One of the things I enjoy doing is making cordage from different materials. Untill recently, I have been experimenting with plants, having acquired some raw deer sinew, I have spent the last few weeks making sinew cordage. I plan to use it to sew up a pair of home made moccasins.
The processing is quite labour intensive, and I decided to go full ancient skills and use what would have been available in the past toolwise, so a large smooth rock from the river was used to do the work.
In the photo, you can see the unworked dried sinew, followed by the rock I'm using, some processed fibres, that need further splitting down, and then the resulting cordage.

 

[Pattree]

Did you spin that or just twist it?

 

[Woody girl]

Did you spin that or just twist it?

Just twisted it by hand as I would have done with nettle cordage. It would make a nice bow string I reckon...if I could get it more even. Still, I'm happy enough for a first go, with the consistency.
I still have a few more sinews to process, so I shall see how much I can make from those little muntjac leg sinews. Hopefully enough for my moccasins.

 

[demented dale]

Just twisted it by hand as I would have done with nettle cordage. It would make a nice bow string I reckon...if I could get it more even. Still, I'm happy enough for a first go, with the consistency.
I still have a few more sinews to process, so I shall see how much I can make from those little muntjac leg sinews. Hopefully enough for my moccasins.

Thats brilliant. tell me WG, you mentioned bowstring, is that what cat gut is? x

 

[Woody girl]

Thats brilliant. tell me WG, you mentioned bowstring, is that what cat gut is? x

Thanks, I have no idea what cat gut is to be honest. I do know cat gut was used for tennis rackets at one point in time.
I think it is a more natural fibre, but not from poor luckless lickle puddy tats! (I hope)

I just thought it would be good for a bow string as it's very strong, but its just my opinion.
Maybe someone else knows better than me on the cat gut and bowstring thing.

 

[forrestdweller]

Thats brilliant. tell me WG, you mentioned bowstring, is that what cat gut is? x

google tells me cat gut is made from animal intestines, mainly from goat and sheep. i found several references of cat gut in books -- if anyone has a copy of "for the term of his natural life" by Marcus Clarke: Rufus Dawes uses goat intestines to make string for traps and to construct a coracle when left behind/ marooned with several people after a convict colony gets abandoned...

 

[Woody girl]

Thanks for that interesting info FD. Wonder why they call it cat gut rather than goat, or sheep gut tho? What have cats got to do with it? Or is that a silly question with a perfectly sensible answer?

 

[John Fenna]

I made some sinew cord a while back - hard work but good results!
Sinew seems hard to get hold of in decent lengths .....

 

[William_Montgomery]

Thanks for that interesting info FD. Wonder why they call it cat gut rather than goat, or sheep gut tho? What have cats got to do with it? Or is that a silly question with a perfectly sensible answer?

There is a suggestion that it comes from cattle-gut. But who knows?

 

[Woody girl]

I made some sinew cord a while back - hard work but good results!
Sinew seems hard to get hold of in decent lengths .....

Most of my lengths are about 3 or 4 inches long, some are less. I guess that's those little muntjac legs though.
I've made roughly about 8 yards worth so far.

 

[MikeLA]

Nice work, I don’t get enough practice making cordage. Must do more.

 

[Woody girl]

Nice work, I don’t get enough practice making cordage. Must do more.

Yes, I've been making nettle cordage since our local hardware shut down, I can't buy normal garden string without a bus journey now, so I'm making it to use in the garden for tying up things that need it. I do find it needs replacing more often, but its free, and gives me something to do on days when I can't do much else outside. I like the whole self sufficient and sustainable idea of it anyway. Plus it's free...did I say that?
The sinew costs a bomb if you buy it ready made for leatherwork, but again, mine is free, I don't count the hours of work, as its all part of living my life quite naturally now. My time is my own since I'm retired, so with the need to stretch a miniscule pension, it makes sense, and brings back lost skills, and a more natural way to live. Yes I'm the country 's biggest luddite!

 

[MikeLA]

That’s even better, your making something because it’s hard to get. Self sufficiency and a skill learn’t.

 

[John Fenna]

Instead of nettle for garden ties try bramble - you basically treat the stems just like nettle but it lasts much longer

 

[Toddy]

If you type,
Sinew, dog chew
into google, then up will come everything from beef

Beef Sinew Dog Chew

Introducing our exclusive Beef Sinew Dog Chews, the ideal solution for the discerning chewer in your furry companion's life. Crafted with care, these chews are designed to cater to your dog's natural instincts and love for satisfying chewing experiences. Key Features: Premium Quality Beef Sinew...

www.bettyandbutch.co.uk

to ostrich

Some of the sites are a tad pretentious and vastly overpriced, but you can buy sinew quite easily at reasonable prices with a little looking.

 

[Woody girl]

If you type,
Sinew, dog chew
into google, then up will come everything from beef

Beef Sinew Dog Chew

Introducing our exclusive Beef Sinew Dog Chews, the ideal solution for the discerning chewer in your furry companion's life. Crafted with care, these chews are designed to cater to your dog's natural instincts and love for satisfying chewing experiences. Key Features: Premium Quality Beef Sinew...

www.bettyandbutch.co.uk

to ostrich

Some of the sites are a tad pretentious and vastly overpriced, but you can buy sinew quite easily at reasonable prices with a little looking.

That's usefull info for those, who, unlike myself, can get it for free from a friend who culls deer professionally, and saves it for me.
Our "new" local pet shop which used to be fantastic, and affordable,is now a pretentious coffee/high quality and expensive pet shop. I (and most of my doggie owning friends) can no longer afford to shop there. Shame realy, can't get any of the normal pet supplies, they only cater for dogs, and have their own two live toy dogs sitting in a glass fronted cabinet which faces the door. !
Being naughty, I went in and asked how much they were.... got a snooty reply!
(They only sell high class dog supplies, and had a business in Tetbury before " coming to the country to educate the local council estate in how to care properly for their pets)

£10 for a natural ostrich dog chew is out of the ball park for the average Joe here, though the huntin shootin fishin crowd love it and get a very niche expensive coffee into the bargain.
Once again the locals loose out.
New deli is the same. £9.50 for a biona jar of kimchi available in tescos for less than half that.
I'm planting my own kimchi garden again this year and making my own! I'm not gonna make rich people richer, at the cost of making myself poorer!

Sorry for the rant. I get realy teed off with decent local shops going under due to retirement, and pretentious strangers coming in to fleece the locals rigid!

 

[GreyCat]

Back on topic.....

Traditional Bows in UK used linen strings. The making method for longbow strings was used.

However it's nearly impossible to get linen thread of sufficient quality for decent bow strings these days, yes sometimes things go backwards. Same deal with high quality linen fabric.

Sinew was used more for composite bows ie Asiatic bows and some native American bows. They used Sinew as it was available, its not an ideal material because its too elastic (better on the back of the bow than used for the string!). Properly made decent linen was far better.

Not until the advent of Dacron did we get bow strings which are minimally effected by moisture.

GC

 

[Woody girl]

I knew it was used as backing on bows, but didn't know linnen thread was used for bow strings. That's very interesting. It never realy occurred to me to think about how bow strings were made in the distant past before modern materials became available. Thinking about it, of course a bow string made of sinew, on getting wet, would be soft and horribly stretchy. Linnen bow strings make sense, though I'm sure sinew strings were used quite a lot in other cultures.

 

[Tengu]

Id like to try it but no sinew....must ask around.

 

[Woody girl]

Id like to try it but no sinew....must ask around.

What you need to do, is befriend someone who culls deer. That's how I got mine. Though my friend lives in Suffolk, so sends it to me. He's good enough to dry it before sending too.
If you can find a local butcher who sells venison, it's worth asking if they can put you on touch with their supplier, or if they butcher the carcasses themselves if they would save you the sinew. It does need to be thoroughly dried before working with it first tho. Good luck finding some.