Final Stage of Sinew Making

The promised post to finish up the sinew processing. The pic below shows the dried elk backstrap sinew. Elk is very much larger than deer to work with but it also produces some very long strands. Moose would be much the same way.



Here I am giving the sinew a twist, bending it every which way possible. You basically just keep on doing that until it becomes loosened up. Deer take but a few minutes but this elk tore up my hands pretty well. It's really strong stuff.




Here I splitting the sinew in half lengthwise. This will make it easier to torque around. Just keep working it until it wants to come off as threads. You can see the perpendicular cross fibers of the fascia that was left on it.





The final pic shows individual fibers that have been stripped out. Across them is a piece of nylon thread so you can get an idea of how large the threads are. I generally leave the sinew intact and only split off threads as I need them. Wet them to prestretch them before you use them. Sinew doesn't take a square knot very well so one must use a figure 8 to begin to sew with them, or some other knot that doesn't come out.





One last thing, when splitting anything including sinew the side that recieves more of the tension will end up thicker, so to keep a split uniform you try to keep the tension uniform bi-laterally. If you start to see the split make one side thinner then add more tension to that side. Make sense?

I'm going to be making some buckskin leggings next so check back in soon to watch them take shape!!

Processing Sinew

Torjus has talked about using sinew for sewing so I thought I might show a little photo tutorial on how to process sinew. These instructions won't be exactly in chronological order as I won't be showing how I remove sinew from the critter until I butcher my next goat. The sinew I will be working with here was saved for me by my friend the meat processor who I worked with in gathering up my deer skins for my year. They were already cutting the sinew off of the loins so I just showed them how I wanted to keep it as long as possible and they supplied me with bags and bags of deer and elk sinew. I keep finding these bags in my freezer and I have more sinew than I know what to do with! You may wish to become very good friends with your localmeat processor or butcher as they can supply you with many things that you may not have access to if you live in an urban area but like to play caveman.















The first pic is of elk backstrap sinew that has only been cut away from the rest of the loin. When I remove sinew it seldom has this much meat left on it but I am not complaining. In my hand I am holding a piece of slate. On the sinew is a obsidian flake.
















The next image shows the actual removal of meat from the sinew. You want to work perpendicular to the sinew, not at an angle. You don't want the tool your using to be very sharp as you can cut the sinew. The longer your sinew is the better it is to work with in most cases. I am simply "pushing" back and forth.

This pic shows the elk backstrap sinew getting cleaner. There is some connective tissue on elk that isn't on deer that I used the sharper obsidian on.
















This pic shows the connective tissue on elk that makes meat removal a little harder.
















You want to clean both sides of the sinew. You will find that the side of the sinew that faced the dermis of the critter doesn't have all that much to remove but you do want to remove as much of the fascia as possible. Every little bit helps. Any meat or fat left on the sinew can weaken the sinew. This pic shows fascia or connective tissue that you want to remove as much of as you can. Elk especially is very tough when dried out.

I will post the next part on Sunday.

Fishing Line Update

Not making much progress on anything today, I thought I'd post on pretty much the only primitive thing I did today. The rest of the elm bark I had from making the straps to the pack-frame will go into make a braided fishing line.

I need more fishinglines when the ice fishing season starts soon (very late this year). I also will need them on my expedition this summer.

The process is simple. The sheets are seperated into smaller sheets.














The sheets are plaited into a braid. It is very slow work. But the result is a very strong line.

Pack Frame Update

Haven't done much today really. But to my surprise I found that my elm bark, which has been soaking in a stream for 5 days, had dried completely over night. Instead of turning brittle, as unsoaked bark invariably does, it remained fairly supple. Below: bark soaking in the sink.














I wetted the bark and tore strips in the width I felt was best suited and braided two straps. They are very strong, but as I ran out of the best bark I feel that the first one was slightly better looking than the second one.


















Below is a closeup. As you can see the right piece is more even than the left one.

Cordage

Making good cordage is, like most primitive skills; easy, but practise is required. It can be made from virtually anything fibrous, from paper to rawhide. But as any economist would tell you: Don't have the money in the bank, when you can make more on stocks. In other words, there is no reason to use the inferior fibres of rosebay willowherb, when the nettle is equally abundant and gives a better result.

There are several types of cordage. There is the single strand cordage. This is the fastest method, but usually only usable for static tasks, such as wrappings. Roots are usually used this way. Rawhide is an exception to this rule, internally it is really consisting of multible fibres and a very strong glue, making it behave like regular cord even if it is single stranded. Single stranded cordage have to be spliced with knots, while twisted and braided cordage can and should have fibres added continously.

Twisted cordage is the second fastest to make. It is stronger than single stranded due to internal friction and the alignment of the fibres gives an artificial stretch to the fibres. Useful in bowstrings to absorb excessive shock, but often not desirable in fishing lines as it reduces the feeling with the fish. It can have two plies or more, but making more than two is messy and I almost never do it.

It is done by either thigh rolling or by holding the other end firm (in the mouth or in an other way) and twisting with both hands. Thigh rolling is way faster, but the results are less even and thight, at least for me. Also, it is hard to thigh roll more than two strands and if the get too thick. But for long lenghts of cordage, for instance for fishing nets there is really no other way. To achive sufficient friction surface to roll on, either wear no trousers or wet the area you roll on first.














Working with the fibres wet is sometimes advantageous, regardless of method. The animal fibres I feel however become too limp. Some people like it, but I don't. Experiment on your own to find what you prefer. To make sure the twisting doesn't cause the finished cordage to untwist further down you have to have some means of relieving the twist. No problem with short bowstrings, but with longer cords a something is needed to wind it up on. A spindle with a wheel is excellent for this and very high on my "to make" list.

Every girl and most boys knows how to braid a simple three stranded braid. Braiding is stretchless and thus good for fishing lines. It is extremely slow to do however, and the thinner you make them the slower it is. It is also possible to braid with four strands, but I have yet to learn that. Below is an illustration of twisting and braiding.







Knowing how to make strong cordage is essential for the primitive. I have just started thigh rolling some 1000 metres of nettle cordage for a new fishing net. We'll see how much I end up making, but for now my goal is 1000m. To the left on the photo is braided fishing line and to the right is thigh rolled cordage for nets. For scale: The fishing line is approximately 1,5mm thick.

Nettle fibres

There are many myths about preparing the fibres of this plant. It is said to be hard when it in fact is very easy. No boiling or retting is neccesary. This time I will only focus on the process after the "skins", or inner bark sheet, has been harvested and dried. As there is no nettle available here now, I will cover that when it gets in season again.

The sheets are soaked in warm water (temperate). Don't break the dry fibres into a cup, that will break them, but wet them sligthly before to make them supple. Seperate the strands from eachother as that will make scraping them easier.














Then you scrape the brittle outer shell off with your nail. Support with an other finger (one without the scraping nail) and pull with the other hand. Scrape first to one side, then the other way. By gently loosening the bundle of fibres and outer bark collecting in your "off" hand when you meet resistance you can get quite long fibres.














Now the fibres are ready, that's all! The fibres are strong, excellent for strong fishing lines, lashings etc. Nettle is not very durable however. Be careful to always dry the line after fishing or it will quickly desintegrate. And by the way: The scraped off outer shell, which is more than likely to be mixed with quite a few fibres, make excellent tinder.