Bow Backing

Next time you snach a moose, scrape the hide (hair and flesh side), cut it length wise, hang it to dry. You won't build enough bows to go through the hole hide as bow backing. If you don't hunt moose yet, talk to a person that can get you a hide.

I prefer a backed bow with a toasted stave. The backing will hold splintering and back fracturing, giving the bow far more integrity to take a lot less carful over draws (this will compress the wood however). Backed bows are just hard to break.

Contrary to what I have heard from a far more experienced bowyer, I dont find a very thick hide nearing to the tips, detrimental to bow performance. Hide has far more strength per ounce than wood so a hide backed bow can be thinner, and lighter, than a self full wood bow of equal draw strength and speed. Again however, this is just my very limited experience and perspective from building my own bows.

Rough up the back surface before applying glue to increase the surface area.

Regardless the back (sinew, cotton, or hide) always tripple, or quadruple the hide glue layer before applying the backing; this will inundate the surface with a dry wood glue layer, seeping and filling every pore, readying the surface for the glue soaked backing to ultimately make the backing and the bow realy become one; these layers should be thin to make a thick layer.

Wrap well with a cotton wrap while drying. The same bowyer mentioned earlier (Clay Haines) suggested using a weighted sleeve slid on the limb to keep the backing down while drying.