What sinew actually looks like

[SekoETC]

I thought that sinew was like the cartilage you occasionally find in chicken nuggets, all slimy and rubber-like. But actually it's fibers that are found inside a long tendon found in big animals and once you take off the tough outer shell, the inside consists of thin fibers stuck together and they can be separated into sewing yarns.

Source:
https://neolithichouses.wordpress.com/2 ... eer-sinew/
http://stitchinguphistory.blogspot.fi/2 ... -back.html

[Alladinsane]

When I was teaching cooks how to butcher meat (e.g. beef tenderloins), we used to call it "silver skin".
Get rid of the stuff, you can't chew it or cook it till its tender... Its just junk from an eating standpoint.

But its the tendons that hold our knees together, and many other body parts.
If you ever damage it or pull it away from the bones... It doesn't heal and doesn't grow back.
You have a problem for life. Pending surgery of course.

For those of you with insomnia, here is 7 minutes of a guy breaking down some sinew for bowstrings. He is using nothing but stone tools to create it.
Some of you may want to incorporate the techniques into your long emote role-play? Or you can just yawn, but for some of us geeks, this is great knowledge.

Thanks for starting this out Seko.

[Lazarae]

It's funny because I know what sinew looks like, but I still picture it in-game as being pinkish and meaty because of mental cross-contamination. Why? Because some things that use sinew in the game were often made from intestine historically (and sometimes still today. Look up 'catgut strings.' FTR: catgut is not made from actual cat guts). So some part of my brain has decided that Cantr sinew isn't exactly like real sinew and is slightly intestine-y.

[SekoETC]

Once I made a dream catcher with intestine thread, and it was like yellow dental floss. It was very nice to work with, stiff enough that it's easy to put knots on, and springy enough that you can stretch it tightly.

[Lazarae]

Yeah, once it's processed it looks like... string. I saw a lot of catgut visiting my best friend's house. Her mom's a music teacher and she's not-horrible at just about every common instrument and had a lot of them around the house. The violins and cellos were both gut instead of steel strings, as I recall. Some harp players also insist on playing catgut exclusively, though she didn't have one.