Skinning a bow Question????

[kodiakkid]

Friend of mine found this fella dead on the road a couple weeks ago. He knew I made bows and we had talked about how folks put snake skins on em. He must have happened across this one shortly after he was killed. He noticed when checking him out that someone had cut his rattlers off but he wasn't all messed up down his back. Said there were no flies on him and he didn't stink so he decided to pick him up and see if I wanted him. (heck yea I want him) It's a nice Canebrake skin and I want to apply it to my latest selfbow. I asked a question earlier about skinning a bow and all responses mentioned the skin being wet. My question is does the skin have to be wet. The skin is plenty wide and the bow is pretty straight. The skin will not have to be strtched to fit. Thanks, Paul<><
 

[Eric Krewson]

You do need to soak the skin in warm water before you apply it to the back of a bow. If you don't you will have problems smoothing the skin and getting any air bubbles out from under the skin.

You will have about 30 minutes of working time with the skin wet and almost none with it dry. You need this extra time to center the pattern and work excess glue and air bubbles out from under the skin.

You can put the skin on dry with contact cement but you better get it perfectly positioned the first try because you won't have a second chance.