I just did one on my bow. As mentioned, soaking in warm water will help give it some stretch. My bow handle has some shape to it and I couldn't get near enough conformance with just an ace bandage.
After the beaver tail soaked for 10 min I placed it over the handle (which was already wrapped with saran wrap) and used electrical tape working my way slowly up the handle. Pulled very tight, each pass only moving 1/8" up the handle or so. I was careful to make sure I didn't get any wrinkles.
I let this sit for about 3 hours. The tape won't give the tail enough air to dry out, but by forcing it into the shape I needed, it eventually took a set pretty close to the final shape.
After taking the tape off I then resoaked the beaver tail for a couple of min and placed it back on the bow. Now that the tail was formed close to the final shape I wrapped an ace bandage around it with a couple wraps electrical tape in strategic places to get into some of the tighter corners.
Once that dried, the leather fit perfectly. Trim the edges and then glued in place with barge cement. I would suggest waiting to cut the seam until after gluing. The first time I tried, I cut the seam first but couldn't get the leather glued on without the seam pulling apart.
Topic: Beaver Tail (Read 284 times)
