I am doing a bunch of tests with a water snake skin from Texas. I have dyed a piece of osage various colors to see which one enhances the darkened colors of the applied skin which is a little bland but has potential.
The flesh side of the skin is really vibrant with a very impressive pattern.
Anybody ever glue on a skin with the flesh side out out? Of course the scales will have to be removed first.
Well,never mind. I glued on a strip of flesh side skin on a test piece and it curled away from the bow as it dried.
Bummer, Eric. Thanks for the lesson.
Killdeer
Eric: Rather than dye the back of the bow, I dye the snakeskin from the belly side with an alcohol based dye. I expect oil and water-based dyes would work as well. Works real nice to enrich the color.