Let's skin some limbs.......

[snakewood3]

First ya' gotta' pick a victim.....or two.. now the hard part...make room on the work bench...

[snakewood3]

Clamp it down...don't want it crawling away while you're trying to work..

[snakewood3]

I'll be doing two bows and will show both to try to show all the steps...

[snakewood3]

Match the skins and rough trim....copperheads on this one, canebreaks on the other...

[snakewood3]

Do some more trimming...leave plenty of excess skin....

[snakewood3]

Clean the limbs with acetone or alcohol...They have been sanded prior to this..coat limb and skin with Barge cement and let dry. Arrange the sticks about 1" apart..

[snakewood3]

Carefully work the skins down..just rub them down with thumb tips for now....

[snakewood3]

Trim the edges with a new razor...

[snakewood3]

Rub the limb edges with finger tips to remove any excess glue...then roll the skins down with a rubber roller. The remaining scales are rubbed off with finger tips...be careful with the copperheads...very fragile. Let the bows sit for a day or so afterwards...You want the cement to have plenty of time to fully cure

[Golden Hawk]

Good job! What were the bows you used?

[mike g]

Nice Job on the skins....
   Butt I have a way easyer way of doing it....I send the bow to Dano....  

[snakewood3]

Thanks..The bows are a super shrew custom and a first generation Adcock ACS...Mike, Cal is sure looking forward to the quiver and if Dano is to busy to do any skins for ya' I'll fix you up...

[skinflint]

Very nice.Thank's for sharing.Gary

[SOS]

Do you put any coating over the skins?

[MikeC]

I can't figure out what the sticks do for you.  Please explain.

I've applied skins before, but I simply soaked them in water for a few minutes, patted them dry then applied glue to the limbs and put the skins on.

[snakewood3]

I'll bring this back up when I do the finish..might be a week or so..I'm using Barge Cement, which is a contact cement...the sticks allow the skin to be worked down slowly without the skin bonding further down the limb ..as you see this allows for a bubble and wrinkle free finish.  I feel that for a glass or carbon limb Barge cement is far better than the wood type glues.

[MikeC]

Originally posted by snakewood3:
I'll bring this back up when I do the finish..might be a week or so..I'm using Barge Cement, which is a contact cement...the sticks allow the skin to be worked down slowly without the skin bonding further down the limb ..as you see this allows for a bubble and wrinkle free finish.  I feel that for a glass or carbon limb Barge cement is far better than the wood type glues.

Thanks.  Yep with contact cement you can't move them around like Titebond or similiar glues.  Nice job.

[Dano]

Nice work Chuck, won't be long all your bows will have skins  

[snakewood3]

Dano...you're right...tommrow will be the 3rd day of being iced in on the farm. Might just do another set then.

[gordie]

hello snakewood,
what kind/make of bow is that on the rack
that is the 5th one up, from the bottom?