Info on gluing rawhide

[furdressing1]

I have a few questions concerning gluing rawhide. I have tried backing a red oak bow I'm building with rawhide but have not had success. I have tried tb3 and gelatin, and in both cases the rawhide can easily be pulled off after drying (3-4 days). So,
1\ what is the best adhesive to use?
2\ I have prep-ed the bow using acetone and slightly roughing the surface, I soak the rawhide to make it plyable and apply the glue to both surfaces. I apply the rawhide and wrap the bow and rawhide with tensor bandages and then clamp a piece of wood to apply pressure forcing the rawhide and bow together.
3\ What consistency should the gelatin be if it is a good choice?
4\ How secure should the rawhide\bow joint be?
 Any other suggestions would be appreciated.
   Dale

[JW_Halverson]

Your cmalping might be squeezing too much glue out, it's called "starving the glue joint".  The tensor bandage is plenty enough.

Or there is some oil in the rawhide preventing the glue from binding to it.  Try washing it with warm water with a little Dawn dishsoap.  Then soak the rawhide in several changes of fresh water.  I doubt the dishsoap would prevent the glue from binding, but I could be wrong. 

Those are my two best guesses. 

Gelatin consistency should be about the same as warm maple syrup.  Thicker isn't so bad, but thinner means less glue and more water.  I have always had better luck with using TiteBond II/III.  For some reason it works better for me, but others have great luck with gelatin. 

Good luck

[PatM]

I think your gelatin glue is gelling and staying in two separate parts. I would warm the rawhide and remelt the glue. You can use a heat gun set on low to do this. Keep the rawhide dampened and just gently warm and press the rawhide down while misting it from a spray bottle. Once you get the two pieces blended together you can wrap them pretty tightly with cloth strips and give them one more pass with the heat gun.
 That should solve the problem.
 Dean Torges gives an excellent tutorial for a similar method using veneer tools. You can check it out on the LW on the self bow section.

[sadiejane]

have only rawhide backed two bows. one for myself you can find here. and another i did for a friend.
one thing i didnt read in yr post was if you "sized" the wood before gluing. ie: putting a thin layer of glue on wood first, letting it dry well, before adding the glue you are putting rawhide down with.
i used tbII on both, wrapped with ace bandages for a few hrs. both held very well. good luck!

[aaron]

yes, as they said, size the bow first
also squeeze as much water out of the wet rawhide as possible
also, wrapping it up too tightly may not let it dry- you may be sealing it up wet.
I don't know what tensor bandage is, but i use fabric gauze which lets air in.
i use TBII or TBIII-

[crooketarrow]

  I've used all TB's and just old elmers a couple time RAP WITH ACE when finished never had one fail.

[furdressing1]

Thanks guys, appreciate the help. I didn't size the bow first so I will try that using tb3 again. I think ace and tensor bandages are the same thing.
  Dale