Rawhide backing and hide glue

[OTDEAN]

Hi Folks 

I am going to back my pyramid bow with dog chew rawhide. 

1)  Is it ok to use like 4 strips of rawhide per limb?  I do not have long strips of one piece rawhide available.

2)  I have experimented with hide glue and know how to make it etc.. once I have my glue on and the rawhide and it has dried for say a week, what should I use to seal the bow and the rawhide to protect it from the wet/moisure?  I want to protect the hide glue from the wet as I know it reacts to it.  I assume water based poly will do bad things to it?

Any suggestions guys?

Dean

[mikekeswick]

Eh up chuck
You can use any finish on it once it's dry. The glue is under the rawhide so won't be affected by a water based poly. Also the water evaporates so nay problemo.
Try using a spray car laquer, dries in 20 mins per coat and looks good once done.
The rawhide strips shouldn't just be butted up against each other but feathered into each other. Eg. soak them and dry them flattened out then file/sand them to feather edges and then overlap the feathered edges. You may find it a lot easier to ask nicely if anyone on here has any dear rawhide for sale/trade as the dog chew stuff is a little thick?

[OTDEAN]

Now then fella,

Think I will stick them on and sand them down and see how I go.  Did one tip as an experiment and just filed/sanded the thickness and it seemed ok and held. 

Will try to feather the ends in like you said!