Looks good, might have to give those skins a try. According to my wife, males are more dense!
Lol! My wife would certainly agree with that observation! I appreciate the kind words fellas! Now if only the load I need will happen, I will be able to hand deliver this stick.
Bjrogg- I've done a few bows with these and I like the look. The trick is to keep the edges from fraying when you cut em to fit. I do that by using undiluted tbIII to glue the whole strip down, making sure to get good glue coverage all over the back and a little down the sides. Stick the full width backing strip down making sure its straight with no air bubbles. Then I let the glue set for about an hour. I then trim all along the edge with an exacto knife leaving an 1/8" extra material around all the edges. Next I dilute some tbIII half and half with water and spread this all over the backing strip and let this soak in and dry for another hour and repeat. What this does is saturate the cloth with glue and keep fraying to a very minimum. It also fills in the weave so that its easier to achieve a glass like finish later. Once thats all done, I leave it to dry overnight and use a SHARP fine cut file, stroking from back to belly to cut the extra cloth off and establish the final edge of the backing. This will leave tool marks. When you sand those out, be sure to work the sandpaper in the same direction as you used the file. Once its all cleaned up, leave to dry for several days to get rid of all the moisture that soaked into the wood then apply 3-5 coats of finish let dry overnight and then buff with OOOO steel wool, clean up with tack cloth and repeat. This fills in the weave of the cloth and gives a nice finish. Josh
