Rawhide backed hickory: What now?

[WhistlingBadger]

Morning!  I got the rawhide glued on Friday with hide (knox) glue.  Seems to have stuck very well, but my hide strips got a bit narrow when I stretched and scraped them, and there are a few spots where the hide pulled back from the edge.  See photos.  So, what now?  Should I try to rehydrate these spots and stretch them back to the edge, or would it be OK to just sand them smooth and call it good?

Also, how long should I wait before I resume tillering?  I'm in Wyoming, so things dry out pretty fast.  Thanks!

T

20210613_072307[1] by Whistling Badger, on Flickr

20210613_072240[1] by Whistling Badger, on Flickr

20210613_072229[1] by Whistling Badger, on Flickr

[Pat B]

If you have a good, clean back on your hickory stave you should be OK with the way it turned out.  You could trap the bow, reducing the back's width and eliminating most of the narrow rawhide.

[WhistlingBadger]

If you have a good, clean back on your hickory stave you should be OK with the way it turned out.  You could trap the bow, reducing the back's width and eliminating most of the narrow rawhide.

OK.  The back is reasonably clean.  I unintentionally shaved off the little ridges on the back when I was debarking it, so there are possibly some small violations.  Tell me more about "trapping" the bow.

[Pat B]

Reduce the back of the bow so the cross section is like this  /   \, trapezoidal, back narrower than the belly. Hickory is very strong in tension so this will help even the back and belly stresses some.