I decided to experiment..... I cut a green hickory stave and put in a R/D mold to dry. I've thought about skinning it with a D-back snake skin that I've had for a while.  Can I put glass backing over the snake skin and what's the best way to go about it?
 Any help or advise is appreciated.

No, I don't think you can

One reason some of the plains indians used snakeskins on a bow was to protect their sinew backings from moisture.  I am not a glass guy, but I suspect the moisture barrier would compromise the bonding qualities to your wooden core.

I don't think it would work because the sheer factor would probably tear the skin apart, unless the epoxy completely saturated the skin. I used a snake print under glass that looked nice and make a good shooter. Got that Idea from Swissbow.

James

Thanks for the input. Since it seems skin under glass is out of the question... 1)what is the best method for applying the skin 2)what are concerns of not using a backing strip with a hickory core?

You can apply a snake skin over glass then apply about 5-7 coats of Tru Oil buffing with 0000 steel wool in between coats and it will look like glass when it's finished. I've done it and you actually have to buff down the shine if you like a satin finish. It's really the same as applying the skin to wood with the exception that you need to rough up the glass with a medium grit sandpaper first, I use 180 grit and Elmer's wood glue which dries clear and not yellow like the Tite Bond glues tend to do.

There are some very good "skin alongs" here on TG just do a search and you'll come up with some to look through. Eric Krewson does one of the best tutorials I've seen and that's what I used when I first started applying snake skins to bows.

If you have any questions you can shoot me a email or a pm and I'll try to help ya out. Email would work better cause I don't get by here as much as I used to due to my work hours.

Good luck!

If your stave is dry and is chased to a ring, you dont need a backing. Most people.just take the bark off and use the exposed wood as the bows back.  If you are using a board, then the grain makes all the difference. Hickory makes a good deflex reflex bow. Im making another one now.

leave out the superglue step, it is not necessary.

http://tradgang.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=045038;p=1

That's the one, excellent tutorial and this is the one that I used to cut my teeth on skinning a bow. Good Stuff!