I put snakeskins on my recurve, they look great.  After skins had dried, I put a couple coats of superglue on them to seal before the poly finish.  While waiting on the weather to cooperate for the poly finish, I decided to shoot the bow.  First shot of the bow and the finsh ,superglue, cracked with horizontal cracks all across the working portion of the limbs, 8-10 inches or so.  You cannot feel these cracks, they are just visable and don't help the looks either.  Is it a one time thing or will they get worse?  Did I use too much superglue?  I applied 2 coats and sanded well in between, down until the limbs were smooth and I begin to get into the color of the skins.  This is my first attempt, I got the superglue idea from the resource forum.  I have built many selfbows and backed bows with no trouble at all with my finish.  I guess I   :confused:   should have known that CA glue is like glass and has no strecth or tension properties.  What is the best thing to do?  Thanks.

Perhaps you can get rid of the superglue by wiping then down with acetone soaked papertoweling. Superglue has a lot of uses but I don't think snakeskin smoothing should be  amongst them. To hold down the scale cuticles wipe down with TiteBond III that is cut with water. TB III is waterproof and flexible. Works like a charm.

Never should have used the super glue.  I have posted my snake skin application instructions on here many times and they should still be in my web site.  www.paulbrunner.net

Put the skins on wet with Elmer's Carpenter's glue.  Then, when totally dry, use FLECTO VARATHANE for your finish...NO SUPERGLUE!  You'll probably have to start all over again.  

I have backed probably 400 bows this way and never had a problem.

Too Short

Thanks Tree man for the help.  Paul, I appreciate you taking time to reply.  I checked your website, I will be starting over, lesson learned.

I am no expert but I have heard of many people using superglue to fill in the scale pattern and make the skins smooth. And I have never heard of it being a problem.

i'm getting ready to skin some limbs and would like to hear more opinions too. soooo...ttt

On my last snakeskin job I brushed on a thin coat of superglue, lightly sanded the skins, and followed up with a couple coats of satin spar urathane. Looked pretty good.

I've used Barge cement followed by thin superglue followed by ThunderBird. I've done this on 6 bows with glass or carbon limbs....no problems. Sounds like either to thick..to much..or perhaps the glue used was old. CA has a shelf life depending on storage conditions.

Could be I used too much, thinking I did.  I don't beleive I will use it on my next attempt.  Seems like I should be able to get the same results with my normal poly finish anyway, just might have to use a few more coats.  Thanks for the help and opinions.

I used gel contact cement to glue mine down. Easy no mess. Lightly sanded bow cleaned up with acetone applied contact cement to both surfaces let it dry good then roll up the snake skin square it up and roll the skin on slowly then trim with razor simple to do.