Rawhide didnt glue down properly.

[medicinewheel]

...Will rawhide take stain? I want to stain it brown

Yes; the bow in the middle picture has black wood stain on the rawhide. Worked really well.

[MWirwicki]

I use deer rawhide also.  Nice and thin.  I like to glue the flesh side because the hair side is easier to decorate or paint, if you will.  Crisper lines with less bleeding.  Also, its the way I learned.

I figure that the ace bandages breath, so that's why I leave them on a bit.  However, I have taken them off after an hour or so with good results.  I guess it mostly depends on when I rawhided the bow.  Likely, because it was midnight when I started the process and I got to get to bed.

[Gus]

Excellent Thread!

Thank You all for the info and insight as I'll be trying some Roo Rawhide here pretty soon.

-gus

[Stingray45]

If I'm doing a board bow I put the rawhide on like MW listed but then I clamp another flat board on to get it flat. I just put my first piece of rawhide on a log stave the other day and used a bike innertube, leaving no spaces and it worked Great! The only thing I don't do from MW's process is I don't size the rawhide with glue, I just put a nice even coat all over the bow and then I put the rawhide on and use a popsicle stick so smooth it all out and stretch the rawhide while it's damp. Then I wrap it solid with the bike innertube and let it dry over night. Currently my bow is drying the extra day or so before I start messing with it again.

~Barry

[Stingray45]

Hey Medicine wheel, I'd like to stain the rawhide I just added to a bow with some hickory gel stain I have and then I may actually put a snake skin over top, but we'll see how it looks after staining, if I like how it looks I'll save the snake skin for another bow. But my question is, did you sand the rawhide lightly before staining or will it take the stain well as is?

~Barry

[randman]

Has anyone used the Dean Torges method for Rawhide? No wraps required.
If so, what is your opinion.

http://www.stickbow.com/FEATURES/SELFBOWS/gluing_backing.CFM

[medicinewheel]

@sting: I sand the rawhide a lot sometimes to get it as thin as possible, but there is no need to do so for any staining or painting on it; it'll take the colors anyway.

@rand: can't open the link to Dean's side for some reason right now, but I have glued on rawhide with no wrapping except some masking tape just for positioning and it worked well.

Actually I have used rawhide with both hair and flesh sides down and it worked well; it's probably not such an important part in the whole process.
So far I liked goat parchment the best, want to give roo a try sometime soon. deer works well, of course, but I prefer the smaller hides.