I did an snake skin inlay a few days ago (gorgeous python) over a graphite tube handle section. I affixed it with Flex Coat CP. The seam was virtually invisible. Yesterday I gave it a 2nd coat of CP. and as it dried, the center of the inlay separated, leaving a gap of between 1/64 and 1/32 of an inch. It looks awful.
Is it possible to remove the skin without damage? I thought of using warm water to soften the CP, but I have no idea how this would effect the skin.
Thoughts?

gary i had this happen to me and was fortunat enough to be able to apply some cp libberaly over the skin and slide it into place it takes some reel finger and thumb preasure but the skin is v ery flexable you should be able to streatch it the amount your talking of just try to due it even as not to distort the pattern on the skin i like u-40 cp for snake skin it seems to just hold better i due the 1st coat wait 2 hours coat again and reset the inlay if nessisarry and finish with epoxy in 12 to 24 houres i dont think you should have a probblem getting the inlay back together once you apply cp it should become pretty flexable again u may need to stay with it as it drys and make sure it doesnt shrink up again just keep pushing it as needed and apply small amounts of cp close to the seem as nessisarry good luck

Apply anopther coat of CP and try to realign it. The skin streches quite easily from side to side but not so much along its length.

I just tried a liberally applied, slightly thinned coat of CP. No movement whatsoever. Believe me when I tell you I used a LOT of thumb pressure.
My wife, who is even more anal retentive than I, says she can fix the problem. She is going to work with an Exacto knife on a piece of scrap skin and cut tiny pieces of skin and apply them in such a way (she says) that the seam and the patch will be invisible. If it works (and if anyone can do this, she can), I'll post pics.

Gary Henderson Wrote:
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> My wife, who is even more anal retentive than I,
> says she can fix the problem. She is going to
> work with an Exacto knife on a piece of scrap skin
> and cut tiny pieces of skin and apply them in such
> a way (she says) that the seam and the patch will
> be invisible. If it works (and if anyone can do
> this, she can), I'll post pics.


I've seen that done with abalone inlays and if done with care, they're pretty hard to see.

I've done a couple of rods with snakeskin inlays and I followed the directions that Mudhole supplied with the first one... and I wanted to pull my hair out!
Their direction said to apply a coat to the back of the skin, and too the blank... and apply the skin. It moved all over and when it dried I had gaps, just like yours.

I altered their directions and tried my own thing.
I applied a coat of CP to the blank and to the backside of the skin and let them both dry until tacky.
Once they were tacky I applied them to the blank and trimmed down the middle and the ends... and it never moved or separated.
By letting the CP dry a little, and putting it in place... it acted like superglue!

Tight wraps!

Thanks Brian. I'll try that on the next one. I have about 12' of cobra skin to play with.