Don,
To apply the skins, I get the fresh discarded skins from the fish man, and scrape them well to get rid of any flesh or sinew. Sometimes I throw them in the freezer and deal with them later.
Once they're scraped clean, I lay them out on a table to dry for a couple of days (not inside, though, or the wife'll complain about the smell). At this point, they can be stored in bag or box forever. Dogs love the scraps as chews, by the way.
When I'm ready to use them, I'll soak one or two in a pan of water for 10 minutes or more, to get them plyable, then pat dry. Then I lay one out on the bow, starting from the fades, and trim it to size with scissors. Apply a layer of TBIII to both the bow and the skin, attach the skin, and bind it tightly with parachute cord wrapped over the entire skin. I move to the other limb and do the same thing.
The next day, remove the cord, clean up the excess glue with a fine file, and repeat the process for the next piece. I overlap each piece over the previous piece with a V-shaped cut. Do this for a week, and it's done.
