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Untanned skin could be soaked in water and then blotted on wet towel. I roll skin on a long strip of paper from head to tail. If the sinew backing on the bow to be skin covered has any grease on it you can sand it with 120 grit paper or brush on acetone and let it flash and dry for ten minutes or more before adding full strength hide glue to the sinew backing. I pre measure two skins to meet in the middle of the grip and start by tacking down the tail part. If you have the black stripes on the tail just next to the rattles, lay that down. Unroll the skin from tail to head after you've taken off the strip of paper. The paper is to absorb any grease from any fat or meat that may not have been properly removed. If the hide has been salted you need to soak the hide and rinse off any salt and blot almost dry or clean towel or paper towels. Work fast with hot hide glue. You have an open time of just over a minute. Liquid hide glue if not older than 6 months works fine. Once one skin is on, do the other one and overlap the head ends in the grip. You can simply take a sharp blade and slice through the top skin that is exposed to trim. Align the skins the way you want and then carefully wrap an ace elastic bandage from one end to the other. If your bow is long you may need more than one bandage. Be careful not to pull the hide off alignment when wrapping the bandage in a spiral over the length of the bow. Let dry and then unwind the bandage. The rattelsnake skin that is overlapping the back onto the sides or edge of the bow should not be cut with a razor blade by sanded flush with 80 or finer grit sandpaper backed on a block. This makes a neater job and you don't slice your bow or sinew backing with a razor blade or sharp X-acto blade. Any air bubbles should be pierced with a needle and pressed down. Shoot in some liquid hide glue and wrap with masking tape (the blue, easy release type is best). You should definitely coat the skin with many coats of spar varnish or polyurethane. Some folks will take a blunt edge stick and scrap away the many transparent scales that cover the hide before sealing the skin. Rattlesnake skins that have been degreased with anti-freeze have a slight tint to them that is not natural. If the hide has been oiled with glycerin, it should be washed off with denatured alcohol or Dawn de greasing liquid detergent. Hide glue can be made by boiling down sinew so it is more than compatible with a sinew backing when glueing a snake skin to it. I like to have the diamonds on a diamond back or the circles or rings on a prairie rattler cover the full width of the bow and this means shopping around to find two matching skins of the same taper and length and width. You can defnitely tell the difference between a properly done skin covering and a sloppy one. Some short bows work well with a single rattle snake. Good luck on your rattlesnake skin covering. The skin adds no draw weight or speed to the bow but decorates, makes a sort of camouflage and once sealed with a varnish or polyurethane finish, is water resistant.