Aligator Hide

[George Neuberger]

Has anyone tried casting blanks of alligator hide? What's you experience?

 

[Kenny Durrant]

I tried to try. Ha Ha. It was very hard to wrap because as thin as it was it was still pretty thick to wrap around a pen tube. When I did get it around the tube the seam looked horrible so that's when I decided there were other things I'd rather try. I never got to the point of pouring resin and seeing what all the bubbles were going to do inside the leather. By the way it was leather. It came from a friend that owns a shoe repair business. The same stuff they use for shoes, belts and watch bands.

 

[JohnU]

Funny you should ask….
I tried some recently from some scraps I had. As Kenny said, it was thick. I sanded the back to fit the space needed, glued it up and the leather surface reacted to the resin. I'll try again but it looked much better before cast. I remember Robert Snowden aka "Snowman56" here, made some years ago (back in 2007). He made jrs with a cast gator jawbone for the lower and the top was left leather and not cast.to my recollection, he was the first to cast gator jawbone. Here's a pic of my failure and his success.

 

[its_virgil]

I've tried several times. The juice was not worth the squeeze. I encountered the same results as the others.
Don

 

[randyrls]

I zoomed a session of the IAP Chicago (Chicagoland) chapter a while back. John Underhill did a demo of how he creates "label under acrylic" pens blanks. He takes a photo or image and crops it to size, then glues the label to the tube. I'm not sure how realistic the blank would appear, but this would resolve the "too thick" problem.

Hope this helps.....

 

[its_virgil]

I zoomed a session of the IAP Chicago (Chicagoland) chapter a while back. John Underhill did a demo of how he creates "label under acrylic" pens blanks. He takes a photo or image and crops it to size, then glues the label to the tube. I'm not sure how realistic the blank would appear, but this would resolve the "too thick" problem.

Hope this helps.....

Randy,
I have two sierra snake skin blanks that are turned round and polished. One is real snake and the other is an image of the same skin printed on a mailing label, glued to the tube and cast as you mentioned. It is difficult to pick our the fake.
Don

 

[JohnU]

Like Don said, it's possible. I've had great luck with thin skins like copperhead and cottonmouth. Thicker skins with more pronounced scales and texture may be more noticeable as a copy but it's worth a try.

 

[crokett]

What would it look like if you cut strips of the hide and then used epoxy to layer them together? I know it would take a lot of strips.

 

[ed4copies]

As John mentioned, Robert Snowden did a lot with alligator bones and some work with skins.

I purchased this pen from him, over a decade ago--but it has been stored, not used.

Awfully pretty work!!!!

 

[magpens]

AWESOME !!!!

Thanks for showing, Ed !!!!

 

[George Neuberger]

Here's an update...
The hide was thinned as much as possible. Double sided carpet tale was then used to stretch & attach the hide. Thread was then wrapped around the hide overnight to insure a good glue bond. The thread was then removed. 4 coats of color preserver was then painted onto the skin. This displaces any potential air pockets in the hide. The tube was then painted with 3 coats of epoxy & rotated until dry. I'll try to post some pictures tomorrow.