Snake skin blanks-Do you make your own?

[railrider1920]

Hi Folks,
I was wondering something, do you cut the snake skin to size yourself, attach it to a tube and then cast it? The reason I'm asking is because I have what I think is an anaconda skin or more likely an african python. It was given to me probably 25 years ago and is still in great shape. Probably 12 to 15 feet long. It feels like leather on one side and the roughness of the scales on the other.

I'm thinking about cutting some of it up for blanks. is it easy to do? is there a tutorial on doing it around someplace? Is there anyone around that might do a couple for me in exchange for a few for themselves? I'm not positive that I will cut it up, but I'm thinking about it.

Thanks for your time,
Rob

 

[rherrell]

Rob, keep in mind that with a snake that large any kind of a "pattern" might get lost in a small pen blank.
Don ward has a tutorial in the library in the 2006 articles.

 

[ed4copies]

Experiment a little, python does not cast like rattler.

We have not yet gotten the results we seek.

 

[its_virgil]

neither does cobra or other snakes. Rattlers Rock!! The commercially tanned skins (snake, lizard, gater, and others) I've tried like to turn dark and leech chemicals into the resin that makes the resin and skin turn black or dark. I shall continue the quest to cas other skins when I can find them. Come on little coral snake...come to daddy.
Do a good turn daily!
Don

Experiment a little, python does not cast like rattler.

We have not yet gotten the results we seek.

 

[PR_Princess]

The corals that I have found are pretty skinny little guys. Not much there to wrap around a tube.:frown:

 

[its_virgil]

But if you find one that works....it makes quite a sticking pen...really nice!
Do a good turn daily!
Don

The corals that I have found are pretty skinny little guys. Not much there to wrap around a tube.:frown:

 

[OKLAHOMAN]

I agree that rattler seems to be the easiest because of the thickness or should I say thiness of the skins and the method of tanning of the skins that I've received from my supplier. I have cast some python and the skins being thicker, I've not been pleased with the seam. I've also in the last few months cast some water snake skins I recived from Jeff Powell and they all came out great and they were very much like rattler in flexability and thickness. I'm going to experiment with 8-10 other snake skins that I received this week and let you know. These all have small patterns so should make nice pens if they turn out and most the thickness will be no problem.

 

[Gary Max]

Did I forget to mention I have three Copperheads ---skinned and drying.
Yup as soon as the show is over I am going to give them a spin (pun intended)

 

[railrider1920]

Thank you for all your thoughts. I'm going to give a few pieces to Rdunn for him to play around with. He said that he'd like to try it.

Did I forget to mention I have three Copperheads ---skinned and drying.
Yup as soon as the show is over I am going to give them a spin (pun intended)

Gary, what did you use to "tan" the hide? Did you pin the skin to a board? I tried a rattler skin once. I pinned it to a board, scraped it good and put antifreeze on it. It worked, but it wound up nothing like leather. If you were to grab it and ball it up, it would crease and it would "krinkle" when you do it.

 

[Darley]

I cast some Rattle snake that I bourgh from Don Ward and I cast some of my Australian sea snake the skin is 3 time thicker than rattle snake and will have all way a seam, but do good pens, dimention are crucial when cuting the skin

 

[Skye]

I cast some Rattle snake that I bourgh from Don Ward and I cast some of my Australian sea snake the skin is 3 time thicker than rattle snake and will have all way a seam, but do good pens, dimention are crucial when cuting the skin

Have you thought about making the seam more apparent? I mean, if it's going to be obvious anyhow, why not make it look intentional? Maybe a real thin strip of green dyed wood right at the seam?

 

[Daniel]

I have a question. what is the optimum size of a snake to get the best skin size. approx of course. I am thinking along the line of a 12 inch rattle snake skins would be pretty close. I see tons of 60" snake skins out there which I am sure would be in high demand for guitar straps and hand bags. I wonder what happens to all the small skins?

 

[wolftat]

If you can find the coral snake skins, they do make a pretty pen, but they are small. The 12" rattlers would be a bit small, you might want to try them around 3 feet long. Some rattlers make better pens too.

 

[wood-of-1kind]

I "cheat" a bit in the sense that I cast my snakeskin blanks by using snakeskin paper sheets (6"x6"). The snake sheets are faux but nicely patterned so that they can pass as the real thing under a clear casting. I use doubled sided tape to adhere the paper snake directly to the brass tube.

 

[Russianwolf]

I "cheat" a bit in the sense that I cast my snakeskin blanks by using snakeskin paper sheets (6"x6"). The snake sheets are faux but nicely patterned so that they can pass as the real thing under a clear casting. I use doubled sided tape to adhere the paper snake directly to the brass tube.

I was just thinking along that line for the Coral Snake myself Peter. With a good copier you can blow the image up or shrink it as needed. Might make some of the harder to use skin (due to the pattern being too large) more managable. And call them what they are, Faux Snakeskin.

 

[wolftat]

Go with the real Coral snake, challenge yourself.

 

[Russianwolf]

Neil, the biggest challenge is finding the skins.

I do recall someone casting hi-res images of skins so that they wouldn't mess up the real thing while they got the casting process down.

 

[bobkeyes]

Dear Mike, Neil, and others,

Here's the problem. The state of Texas and some others have designated the coral snake an protected species. That means that trade in these skins is illegal. Their range is Southern Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Southern Georgia, and Florida.

To date I have had 6 skins. After the first one hit the web the others were sold when I got the skins. I have a standing order for any available and will pay GOOD money for them if they are pen making size. The largest I have had was 3.7 inches by 41 inches and it was perfect. Every bit was usable. I paid $250 for it.

Right now I have over 30 people on a waiting list for that pen and get about 1 inquiry a week.

Someone asked a while back if the ivory pens on my site were real ivory. Yes they are. The elephant ivory is legal and the pens are accompanied by a government tusk number and the date the tusk entered the country. The mammoth is not regulated and legal everywhere I know of. As far as I know you can only buy walrus if it is in the form of an craft made by the eskimos. I might be wrong on that. The only walrus I ever used was oosik.

Hope this will help in your search for the coral. By the way I am always looking for nice snake skins. I would like to have a green garden snake to see if it will keep its color after drying.

 

[rlofton]

From those of us who have an overwhelming fear of snakes (any and all kinds of snakes from those little green things you might see in the yard to the copperhead on the shelf of my shed that I came face to face with) . . . . yuuuuuuuuuuuk!!!! A paper snake skin (faux, that is) sounds good to me.

Rudy

 

[workinforwood]

I think 24-30" is the best size snake for optimum pattern and color. I noticed the older snakes have duller colors. I assume Bob, you say green garden snake, that's different than a Garter or a Striper? I had a striper a few weeks back, but I could not see it looking good in a pen. It was a perfect size, but quite boring looking. I'll have to hunt down some more water snakes, as they skin easy and make a refined and rich looking pen. I already sold a couple of those one's Roy cast for me. It hasn't been a good summer for finding any good snakes that are legal up here in Michigan. Snakes like heat, and we just haven't had much.

Far as tanning...I use a pre-mix reptile solution that only requires a couple hours of soak time. Then I stretch it and pin it to cardboard, inside facing out. I use oil, which comes with the kit, that is spread on the inside of the skin to keep it soft and flexible. I do not wash the oil off the skins with anything and have had no problems gluing them to tubes and didn't see any problems from the casting part when they came back either. Adhesion was good.

 

[Russianwolf]

I think 24-30" is the best size snake for optimum pattern and color. I noticed the older snakes have duller colors. I assume Bob, you say green garden snake, that's different than a Garter or a Striper? I had a striper a few weeks back, but I could not see it looking good in a pen. It was a perfect size, but quite boring looking. I'll have to hunt down some more water snakes, as they skin easy and make a refined and rich looking pen. I already sold a couple of those one's Roy cast for me. It hasn't been a good summer for finding any good snakes that are legal up here in Michigan. Snakes like heat, and we just haven't had much.

Far as tanning...I use a pre-mix reptile solution that only requires a couple hours of soak time. Then I stretch it and pin it to cardboard, inside facing out. I use oil, which comes with the kit, that is spread on the inside of the skin to keep it soft and flexible. I do not wash the oil off the skins with anything and have had no problems gluing them to tubes and didn't see any problems from the casting part when they came back either. Adhesion was good.

I think Bob is refering to a critter like this guy

http://herpcenter.ipfw.edu/index.ht...eptiles/snakes/Smooth_green_snake/index.htm&2

 

[workinforwood]

Interesting, thanks Mike. Apparently the smooth and the rough green snake live in Michigan, but I have never seen one. There's quite a few snake varieties that I've never encountered that live here. Maybe those come out at night.

 

[Russianwolf]

Jeff, you'd likely be surprised how close you are to a snake right now. they are all over the place, but you rarely see them as they are under cover of some kind. The green snakes and garden snakes hide out in thick vegetation and are pretty well camouflaged.

My brother and I (and our friends) used to go out catching snakes with our bare hands for fun. On a good day, we would fill an aquarium with about 50 from just our yard. The weirdest that I ever came across was the Worm Snake. I recall finding a 5 foot long Black Racer curled up under a piece of plywood one day too. Of course, I didn't find out that about a quarter of the snakes we were catching were Copperheads until later in life. Luckily we were never bitten, but we did terrorize my mother.

Just last weekend, when I was mowing the lawn, I apparently spooked a Garter and nearly ran over him. My wife called me over and I lost track of him or else he would likely be a resident in my shop now.

 

[bobkeyes]

I'm not sure what you call it. I guess it is a "garden" snake, but it's green as grass. Much like the pic shown. Sure would make a nice pen I think!!

You're right about the snakes. I pay $25 for a frozen copperhead locally. Haven't had but 2 all summer. Not sure what's up.

 

[workinforwood]

I am not finding anything either Bob. I search the grass and risk the poison ivy, but haven't seen a single snake in a month except for one baby water snake in the pond next door. Normally they are very easy to find, especially lazing around on the rocks. I had some frozen ones from a few of my pet store customers. I find a huge difference between the frozen and the fresh. Skin is the same, but skinning a thawed snake is much more difficult. A fresh one peals right off like nothing, but the thawed ones it's like the meat cooked in the freezer and is stuck hard to the skin, tough to scrape off the skin too. Usually the pet store snakes that die are ball pythons, and the skin is thick and difficult to do much more with than make a belt.

 

[bobkeyes]

I would guess you are right. However, I don't do the skinning or tanning. I have a local taxidermist who does it all for $5 each except the coral. He charges $25. He first cuts off the head and burns it in the stove. After that it's pretty much the same as a rattler or copperhead. I'm glad I found him.

If anyone has snakes they would like to sell let me know. I would like to have more variety than I have. The ones off ebay are generally not too good.

 

[TellicoTurning]

From those of us who have an overwhelming fear of snakes (any and all kinds of snakes from those little green things you might see in the yard to the copperhead on the shelf of my shed that I came face to face with) . . . . yuuuuuuuuuuuk!!!! A paper snake skin (faux, that is) sounds good to me.

Rudy

Rudy,
I'm with you here.. In my whole life, I've had only one re-curring nightmare and it's about a snake that I saw as a 5 year old... it was a common chicken snake that was in a nest box in our barn... the nest box was above my dad's head (we had Game chickens because they were about the only ones that could out run the chicken hawks and since they are near wild, liked to nest high). When dad reached for the eggs in the box, the snake came down his arm and into the log wall of the barn. Dad stabbed it in the tail with a pitch fork and had my mother hold the end of the fork so he could reach the snake to kill it by cracking it like a whip. That snake chased me to the house in my dreams for several years and I don't care to even see snakes to this date.

If I ever do a snake skin pen, it will probably be a paper snake skin (faux skin).

 

[Skye]

Chuck, you and the wife never ran across any snakes while pulling logs out of the woods?

 

[Daniel]

I have had a couple of thoughts, but have not actually tried this. one way to try and get a tight seem for thick skins. let the ends overlap just like you would a rattlesnake skin but then cut through both layers of skin with a razor (exacto knife). This way even if the cut is not perfectly straight it is perfectly matching. I learned this by cutting seams for linoleum floors.

One thing to keep in mind is that a snakes skin is at it's best color when it has been freshly shed.

I was doing a bit of searching of rattlesnake round ups. and the one in sweetwater Texas sells skins fresh off the snake at $5.00 a foot. Thought I woudl just throw that out to anyone that thinks a trip woudl be worth it. I have tried e-mailing them but gotten no answer back. I am guessing they have no problem selling all the skins they can get.

 

[Skye]

I think the cutting idea may not work, when the resin cures it shrinks, it's possible it may pull the seam apart.

I think the best thing to do is to just cut the skins at an angle. Skin side up, straight edge on the left, cut on the right. Lean the razor over the straight edge so that when the cut is made, the outer edge is the thinnest part of the cut. When you wrap it, that thinness will help hide the seam.

 

[splinterinfinger]

There's Not many rattle snakes in the UK! I would like to cast my own skins, I have the equipment and materials to cast some but no skins, so I searched the globe from my chair in the UK and found a site just on snake skins, and they do ship internationally. But my big concern is how do I stand with customs over here in the UK. I will not be placing massive orders but they will be on a regular basis. This is the site I found to get the skins from www.genuineostrichhides.com I don't know where they are based, I take it there are in the US somewhere.

Hope someone can give me some info on importing skins into the UK and how I would stand legally.

Kind regards Mervyn