# Mounting a snake skin



## Tugboat1 (Jul 27, 2018)

I have a snake skin ready to be mounted on wood. I want to hang it at camp under a covered area but was looking for suggestions on the best method to keep it preserved in an exposed environment.


----------



## Willjo (Jul 27, 2018)

I put a snake skin on my bow with out preservative on it. Fleshed the skin, put it on my bow with hide glue, when it was dry took the scales off and then coated it with urethane.  Still looks good today as the day I did it.


----------



## Mexican Squealer (Jul 27, 2018)

Glycerin


----------



## Tugboat1 (Jul 27, 2018)

Willjo said:


> I put a snake skin on my bow with out preservative on it. Fleshed the skin, put it on my bow with hide glue, when it was dry took the scales off and then coated it with urethane.  Still looks good today as the day I did it.


Thanks.


----------



## Nicodemus (Jul 27, 2018)

Skin your snake, flesh it (won`t take much to do this), tack it down on a board meatside up, cover it with  20 Mule Team Borax, and put it out of reach of critters or weather. Next day, pat it down because the moisture it pulls will make the borax rise. in a coupe of days, brush all the borax off, and paint i with a 50-50 mix of denatured alcohol and glycerin. Put it back up for a couple of days till it dries. Paint it with the mix again and put it back up for another couple of days till it dries. When it dry, it will be a tanned skin, and ready to make a belt, hatband, or to display on a board. To do this, find an old weathered barn board and get some antiqued furniture tacks, use them to tack it to the board. Ever once in a while give the skin a wipe down with Armorall to keep it shiny.

I have a diamondback hatband I made 42 years ago that still looks brand new, using this method.


----------



## tad1 (Jul 28, 2018)

This fellow has some good instructions that I followed to preserve a beautiful copperhead that I turned into a hatband. Very similar to method that Nic uses.  
I did not use borax to preserve because I put fresh skin into freezer before I scraped it and then used the glycerin/etoh to tan it.  But borax is an excellent preservative and insect killer and works wonders on turkey fans and capes as well.


----------



## tad1 (Jul 28, 2018)

As far as putting it on the cabin porch, the biggest enemy will be sun exposure.  not many things will tolerate direct sunlight for long without degrading.  I would keep it shaded and you should be good to go.  Post up some pics when you are done!
                 JT


----------



## NCHillbilly (Jul 28, 2018)

The main thing is to seal the whole thing good with polyurethane or tru-oil or some such after you mount it. As Willjo said, for use on bows, you don't want them tanned, just clean. If it's treated with glycerin, it can be almost impossible to glue to wood. That is better for sewing to leather. They will last for many, many years on a bow with no treatment except the finish over them. This may apply if you're mounting it on a piece of wood.


----------



## Nicodemus (Jul 28, 2018)

Yea, if you are gonna use the skin to back a bow, just dry it with no chemicals of any kind. Especially if you plan to glue it to the bow with a natural glue like hoof and hide glue.


----------



## bradleyjanes06 (Jul 30, 2018)

One I'm working on currently.  Will dry it and hanging not looking to do make anything so no need to tan it like leather in my case.


----------



## bradleyjanes06 (Jul 30, 2018)

Will take it off the card board in a few days and work the skin make sure all the flesh came off during defleshing and then pin it back down with fresh borax.did this one 4 yrs ago same way turnes out great.


----------



## Anvil Head (Jul 31, 2018)

I've used the borax step above. Followed with soak in a container of prestone antifreeze for a few days to a week, pulled out and lightly washed in warm soapy water (no soaking) before drying out. It has worked more years and skins than I care to remember for me.


----------

