The rattle snakes are coming out here & I need a new hat band. How do I prepare a snake hide?

Let the skin soak in Antifreeze for a couple of days then nail to a board and allow it to dry out.

Remove the skin and soak it for a day or two in a gallon of water with something like a half cup of hydrated lime until the skin swells somewhat due to the alkalinity and the scales start to slip easily from the skin. Take a spoon or something and remove all of the scales. Next, soak the skin in several gallons of plain water for a day. Change the water a few times just to be on the safe side. You want to bring the skin back to a neutral ph before tanning.

There are a million ways to tan the skin. maybe get something like Rittel's easy tan, or another liquid tan or tanning kit and follow the directions.

Once the skin is tanned, you'll probably want to glue it to another precut band of leather for backing that will be cut for a buckle or whatever way you want it to join together around the hat. You'll probably need to do some trimming, and you'll need a glue suitable for leather. Once that is done, you want to hit the snake skin with a coat of sealant. You could use something like water seal, or polyurethane if you feel like it. What you want is to bring the colors back out on the skin, as they are bound to fade from tanning.

Leif World--Once you have the snake skinned--remove as much of the flesg from the skin as possible. There will be some you don't get. Thoroughly mix cup or so of 20 Mule Team Borax(buy it at supermarket in detergent section)to a gallon of water. Soak the skin about three days and rinse real good in running water. The Borax will stick to the flesh that was left sorta like salt. Take a square edged board and place in a vise and work the flesh side over the square edges like a shoe shine rag. You will get most of the remaining flesh,but the Borax will keep that little thats left from stinking. Someone mentioned anti freeze and the reason anti freeze is used is because of the glycerin. Go to drug store and buy a small bottle of glycerin. You can apply a coat of it by hand even when still wet from the rinse. Stretch it on a board--tacking or stapling the edges and let it dry and you can apply a second coat of glycerin. The scales will still be on. They have tendencies to loosen. But it will just be an initial few and then they stay pretty good-especially on a hat band. If you have A Tandy leather store nearby or can order from one get some Neat Lac and apply a coat. You can get it in liquid and apply with rag or you can get it in spray---cheaper to get the liquid. This will not give it a cheap plastic look but it will help seal the scales. The skin on it's own is too thin to make the hatband. You want to mount it over backing leather. This backing leather brings out the color better if its dark colored. You use contact cement to attach skin to the backer. This is a little difficult keeping the pattern centered---if you don't it wont look right. I punch holes in the end and use lace leather to tie it together. I leave the ends of the lace sticking up and using fine fishing line you can tie a rattle on the loose ends.(The fishing line won't be noticed. Besides snake skins,you can cure the lower leg of a deer using the Borax and mounted to a board makes a nice rack.

Thanks Gents!
Sounds like a fun project, I will let you know how it turns out.

OK, I hope I don't step on toes here . . .

Borax is used as a preservant in the taxidermy field, but it does not "tan" the skin. It acts as a dessicant and removes the moisture from the skin and allows it to dry. When it does dry, however, it will dry hard and crackly.

Don't use antifreeze! Most of them have either a green or blue color which will be transferred to your skin.

The ant-freeze is not used for the glycerine but for the alcohol content.

While it is not a "tan" here is a formula that I used in my taxidermy shop for years with great success . . .

Mix glycerine and denatured alcohol in a container. The ratio is not critical as I have used as little as 3 parts alcohol to 1 part glycerine and as much as 1:1.

Glycerine can be bought at the drug store and denatured alcohol is at Lowe's or Home Depot. Don't use the alcohol in a closed in area as it is highly flammable and the fumes are very bad for you.

Once the snake is skinned, the flesh side must be scraped free of meat and membrane. Lay several sheets of newspaper on a workbench and put the hide on it with the flesh side up. Generously sprinkle either corn meal or borax on the skin to soak up the fluid. This has nothing to do with the tanning, it only keeps things from being slimy and helps to get the flesh off.

Use a butter knife, spoon, or similar tool to scrape the meat from the skin. Pay special attention to the area of the belly scales because there is a lot more meat there than you think.

Once the hide is fleshed (about 30 minutes or so for a 3ft snake), rinse it well under cool running water.

Lay the hide out on the bench and towel dry it. Don't worry if it's not perfect . . . just get the major part of the water off.

Put the skin in the alcohol/glycerine mixture and make sure it's completely covered and has enough room to allow the mixture to get to all areas of the skin (try to avoid having the skin fold over on itself).

Let the skin soak about 24 hours. When you take it out, it is going to feel very rubbery - just like a large rubber band. That's good . . . it means the alcohol is doing its job.

Use paper towels to blot off most of the solution.

Now the skin must be stretched and shaped. I used to use a cardboard box that fluorescent light bulbs came in. It's long and thin and works perfect.

Pin one end of the skin to the box using several pins, staples, etc. Keep the pins close to the edge of the skin because later trimming will cut off the pin holes. Pull on the other end of the skin to stretch it until it is straight. Pin the second end to the box, again using several pins.

Go to the middle of the skin and stretch it width wise, pinning in in place (again, place pins closed to the edge). Go halfway between the area just pinned and the end of the skin each way and again atretch it width wise and pin it. Keep dividing up the areas by half and pin while stretching the hide width wise.

Eventually, the entire hide will be pinned on the box with the pins approx 1/4" apart. As you stretch and pin, make sure you keep the center of the hide (over the backbone) straight.

Set the box aside in a cool, dry place and let it dry for about 2-3 days. Pull the pins and use scissors to trim the edges of the hide to cut off the pin holes.

If the hide still has a greasy feel, lay some paper towels on it and roll it up and let it set another day. The paper towel will absorb the excess glycerine.

At this point, sometimes the scales will stay on and sometimes they will start to flake off. I believe it depends on the condition of the hide when the snake was alive. If the scales are starting to come off, you can use an art gum eraser to rub them off. If they are staying on, don't worry about it.

Glue the hide to a piece of backing leather using rubber cement (it dries flexible) and finish up your hatband.

I have never had a problem with this system and I used it a lot during several years of owning a commercial taxidermy shop.

Good luck!

JDS

[ 09-20-2003, 07:56: Message edited by: jds ]

I just got back from the home depot & ready to start, sounds easy, I will let you know how it goes