Operation: Over-seas: December 2012

I've told you a lot about finding the snake, but I haven't told you a lot about making the band. Now, pictures can capture doing a lot better than words, can't they?

1. Skinning

To skin a snake you will need:

1 bottle of alcohol
scissors
abandoned construction site
sharp Swiss Army knife
plastic garbage bags
latex gloves

You don't have to cut off the head, but we did since it was pretty much trashed from the car tire. We started by slicing up the belly from the bung hole all the way to the throat. Be careful when you are doing this because the skin can tear as easily as wet paper. Ours was road kill so we had to be extra careful with the holes.

Pour out half of the bottle of alcohol and then put in the snake skin. It's like shrink wrap so be careful.

2 weeks later:

When you get home from the Amazon, take the skin out of the alcohol and lie it on a long, flat, board.

When you're finished with that, using the cut you made along the belly, take 1 pin on each side, and working
in about a centimeter intervals. flatten out the skin and gradually make you're way up the body.
Just pull it enough to keep the edges out. We pulled it too tight the first time so as it dried, it shrunk
and pulled itself out of the pins.

done!

2 weeks later:

Take the pins out--it should be dry now-- and start a bath of warm water and non-iodized salt (sal sin yodo) and soap if it's really yucky with meat and stuff. You're trying to keep it from rotting so clean it well--but be very careful because when we tried to clean ours, it was really fragile. then you soak it for about 2 hours.

Next you clean it in 1ounce Borax (borax) and a gallon of water. After that, you scrape it (or "scud" it)-with a butter knife to really clear all debris and grease off the skin. We had reduce the recipe because our directions were from the New Mexico Extension Service for tanning Deer and Bear hides. We also had to be much carefuller because a snake skin is more like wet toilet paper than a bear rug. After scudding, you rinse it in water and air dry it. Now, if need to, you can repair it. We had to do lots of repairs because ours was roadkill. Use dental floss because it's waxy and less chance of tearing the skin.

3 Tanning-Breaking Proteins.

While the skin is soaking, you can clean up and prepare the next step.

Here we have two solutions that you pour together. The first is 1 pound of Alum to 1 gal. of water and the second is 4 oz. Sodium Carbonate, 8 oz. Salt (non iodized), and 1/2 gal. of water. Obviously, we are not tanning a bear hide so we adjusted the amounts.

Next, slowly combine the two mixtures and stir vigorously. This will froth so don't be worried, just make sure you use a bigger container than you expect you will need. Put the skin into the mixture for about 2 days. This is to break down the proteins so that when the skin dries, it doesn't get hard and brittle and crack.

mix it

put the skin in the mixture 2 days or until flexible. What this is doing is breaking down the proteins that make it rigid.

4. Two days later.

Remove from the mixture, rinse well in clean water and let it dry. I dried it by tacking it on to the same board with pins. It's probably not necessary but the edges will curl a bit which will make it hard to work with afterwards.

5. Softening and Descaling

This is optional, but we decided to do it to slant the scales so later you can brush them off with (your Dad's) tooth brush.

the next mixture consists of half glycerin, half alcohol. (optional)
Notice we had to brush on the glycerin so that it would be softer so we could fit it into the jar with out bending it. Chances are, it wouldn't have broken, but I didn't want to take the risk.

I left it in the jar of 1/2 glycerin , 1/2 alcohol for about a week.

after doing this you might want to pin it up on the board again to dry it and brush it of with a toothbrush or fine-bristled brush.

Well you are stretching the skin, you may want to get the backing ready.

When you are putting on the contact
cement you need to be very careful
because you're mistake is final!!!

You may need 4 hands to do this and a pencil. even more hands are better.using the pencil, start at one end of the skin and . While another person holds the other end up, gently press down, careful not to get any air bubbles. Then, roll the pencil firmly along the skin from one end to the next.