I smell something fishy (snakeskin casters please read)

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Russianwolf

Russianwolf

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Martinsburg, WV, USA.
I've been asked if it's possible to cast fish skin/scales. I explained that yes, it's possible, but the only question is in curing the skin/scales before casting so that they won't deteriorate.

Has anyone ever done fish skin/scales? And if so, what do you need to do it? This particular guy is wanting a bluefish pen.
 
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Someone posted a beautiful pen done in fish skin (I think it was a gar) about a year ago.

I will see if I can find the link and post it here.

Couldn't find the link but it was the skin without the scales, but it seems like it was the tail fin too.
 
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I don't think that will work as fish scales tend to reflect different colors from different angles. You would lose that effect with a printed skin.

It has to be possible though. What do the taxidermy guys do to get all those mounted fish?
 
Darley (Serge), Don (its_virgil), Anthony (Penworks) and others have show fish skin pens. Glimmerz 'n Things also sells fish skin blanks.
 
And Curtis (of course) did the Gar. Found it.

I start shooting some emails off to see if they would be interested in making me some blanks.

Thanks guys.
 
Yep, here is the gar I did. It is actually not just the skin. It is the skin with the scales. All I did was skin the gar and then scrape off all the meat on the back side. I then pinned it to a board and liberally applied Borax and let it all dry. I use Borax for turkey tail mounts and many other things and it works great.

Gar1.jpg
 
MesquiteMan said:
Yep, here is the gar I did. It is actually not just the skin. It is the skin with the scales. All I did was skin the gar and then scrape off all the meat on the back side. I then pinned it to a board and liberally applied Borax and let it all dry. I use Borax for turkey tail mounts and many other things and it works great.

Gar1.jpg
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Curtis,

Borax as in the 20 mule train soap?
 
Blind_Squirrel said:
Curtis,

Borax as in the 20 mule train soap?
Click to expand...

YEP. I use it all the time for preserving things. I have a number of turkey tail fans that I did and some of them are many years old. They are all still perfect. Borax is not good for skins that you need to be nice and soft such as for belts and such but for a pen where it will be encased in resin it is perfect.
 
I used to have a recipe for a presevative for hides. i got it from a book on taxodermy and do not think it or something like it would be hard to find, Borax (the 20 mule team stuff) was the primary ingredient. it also had very small amounts of formaldahyde,. as in drips per gallon. it was all added to water so you had a bucket or tub of solution to soak even large hides in.
It did not tan hides into leather it just stopped them from decaying. in one case I even stopped hide that was already starting to decay. The skins coudl then be frozen to be worked with later as still wet hides or dried whichever you prefer. drying ment they where stiff as a board. this is what I did as I wanted to make patches of various furs for fly tying material. I did lots of birds and mammal skins. never any fish but it was still supposed to do those as well.
 
You have to be really careful with fish as many of them the colors are not in the skin but in the scales. I tried several times with blue gills unsuccessfully. I found it very difficult to skin the fish while keeping every scale perfectly intact, and if a couple scales came off, it was very noticable. The scales are too big too, so when I do get the skin right and very carefully tan it, the scales break while trying to wrap the tubes, as the arc is just too tight. That's for blue-gills, which have great colors...I haven't tried other fish.
Taxidermy is quite a bit easier...with certain fish like blue-gills, you still have to be very careful with the scales, but the bottom line is that you are not trying to bend them into a tight circle..and then trying to cut them in a straight line for a seam without scales breaking off doesn't happen, even with a brand new xacto knife. I'm still not saying that a blue-gill can't be skinned and cast, but from all the work I've tried, it seems like something not worth doing. I have no access to any other fish that have any character worth experimenting with. No doubt some work better than others.
 
I have worked on this a bit. I skinned a sail cat salt water catfish here in Florida. It doesn't really have scales or very small ones. The skin held it's color very nicely. Never got around to casting it still on the things to do list. Other fish I think would work would be the Sea Trout very small scales also fresh water trout such as the rainbow mite be a good candidate. None of those here though. I will get around to trying it one of these days.

Bruce
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bruce119 said:
I have worked on this a bit. I skinned a sail cat salt water catfish here in Florida. It doesn't really have scales or very small ones. The skin held it's color very nicely. Never got around to casting it still on the things to do list. Other fish I think would work would be the Sea Trout very small scales also fresh water trout such as the rainbow mite be a good candidate. None of those here though. I will get around to trying it one of these days.

Bruce
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Click to expand...

I did a Channel Cat skin that was real pretty but there just was not enough of it to look good on a pen. I ended up turning it off and doind something different with the tube.
 
I spoke with my buddy, and he's interested in giving this a try (he says that the color of a bluefish is mainly in the skin itself) and would like to know if someone is willing to give it a try if he sends them the fish (just need to know the what state the fish needs to be in).
 
Russianwolf said:
I spoke with my buddy, and he's interested in giving this a try (he says that the color of a bluefish is mainly in the skin itself) and would like to know if someone is willing to give it a try if he sends them the fish (just need to know the what state the fish needs to be in).
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Hmmmm I love blue fish baked w/mayo & bread crumbs.

Sorry couldn't resist :tongue:
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Ive been tossing this idea around for a bit. My dad is a taxidermist (for 40+ years) and Ive helped and seen most all of it from start to finish. I can tell you that if your trying to keep color in the scales it probably wont work. Borax will help the scales keep their dark markings. That is why taxidermists use it. In my area, large mouth bass and northern are mounted often and the borax helps keep the spots and lines, but they have to be painted to get the color. There isnt much in preserving the fish skin prior to mounting. They are often skinned, scraped and rinsed. Then applied to the carved foam body or filler being used. After pinned and stapled they let them dry which hardens them so the scales dont fall out. I would guess you would need small scales to wrap around a tube, but if they fall out, they can be glued back in. Ive seen scales kept on hand for taxidermists to glue into another fish to fill the hole. Transpartent paints are used to highlight the scales dark markings and bring color back into them. Maybe by tinting the resin, one could add color to the scales. Just a thouht.
I cant imagine casting a catfish with thin skin. You would almost have to wrap while fresh and let it dry on the tube. Its very thin, which is why they make fiberglass repro of these fish, and not mount the real thing.
 
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