Casting Snakeskins

[Big Shed]

Went for a walk on the property (going stir crazy in front of the aircon:oo:)

Came across a brown snake skin, about a metre long, that the owner had crawled out off (he/she was probably hot too!).

Question, are these shed skins suitable for casting, and if so, how do I go about it?

[BoomerangInfo]

Went for a walk on the property (going stir crazy in front of the aircon:oo:)

Came across a brown snake skin, about a metre long, that the owner had crawled out off (he/she was probably hot too!).

Question, are these shed skins suitable for casting, and if so, how do I go about it?

I can't remember offhand if I've seen info on this, but just thinking about it, I'd suggest probably not. As it's not a "leather" but just flaky bits of dried up skin (I'm assuming it's standard shed snake skin) it would be too dry & flaky to try and affix to a tube. It'd also probably have air pockets underneath that you couldn't completely clear either. I assume the snakeskin the US guys do is like a tanned hide, that's supple and has a decent thickness to it like a piece of cloth.

But all that is supposition. If I WAS going to try it, I'd smear some epoxy all over a tube, then wrap the skin around it as well as I could. Then once it had dried, I'd cast it in clear resin, but first of all try and somehow coat the outside so air pockets weren't trapped against the texture of the skin.

My guess, anyway.

Russell.

[ciscokid]

Not sure if you could cast it, but I'll tell you what you can do with it. Take it to work and carefully coil it under your friend's desk in a dark corner. Wait for him to drop his pencil. I did this and my buddy screamed like a little girl and shook for thirty minutes. :pointlaugh:

[dj_pnevans]

The only true way to find out is give it a go, let us all know how you go.
David

[PenTurner]

Fred, I think it would be very flaky. Cisco you are a naughty boy!!:D Amos:)

[Claw Hama]

Cisco you evil b.gger, I like it!
Fred you know you have to track that thing down and skin it and tan it, but don't kill it, the greenies will get upset.

[dai sensei]

See here (http://www.woodworkforums.com.au/showthread.php?t=50348&highlight=snake+skin) for the one I did.

[Big Shed]

Thanks for that Neil:2tsup:

I knew I there would be a helpful suggestion sooner or later.

Strange I did a search and didn't find that thread, yet when I searched now it was the first one that came up.
Must have used slightly different search criteria.