fish skins

[sailordad]

the other night the wife and i had come home from the grocery store
only to find a paper bag sitting on our back steps
she looked at me, i looked at her.we both had that deer in the headlight look on our faces
i asked her and she asked me ifn i knew what it was,we both said "no"
well in this day and age i get a little leary about stuff like this
ya never know if its a bag of doggie poo or worse yet a bomb
well i gathered up some courage and opened the bag
to my suprise there were two large ziploc bags stoff full of fish skins(frozen of course) looks like northern pike
well this got me to rembering,i had mentioned to one of the neighbors sons,hes in his 30's and fishes all over even canada,that if he caught any large ones to keep the skins for me.
well i wish i was home when he dropped them off so i could have asked how long they were,now i will have to thaw them to find out

now i do have a question for all of you that are experienced in using these as backings
how fo i prepare them for use.
i know i need to remove all the flesh from them,but what abot the scales?
shouldi wash them in dishsoap?

i will post pics of the skins once i thaw them out after i know how to prep them
looks like i have many skins in them two bags too

nice thing is i have a bow that i was wanting to back with something,just didnt know what so i never finished it yet 

thanks for any input

                                                                               peace,
                                                                                     tim

[Pat B]

Tim, Timo did a build along using carp skins. Check that out to get ideas for preparing the skins. I would imagine it would be similar to snake skins. Degreasing with Dawn sure won't hurt anything.

[DanaM]

Tim I would thaw them, carefully scrape any flesh off them,and very carefully remove the scales, then staple to a board to dry, put en someplace with air movement,
once their dry cut em free and store in a ziplock. When you go to use them soak till pliable then glue em down.

The other alternative is to leave them frozen until ya need them and apply them green. Only problem I forsee with leaving
them frozen is frezzer burn, if ya have a seal ameal re-package em to remove the air.

[El Destructo]

I wouldn't worry about the scales on a Pike... but like Dana said...either scrape them...and dry em....or use a Vacuum Sealer....to preserve them.....good luck..they ought to look great.....