Carp Skin Question

[Almostpighunter]

Well I found me an unlimited source for carp skins (Yay!) and I figured that I ought to get off my duff and start carving some fish. Did my first pair as an experiment and  came up with a couple questions:

I noticed that a lot of the incandescent color of the fish is on the scales and that there is a lot of luster lost by removing them (see attached pic, the fatty still has it's scales). Do you remove the scales and leave the pattern or can the scales remain for maximum effect?

I read Timo's carp skin-a-long a while back and I believe he applied the skins when they were still "green" . If I wanted to preserve them can I stretch and air-dry them like snake skins? Or do they need to stay in the freezer until I'm ready for them?

[TurtleCreek]

  When I prep skins, I remove the scales when the skin is still fresh.  Also for drying, I take the fresh skins after they have been descaled and put them on a piece of cardboard and smooth the skin out with my hand going from head to tail.  The fresh descaled skin will stick to the cardboard and there will be no need to tack it down.  After that, I put it in front of a fan until it is completely dry- you'll know when it's dry enough to pull off because there will be a shallow "reflex" to the piece of cardboard.  It will come off easily if you lift a corner and then pull it off lengthwise.  Sometimes a little of the cardboard "fuzz" will come off with it, but that can easily be removed with some sandpaper without doing any damage to the skin.  I will get a few pics posted of the dried skins that I have right now so you can see how they turn out using this process.

[Almostpighunter]

Thanks very much TC!

[catfish john]

I'de like to know if you can keep the scales on as well. I put some fish skin accents on my daughters bow a few years ago and I left the scales on and they stayed there O.K.  I varvished over them with minwax.  They were small skins though with small scales.

[TurtleCreek]

  Here's some pics of a dry, descaled carp skin.  Different angles so you can see what they look like from different views.  Like snake skin, you can control the richness or intensity of the pattern by the color of what's underneath it.  I have tinkered around with the skins on different colored surfaces- for instance, when I dry skins on the cardboard, they look totally different after I peel them off and set them on the cream colored counter top.  Whatever color/shade you see in the skin that you would like to highlight when it's on the bow, use a similar color dye or stain on the surface you're going to glue it to.- Ryan

[Prarie Bowyer]

Turtle,

I've got a new batch of bows coming up.  Let me know when you get some skins you can part with.

[catfish john]

Thanks for the info. TurtleCreek.
That's the same way I color thin abolone shell from the back to get different effects.

[Lee Slikkers]

Thanks for the info. TurtleCreek.
That's the same way I color thin abolone shell from the back to get different effects.

OK, gotta ask...what do you do with Abolone shells and do you has any pics?  I'm a sucker for shell work.  Thanks~

[catfish john]

I build guitars so I use a lot of shell for the binding and purfling. I have a black cutaway hollowbody electric ( les paul body style, only much deeper) that has a lot of abolone trim, including a tribal wolf. I'll try to get some decent pictures of it tommorrow and post them for you. I'm doing some custom work in mother of pearl right now.
I have a horse bow in the works now, and I thought I might try to incorporate some shellwork on the riser and siyahs.

[Prarie Bowyer]

I wouldn't mind to get my hand on a conch shel and smash it up.  The pearls Conchs make are the most expensive in the world.  Black Pearls got nutin on em.  Conch shell... same stuff . . ..  practicaly free to tourists.

[Lee Slikkers]

I build guitars so I use a lot of shell for the binding and purfling. I have a black cutaway hollowbody electric ( les paul body style, only much deeper) that has a lot of abolone trim, including a tribal wolf. I'll try to get some decent pictures of it tommorrow and post them for you. I'm doing some custom work in mother of pearl right now.
I have a horse bow in the works now, and I thought I might try to incorporate some shellwork on the riser and siyahs.

That sounds awesome, I'd love to see some pics...I am getting ready to make a Black Powder Horn and will be doing a bunch of scrimshaw on the horn (map of the Lake MI (Lac Wisconsin at the time)) and am going to try to inlet some abolone where the "water" in the map should be, it's way above my skill level but I always like to go big or go home 

[TurtleCreek]

Might even try tanning some

[randman]

Catfish, it's good to see another luthier (guitar builder or stringed instrument maker- for all you other guys) on here. I'm seein there's a few of us. There's just something about stringed instruments and bows that go together well. Maybe it's because it could be said that bows were the first stringed musical instruments.

[gstoneberg]

I came real close to taking the plunge into guitar making about a year ago.  I did not get the same feel for willingness to teach and share information from luthiers on the forums I lurked in that I see here with bowyers.  Then I took up knapping and have no more time.  The idea of playing a guitar I made myself is still intriguing, but I won't go whole hog like I was contemplating before.

George