JT, I plan on beginning something like that this week- along with the help of Keenan so everyone can see the process from start to finish. I have some northern pike skins that I am going to experiment on, and right from the get go, I can tell ya that the biggest difference in prep between pike and carp will be the descaling process- so I will let ya know how that goes. I would also guess that if someone were to try salmon, which would have a higher oil content in the skin, it would take a little more to prep those to get the oils out. One thing that I like to do when drying the skins, is that I use cardboard to dry them on- I don't tack them down on wood. The fresh skin will stick to the cardboard and there won't be any need to tack it down in any way. The bonus with the cardboard that I have found is that while the skin dries on it, the cardboard will help draw out oils in the skin. And as the skin dries on it, the skin will shrink slightly- pulling the cardboard into a "reflex" much like a sinew backing does on a bow. When you see this reflex in the cardboard, it's an indicator that the skins are dry enough to peel off. The carp skins are some pretty tough stuff and they will not tear when peeling them off, they come off fairly easily. Although sometimes a little of the cardboard "fuzz" will come off with the skin, it can easily be taken off with some fine grit sand paper without doing any damage to the skin. This is just a brief answer, the info for the article will be more precise and will include pics to show exactly what I do. I am looking forward to putting this together with Keenan, I think everyone that has had an interest with carp skin as a backing will enjoy it.
