Snakeskin preparation invovling urine?

[TRACY]

I've been reading the older issues and ran across an article in Vol 1, Issue 3 page 31 by Martin Kruse. Has anyone read this and is it a good method? Martin never really comes out and says what type of urine to submerge the fresh snake skin into, but explains that the skin must be covered by urine to remove fat from the skin. He states that the uric acid is the active ingredient that dissolve the fat. I'm guessing that any pee will do. Any thoughts or comments on this process and has anyone tried it? This is different than what I currently do and always open to new ways and techniques.

[Pat B]

Urine is an ancient method of curing skins. If you want the skins for bow backing, no curing is necessary. If you want a tanned skin, antifreeze works but doesn't actually tan the skin. There are other chemical tanning solutions you can buy for snake skins. So, I guess the application of the skin would matter. I think that urine would be my last choice...although fresh urine is sterile.
   Dawn dish soap is a heck of a good grease cutter and ain't as yucky as urine.       Pat

[Coo-wah-chobee]

        Like Pat said I use urine ta make rawhide. I drinks it too, oops sorry thats not me its Bear Grylls ! .........bob

[TRACY]

Pat, I use them scraped and dried for covering sinew backing. It just caught my attention as I was thumbing through the issue and thought it was different or strange or something. Yeah, sterile or not, I'm not real sure about urine cocktails even if I was dehydrated. That's the only time I've ever questioned Bear's sanity. Thanks for the comments.