Fish skins

[BowEd]

I just got through cleaning up and drying some flat head and blue cat skins.They're a bit thicker than most snake skins.Almost like rawhide thickness really.With some scraping sanding and use of denatured alcohol[they're oily a bit] I got em nice and dry.Looks like they will work.Anybody else have any experience with them?

[seabass]

i have seen a bow with flathead skin on it.KerryB has one called miss kitty.it looks really good.i have no idea how he went about it though and he is not on this site to often.i would look up Timo's carp skin prep in the how to section.it is very informative.i would say you do the flathead skin like he does the carp.if you can't find it in the how to,send me a pm and i'll write you the instructions.i have it wrote down somewhere from timo himself.he made me a grass carp skinned bow that is just awesome.

[Poggins]

I've got the spoonbill skins thawed out and I'm getting ready to stretch and scrape them ( they are going on that coffee tree bow that I'm working on , got the tiller looking good and heat treated now waiting for the moisture to come back up in it , I'll post an update later ) .

[BowEd]

Thanks seabass
Yea keep us posted about those spoonbill skins and your bow on your other thread Poggins.That'll be an awesome looking bow.I imagine those skins are thick.You could probably sand them as thin as you want carefully.I expect butchering a spoon bill is about like butchering a hog.

[Poggins]

They are thick down the back and belly as we'll as just behinde the head where the gills were and the tail , the lateral line is thicker also . I shaved the thicker places down while I was scrapping the meat off . The spoonbill skin is thicker and not as slimy as a flathead , the skin is not quite as thick as the rawhide dog bones .