Fish leather

[LarryNowicki]

Hello everyone, I haven't been making much lately, but I plan to get back into it. One of my ideas is to make fish leather (from snakehead) for knife sheaths. Any thoughts or suggestions?

 

[Hel1um.dude]

Hello everyone, I haven't been making much lately, but I plan to get back into it. One of my ideas is to make fish leather (from snakehead) for knife sheaths. Any thoughts or suggestions?

That sounds really cool, snakehead leather can be pretty tough, so it should make for a durable sheath

 

[djane_finesse]

If you want to make it a bit sturdier, you can back it with some canvas or even a thin piece of leather. It'll give it extra strength.

 

[LarryNowicki]

Thanks. I'll give it a try.

 

[Joe Ford]

I have only seen pictures os snake heads, hopefully we never get them up in the PNW. But we do have big salmon.
At the Nez Perce National Park museum in Lapwai, ID, they have an archery bow that is backed with salmon skin. I assume it is raw skin, laminated to a wooden bow with hide glue in same fashion as snakeskin.
Chinook salmon skin is fairly tough and stretchy coming off the fish. Are big snake heads the same?

Tanning rattlesnake skins involves de-fleshing and soaking in a mix of glycerine and ethylene glycol antifreeze (there are surely other recipes too). But I doubt any of those will be sturdy enough to contain a knife blade alone. I think you'll want to apply fish or snake skin over a basic sheath of at least rawhide, or Latigo leather for a more refined look.