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Emery Grant
6 years ago
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2 Traditional Archery Academy is brought to by Crows Head Archery. Crows Head Archery specializes in Traditional Bows and Arrows. Longbows, Recurves, Arrows, Quivers and Bow Building Supplies. Click here to visit Crows Head Archery The Traditional Archery Academy is dedicated to bringing you the best and Traditional Archery guides, courses and ebooks. Our resources are FREE! Click here to visit Traditional Archery Academy Traditional Archery Academy 2

3 WARNING: THE VENOM IN THE FANGS/MOUTH/GLANDS WILL STILL BE POTENT AFTER THE SNAKE HAS DIED FOR UP TO TWENTY YEARS! IT IS POSSIBLE FOR THE POISON TO ENVENOMATE YOU AFTER THE SNAKE HAS DIED, SO IF YOU ARE NOT ABSOLUTELY SURE HOW TO HANDLE POISONOUS REPTILES THEN PLEASE DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS COURSE. Traditional Archery Academy 3

Part One: Skinning First we need a serpentine volunteer, preferably one that has shuffled off this mortal coil via natural causes (as is the case of the Ball Python and Rosy Boa that I will be using

4 Part One: Skinning First we need a serpentine volunteer, preferably one that has shuffled off this mortal coil via natural causes (as is the case of the Ball Python and Rosy Boa that I will be using in the photos), or was the victim of vehicular tread compression syndrome (roadkill). Obviously there are areas of the country where the hunting of snakes is legal and encouraged due to overpopulation, but please remember that snakes do perform a valuable service to the environment and keep rodent populations in check, so I don't encourage the over harvesting of these animals any more than I condone the poaching of game animals. Traditional Archery Academy 4

Now that we have our volunteer, a good washing of the skin in warm water and dish soap will be an optional first step to remove any foreign matter or possible mites

In the case of venomous snakes remove the head and at least one inch of the neck below the head for safety.

that these glands, as well as the venom, have been removed.

5 Now that we have our volunteer, a good washing of the skin in warm water and dish soap will be an optional first step to remove any foreign matter or possible mites that may have attached themselves to the skin. Step one: Place the snake on the cutting board and remove the head as far up on the neck as possible. In the case of venomous snakes remove the head and at least one inch of the neck below the head for safety. The venom glands of the vipers are located inside the head (as they are modified salivary glands) and the removal of the extra one-inch of neck will help to ensure that these glands, as well as the venom, have been removed. WARNING: THE VENOM IN THE FANGS/MOUTH/GLANDS WILL STILL BE POTENT AFTER THE SNAKE HAS DIED FOR UP TO TWENTY YEARS! IT IS POSSIBLE FOR THE POISON TO ENVENOMATE YOU AFTER THE SNAKE HAS DIED, SO IF YOU ARE NOT ABSOLUTELY SURE HOW TO HANDLE POISONOUS REPTILES THEN PLEASE DO NOT ATTEMPT TO HANDLE THE CARCASSES IN ANY WAY. Traditional Archery Academy 5

Step two: Once the head is removed I make a vertical slit in the center of the belly scales and, while trying to stay as superficial as possible continue

TIP: try to stay as midline as possible while making your cut as the scale side is usually the least interesting, pattern wise, and will be the excess area

Optional Step: At this point you can remove the internal organs if you wish to get them out of the way, but it isn't really necessary unless you plan on

6 Step two: Once the head is removed I make a vertical slit in the center of the belly scales and, while trying to stay as superficial as possible continue the cut the entire length of the animal. TIP: try to stay as midline as possible while making your cut as the scale side is usually the least interesting, pattern wise, and will be the excess area that is to be pinned down and cut away later. Optional Step: At this point you can remove the internal organs if you wish to get them out of the way, but it isn't really necessary unless you plan on utilizing another part of the snake. WARNING: THE VENOM IN THE FANGS/ MOUTH/GLANDS WILL STILL BE POTENT AFTER THE SNAKE HAS DIED FOR UP TO TWENTY YEARS! IT IS POSSIBLE FOR THE POISON TO ENVENOMATE YOU AFTER THE SNAKE HAS DIED, SO IF YOU ARE NOT ABSOLUTELY SURE HOW TO HANDLE POISONOUS REPTILES THEN PLEASE DO NOT ATTEMPT TO HANDLE THE CARCASSES IN ANY WAY. Traditional Archery Academy 6

However, it is better to leave a little meat on the skin than to penetrate the skin with your knife. I like using a paring knife or a rounded Xacto razor blade for this process.

7 Step three: At the neck use a sharp knife or razor to separate the skin from the meat. Work slowly and carefully here taking care to make your cut so that it leaves as little meat on the skin as possible. However, it is better to leave a little meat on the skin than to penetrate the skin with your knife. I like using a paring knife or a rounded Xacto razor blade for this process. Step four: Work the skin away from the meat all the way around the neck and make sure you have separated enough to get a good pinch grip between your fingers for the next step. Step five: Slowly and carefully peel the skin away from the body. If you made some good separation in the beginning it should peel away easily, kind of like peeling a banana (although there is a little more effort involved). I like to use a paper towel to help with the gripping of the carcass and/or the skin. Be careful as it is easy to try to peel too quickly here and tear the skin if you should encounter an area of resistance, so go slow and feel for anything that interrupts the smoothness of the peel. Carefully use your knife and work the area until it releases. Traditional Archery Academy 7

If you are careful, the skin will come off in one beautiful piece with little to no flesh still attached to it. The skin will be soft and rubbery and is ready for the drying process.

8 If you are careful, the skin will come off in one beautiful piece with little to no flesh still attached to it. The skin will be soft and rubbery and is ready for the drying process. Part Two: Drying Step six: Now it's time to pin the skin to a platform. I like to use a long mailing tube, but any piece of cardboard or wood will work. Start with the skin, scale side down, and place the first pin (or nail) in the point nearest the edge of the belly scale by the neck. Take the opposite side of the neck and stretch it as far as it will comfortably go, don't force it of the pinned part will tear free, and pin that side down. Repeat this step every inch or so until the entire length of the snake skin is pinned to the platform. Once pinned you may notice a couple of things about the skin: 1. It is significantly longer and wider than you thought it was going to be. 2. The flesh side has a cloudy, semi-opaque appearance to it. This is not extra flesh or membrane that needs to be removed, so leave it alone. Traditional Archery Academy 8

..it really isn't necessary. I also never add any other tanning products to the skin as I want the skins to be airdried as opposed to tanned.

9 Step seven: Air drying means exactly that. assuming you took your time and worked the skin around the neck away without a lot of meat adhering to it you probably don't need to worry about fleshing the skin; regardless, I never add salt...it really isn't necessary. I also never add any other tanning products to the skin as I want the skins to be airdried as opposed to tanned. The process of tanning a skin is great for making wallets or other applications where the leather is going to be used in some kind of garment; however, we are going to be gluing it to a bow limb and, the less chance of the glue interacting badly with a tanning product, the better. The drying process can take a couple hours to a couple days depending on where you live. I live in the desert where there is very little humidity, so a smaller skin (like these pictured) take about an hour, but the larger the snake the longer the process will take. You can also use a regular fan (not a hair dryer) to speed the drying process if desired. You will know when the skin is ready by that cloudy, semi-opaque side that is facing up will become completely transparent. Give the skin a feel at that point, it should feel like dry paper, and at that point just take the pins or nails out and roll it up until you are ready to use it. You now have a perfectly air dried and preserved snake skin that you can either cut to size or leave whole as you wish. I store my surplus skins in a plastic zip bag until I am ready to put one on a bow's limbs. Traditional Archery Academy 9

Basically, it comprised of a short bow attached to the back of a longbow and strung tip-to-tip.

10 Now that we have successfully skinned our volunteer and air-dried the skin, the next step is to apply the skin to a bow. The bow I am going to use is a Penobscot Indian style bow, which has long been touted as primitive man s first maneuver into the realm of compound bows. Basically, it comprised of a short bow attached to the back of a longbow and strung tip-to-tip. As you will see in the following pictures, the bow isn t finished and I still have a lot of smooth sanding/finishing to do; however, the bow is in as close to perfect tiller that I can get. Remember snake-skins will not increase draw weight, performance or in any way protect the back of a bow the way rawhide, sinew or other backings can, so make sure you are happy with the way the bow is performing before you apply the skins. (The above statement also means that I don t have to worry about the skins taking the bow out of tiller, which is a good thing.) The skins I will be using in this case are going to be from a different snake than I used in the prep instructions and are from a large Coachwhip snake that a Texas friend acquired for me. I put the dried skins in a cup of warm water to get them pliable. The goal here is to have them nice and loose as opposed to rehydrated, so it only takes about five minutes of soak time. Traditional Archery Academy 10

My thinking is that I have white and brown so maybe a little green would be nice?

11 This skin is a basic white with flecks of brown scattered through it. I really like the coppery brown color the skin has, but I noticed that the space between the scales is very transparent. My thinking is that I have white and brown so maybe a little green would be nice? Maybe dragon-like when it s all done, which I think will be kind of unique, so I apply a very light coat of Fiebing s Leather dye Green to the back of the short bow (Pic #3). I like this brand of dye because it dries in minutes as opposed to wood stains that generally have oil bases and take forever to dry. Once the dye is dry, about 2 minutes, I take the skins out of the water, place them scale side down on a paper towel and pat them dry. Traditional Archery Academy 11

12 Now we are ready to start the glue up. First I apply a thin coat of Titebond Liquid Hide Glue to the back of the bow, the sides of the bow and to the skins. This process in woodworking is called sizing the wood. Basically it is used when gluing raw wood because the wood will absorb a certain amount of the glue and draw it into itself and away from the surface of the wood. This leaves bare spots that are basically glue-less and can cause the skin to lift off the bow. Traditional Archery Academy 12

13 Now we are ready to start the glue up. First I apply a thin coat of Titebond Liquid Hide Glue to the back of the bow, the sides of the bow and to the skins. This process in woodworking is called sizing the wood. Basically it is used when gluing raw wood because the wood will absorb a certain amount of the glue and draw it into itself and away from the surface of the wood. This leaves bare spots that are basically glue-less and can cause the skin to lift off the bow. Traditional Archery Academy 13

Once this layer of glue is ALMOST dry I apply a heavier layer of glue to the back and sides of the bow and apply the skins.

the skin s pattern by simply shifting the skin over the bow back as desired.

A helpful tip at this point is to roll your finger over the skin in one direction (from the riser to the tip) in order to help

14 Once this layer of glue is ALMOST dry I apply a heavier layer of glue to the back and sides of the bow and apply the skins. Once the skins are lying on top of the bow then you can make any adjustments to take out the wrinkles or adjust the orientation of the skin s pattern by simply shifting the skin over the bow back as desired. This skin has little pattern, so I just make sure the skin is lying flat and is wrinkle free. A helpful tip at this point is to roll your finger over the skin in one direction (from the riser to the tip) in order to help remove any excess glue or air bubbles from under the skin. I say roll your finger, because sliding your finger over the skin can cause wrinkles or otherwise disrupt the alignment of the pattern in the skin. Traditional Archery Academy 14

I like to give the glue 48 hours to dry before moving on to the next step, which is to cut the excess skin away.

This is why I glue the sides of the bow as well as the back (even if I am not going to leave the skin on the sides) because it

Once the excess is removed, I take a sanding block with #60 grit sandpaper and sand the skin on the sides of the bow off leaving

15 I like to give the glue 48 hours to dry before moving on to the next step, which is to cut the excess skin away. I take a utility knife/razor to the belly edge of the bow and remove the excess skin not attached to the wood. This is why I glue the sides of the bow as well as the back (even if I am not going to leave the skin on the sides) because it holds the skin in place very well for the cutting. Once the excess is removed, I take a sanding block with #60 grit sandpaper and sand the skin on the sides of the bow off leaving a nice straight, clean edge off the back of the bow. Only sand in one direction, which would be perpendicular to the bow and pushing away from the skin (pulling toward the skin can cause even the best glue up to lift). Traditional Archery Academy 15

16 Now the only thing left is to remove the scales. There are many ways to do this, but I find the best way to do it without potentially damaging the skin is to use a piece of soft scrap leather and rub the scales off. The scales on this skin came off pretty easy, but there are some skins that are stubborn in giving up the scales. In those cases I would use a piece of fine steel wool but, rather than just rubbing back and forth, I rub the skin lightly and only in the direction of the scales (head to tail). Optional step: If you have any issues with the edge of the skin coming up, then apply a small bead of crazy/super glue to the edge of the skin and (while wearing a rubber glove) smooth the bead of glue along the edge of the skin and wood to help it adhere. Traditional Archery Academy 16

17 Finished! We have successfully applied the snakeskin to the back of a bow. The only thing left to do now is finish the rest of the bow and seal the entire thing, skins and all, in Polyurethane, Tru-oil, Tung-oil or your favorite finish. Stay strong, shoot straight and for more information and many other archery related build- a-longs visit my YouTube channel: Traditional Archery Academy 17

18 Traditional Archery Academy 18

19 Traditional Archery Academy The Traditional Archery Academy was born out of a need for high quality resources for those interested in learning more about Traditional Bow building, arrow building, archery leather work and Instinctive shooting. Our goal is to provide courses and guides to help the traditional archery community learn and have fun. Crows Head Archery My wife Marlana and I started Crow s Head Archery in 2006 to offer unique bows and well known brands to the world, but my passion for Traditional Archery started years before. When I watched the Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring in 2002 I was completely obsessed over the bows and arrows that were used in the film. All I wanted to do was make and shoot one of those bows. But I needed to learn the basics of building a bow first. A so the adventure began... My Father Perry Miller and I took a simple board bow building class and this lit a fire in me to continue building and designing my own bows. The learning process took time, blood, sweat and tears. I worked out of my one car garage on a make shift work bench until I was able to design and build my first bow - the Heritage Longbow. This bow continues to be one of our best selling bows. During this time, Marlana and I had 3beautiful children, moved into a new house and built a life together. While I was working on building and designing bows, Crow s Head Archery was also selling some of the best brands we could find to go along with our own product mix. As our business grew I asked my Father to join me in building bows and he agreed to become part of the team. One problem...we never gave the bows a proper Brand Name and in 2015 that would all change. In the Fall of 2015 Marlana and I decided to give the bows a name that incorporated the names of our 3 children and GRAYVN TRADITIONAL BOWS was born. OUR TEAM Marlana Miller Owner Ned Miller Owner Perry Papa Miller Craftsman OUR ACCOMPLISHMENTS Crow s Head Archery has built original designs for use on TV, Film and Web Series. Projects for which we have built bows and arrows: AMC: Turn The Hunt for Gollum Born of Hope Rangers Web Series Once Upon a Time The Ren Series Thank you for being part of the Traditional Archery Academy Ned Miller crowshead@gmail.com Eventually we were able to build a full range of Traditional Bows and started building bows for dealers. Traditional Archery Academy 19

The Traditional Archery Academy is dedicated to bringing you the best and Traditional Archery guides, courses and ebooks. Our resources are FREE!

The Traditional Archery Academy is dedicated to bringing you the best and Traditional Archery guides, courses and ebooks. Our resources are FREE! Traditional Archery Academy is brought to by Crows Head Archery. Crows Head Archery specializes in Traditional Bows and Arrows. Longbows, Recurves, Arrows, Quivers and Bow Building Supplies. Click here