Playing Around With Some Snake Skin

[Lobo]

OK, I make two or three dozen holsters every week and send them all over the country to fill orders. I also like quality handguns, and have a nice S&W 3" Model 629 Deluxe .44 magnum, and decided to outfit it with a bit of leather. I've been playing around with a couple of snake skins over the past several months and decided to see what could be done with my Enhanced Avenger design coupled with some western diamondback set in an inlay-style around the holster mouth and circumfrence. As long as I was piddling around with this concept I decided to add in a matching 2X2X2 cartridge carrier for the big .44 shells.

Lots of lessons learned on this one. In the future I will try to avoid squared-off corners in the inlay, as those are very difficult to finish properly.

Back to the grind, filling customer orders, waiting for the opportunity to go fishing. This might come in handy if I have to deal with any two-legged or four-legged critters in the high country.

Edited June 13, 2011 by Lobo

[katsass]

OK, I make two or three dozen holsters every week and send them all over the country to fill orders. I also like quality handguns, and have a nice S&W 3" Model 629 Deluxe .44 magnum, and decided to outfit it with a bit of leather. I've been playing around with a couple of snake skins over the past several months and decided to see what could be done with my Enhanced Avenger design coupled with some western diamondback set in an inlay-style around the holster mouth and circumfrence. As long as I was piddling around with this concept I decided to add in a matching 2X2X2 cartridge carrier for the big .44 shells.

Lots of lessons learned on this one. In the future I will try to avoid squared-off corners in the inlay, as those are very difficult to finish properly.

Back to the grind, filling customer orders, waiting for the opportunity to go fishing. This might come in handy if I have to deal with any two-legged or four-legged critters in the high country.

Well Lobo, I like it. You did good. I have a thing for well done inlay ....... and I like snakeskin, however here in CA. one must be very careful about just WHAT snakeskin is used in any commercial endeavor. Any form of, or relation to, a Western Diamondback rattler is verboten ....... even if from another state. The DFG can get REAL excited about such things. We can't use Python, even from FLA. and even though those folks are trying their damnedest to get rid of them as an invasive species. Sometimes I can't figure them out. You are correct, sharp corners are difficult to finish. Mike

[Lobo]

Well Lobo, I like it. You did good. I have a thing for well done inlay ....... and I like snakeskin, however here in CA. one must be very careful about just WHAT snakeskin is used in any commercial endeavor. Any form of, or relation to, a Western Diamondback rattler is verboten ....... even if from another state. The DFG can get REAL excited about such things. We can't use Python, even from FLA. and even though those folks are trying their damnedest to get rid of them as an invasive species. Sometimes I can't figure them out. You are correct, sharp corners are difficult to finish. Mike

Thanks, Mike. Here in Colorado we have mostly prairie rattlers, but they are quite thick in some areas. Even though they are a real problem at times (a friend of mine got nailed by one on his patio a couple of years ago, nearly lost his foot), our state legislature has seen fit to "protect" them, and there is now a hunting season with bag limits and a small game license is required. I don't know of any restrictions on use of the skins, but I'm sure that they will find another way to "Californicate" Colorado any day now. The nut cases in Boulder and Breckenridge are known for throwing paint on fur coats, vandalizing large SUV's, driving spikes in trees where logging is going on, occasional arson of building sites in the mountains, etc. We had to pass a law several years ago prohibiting animal rights protestors from interfering with legal hunters. At the same time, we have laws prohibiting hunters from overtly displaying their deer, elk, bighorn sheep, mountain lions, etc, while transporting them home after the hunt, so as not to traumatize those who never learned that meat doesn't always come wrapped in cellophane at the grocery store.

The skins that I have came from Arizona, tanned and ready for use. I suppose someone has a snake ranch, probably selling venom, maybe canning the meat, and selling the skins/heads/rattles, etc. Something else for the environmental nazis to lose sleep over, I suppose.

How long do you think it might be before the California legislature prohibits the use of leather for commercial purposes? I'm sure there are those pushing for just that. Maybe we need to start working on "kydexworkers.net"? But Kydex is a thermoplastic, probably containing petroleum products, so that can't last very long either.

[Wareagle50]

that is beautiful!!!