how to tan a snake skin without buying a tanning kit

i want to know how to tan a snake skin to make a belt. moccasins regularly visit my front yard and i am forced to kill them before they kill me. i wanted to do something useful with the skin instead of throwing the whole snake in the bushes. thank-you

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snake skins

You could easily remove them with a stick rather than kill them, but if you must kill them, after you skin and flesh them, you can tack them down to a board and paint on a mixture of 50% methanol, and 50% glycerin to the meat side about once a day for four days, and they will be cured to do with what you want. Hoever, this is not tanning, and will be no good for making things with except a wall hanger. For the cost of the glycerin and methanol, you could easily buy the Rittel Snake tan kit, and do it right1

thank-you

thanks for the help, I will look into the tanning kits

Where do we get a tanning kit in the Dallas, Sherman TX area

We killed a 28" copperhead next to our garage Sunday. It was hiding under our riding lawnmower, I think waiting for one of the 6 week old kittens to get close. My husband skinned it and laid the hide out on a board-meat side out. He wanted to know what to put on it so he could make a hat band. Are we too late to do anything with it? If not, where in the North Dallas area can I purchase a kit? I work in Carrollton TX and we live 5 miles south of the Oklahoma boarder.
Thanks
Margy

Snake Skin Tanning

I may be to late to save this skin, but for future Snake/Deer skins you can get do-it-your self tanning kits. There are suppliers in Texas and Oklahoma. Go to http://rittlesupplies.net and click on the link for thier distributors, search through the list until you find one close to you.

Hope this helps

Freezing snakeskin?

I read somewhere you are not supposed to freeze reptile skin. Is this true and why?
I got a diamondback to skin from my in-laws that was in the freezer for about 2 weeks. Can I still do anything with it?

Brittle skin

I have a already treated snake skin that got soaked in water. It is now dry and brittle. What to do?

Question

I recently hit a snake with my car. Long story short, I skinned it, tacked it to a board, salted it, and have now put Borax on it. What do I do now to finish the tanning process, and to make it safe to give to my kid?

soaking

A method I have used and had some success with, is first fleshing as much as possible. Fleshing is taking meat off of the under side of the skin. Then I soaked the skin in 75% denatured alchohol for a couple of days. Then brought out to dry and streatched repeadidly during the drying process. Clean it off andw your done.
Hope this helps some of you.