Great White sharkskin

[schatzperson]

In this part of the meditterranean, Great White sharks are often unintentionally caught in fishing nets; As I understand it, tanned great white sharksin is highly sought after.
I have just been reading that sharkskinin is about 10 times stronger in tension than bovine; Is it possible to use this as backing?
The reason I am asking is that I have just had occassion to buy a several kilo chunk of great white with skin attached.
Sellers of great white meat are very loath to sell just the skin, since it diminishes the visual retail value, so this, along with the fact that whites are protected, make such leather very valuable.

Anyway, if anyone has ever heard of using this material as backing I would like to know about the details. Possibly, untanned rawhide will work better.
Definitely, tanned greatwhite skin will make very "grippable" and exotic handle leather.

Will post pics soon; Now I am off to clear space in my fridge for a 2 1/2 foot chunk of white death; I guess I will be eating shark for the next month, and possibly look for another mate if my girlfriend walks out on account of my unusuall eating habits and idea of leasure time !!!

[HelenT]

If Great Whites are protected, why are you even thinking about buying? (whether it was caught in a net or not - very dubious)

Would you buy ivory if it made a good nock?

[schatzperson]

The great whites that can be sold on the open market, like where I bought mine are tagged to prove that they were not poached.
Inspectors are on the spot early every morning at the fishery depot, from where, accidental kills, are distributed to wholesalers after tagging.
This creates a line of accountability, right to to the retailer.
A retailer selling poached protected species risks his licence and livelihood.

Besides whites, other largish sharks are commonly caught, ie blues and porbeagle, these are not protected and are sold openly.

No I would not use ivory for nocks.

[steve58]

Often wondered whether something grippier than leather would be a good idea for the handle on an ELB. (Once dropped a new bow the first time I shot it in the rain, because the grip became so slippy, highly embarassing!) Would there be a down side to a really grippy handle? Potentially torquing the bow maybe?

[schatzperson]

I finished the nasty skinning part and have the hide in my fridge.
It really is an impressive thing to look at, especially how the almost black upper part contrasts with the pure white belly.
I have tanned hides and skins before, but knowing that this piece is so rare , I am not going to rush into the tanning process: I would like to preserve the "whiteness", which after all chracterises the White Death.

Sharkskin is very grippable in a unique way, nothing like rubber and not quiet like sandpaper. I also have a nice full angel shark hide. This has very coarse denticles, plus almost pearl-like bits running along the spine.
I know that this sort is used very much on some sword handles especially Japanese.

I really cannot say if this sort of grip can be detrimental to the release dynamics, by potentially torquing the bow.

I have a lot of experience shooting pistols of various large calibers, where a "grip" change can be significantly noticable.
What I can say is, is that I can get used to both sticky rubber and smooth wood grips easily. I shoot with one hand only and all a differnt grip does to me is occassionally shift my point of impact slightly, but with predictable regularity; ( besides altering followup shot speed).
That said, I am not sure if an archer would be disadvantaged or not with this grip arrangement; I lack first hand experience in this regard.

I wonder if anyone else has considered this factor of torquing the bow.
If it changes the point of impact consistently then its not too bad.

PS.
I was wondering if I should post pictures of the hides; I really dont want to offend anybody with "inappropiate" stuff. Its only leather, but maybe I should put a warning in the title or something?

[Little Miss Purple]

if you can put a link to the pictures with a warning then that would be ideal... then there can be no unsuspecting people looking at them!!

[Bald Eagle]

But they'd still look 'cos they are warned not to!!! Show us your hides Shatz, forget the political correctness of our nanny state, it's only a piece of leather for f*%$s sake!!!

[NeilvZ]

Originally Posted by Bald Eagle

But they'd still look 'cos they are warned not to!!! Show us your hides Shatz, forget the political correctness of our nanny state, it's only a piece of leather for f*%$s sake!!!

Hear, hear!!

[Dave]

Political Correctness doesn't enter into it. Some people just don't like looking at sliced up animal. If it's the finished piece without chunks of flesh/blood/guts, then fine, but what's the problem of a clickable link if it contains something unpleasant?

[NeilvZ]

I tend to see anything where the tolerant needs to tiptoe around the intolerant as 'politically correct'. I do agree though that a link with a warning is only polite. Worrying about the people that will then click on it anyway just to complain is unnecessary in my opinion. At best we'll just ignore them. I for one would want to see the skin. On the meat and after. It sounds like it would make a great covering for a bow handle!
I can supply the webspace for the pictures if you need it schatz.