[Jaysonmol]

Hi,

I'm Very new to carving...I took a community ed class a couple of months ago, where we carved a dog, a ball/cage/chain, and a simple hillbilly(no face just a nose sticking out of his beard).

We bought a knife in class, and I bought a #10 gouge along the way, and I have a v-tool on order.

I bought some fish blanks from my instructor and went on my way. My reason for taking the class is I wanted to carve spearing decoys. I'm enjoy it very much but I seem to get stuck on the inside curve of the tail, my knife sort of "grabs" instead of curls the wood. What I've been doing is letting it grab, then using the gouge to kind of clean up the mess, except now I have thick gouge lines...

Anyway does anyone else have this problem? If so, can I do something different with the knife, or is there another tool I need?

Thanks much

Jayson (so new I don't know if I qualify for "rookie".)

PS I love this message board, I've learned tons. Also are there any other Dark house fishermen out there?

[Clifford_Parker]

Hi Jayson and welcome to the group.

Though I don't carve fish decoys..yet I have speared from a dark house and know what you are talking about. When your knife begins to cut into the grain on the inside of a curve you need to turn the carving around and come at it from the other direction. You should also read the 'Animals and Birds' posts and ask a few questions there. We have some excellent fishcarvers on the board and I'm sure they can answer your questions and provide some excellent tips.

[Irish]

Ji Jason,

Sounds like you already have your bench knife, chisel, and v-tool.
So what you need is a round gouge. Most carvers have a variety of sizes in their tool kits. Round gouges are created with two measurements. The first measures how wide a cut they make, it's taken from cutting edge to cutting edge. So a round gouge can be as small as 1/16", called a veining tool up to 2" or more which are used to clean out the center of bowls.
The second measurement is how deep the curve is. You can have a very deep curve called a "U" or a very shallow sweep to the curve.

The roundg ouge is great for those inner curves and if you later take up relief carving they make easy work on roughing out backgrounds, adding textures, and undercuts.

Round gouges also will be great for your decoy carvings since they can be used in profile. Once the body of the fish has been shaped you can stand the round gouge up on it's edge, then push straight into the wood. This creates a semi-circle impression that exact profile of the gouge. Instant and easy fish scales.

Susan Irish

[AlArchie]

Jason, you've gotten good advice so far. I am a fish carver, albeit, not a great one, and getting those curves in the tail is one of the more time consuming areas of the fish. I generally do what Susan suggested with the gouge, then clean it up with a small piece of 100 grit sandpaper wrapped around my finger. A #10 sweep gouge is a little steep for working on the tail. A #7 would serve you better, for finish work. Even then, getting the transition between the penducle and the penducle (tail) fin is tricky. The penducle is that fleshy part just ahead of the tail.

Another question I have about your use of the term "curve of the tail". Are you reffering to the curve of the whole body as it blends with the tail or the "S" wave in the penducle fin itself. My advice was for the "S" wave of the tail itself. The body curve toward the tail is handled just as any grain switch when carving. Find the point of the switch and then carve into that point from opposite ends, smoothing it out after your curve is pretty well complete.

There are several books out on Fish Decoy carving...one I use for reference is "Carving Traditional Fish Decoys" by anthony Hillman. It has good instructions and patterns for 17 different style decoys.

Are you planning on carving "working" decoys or decorative? If they are to be working decoys, I wouldn't worry too much about the tail curve.....in fact, many decoys are equipped with sheet metal fins, either epoxied or pinned into the body.

Even some of the decorative decoys use sheet metal fins and tails.

Welcome to the fish carvers world! It's a lot of fun and continually challenging.

Al

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

I have both the Flexcut Pelican and mini Pelican knives and they both do a good job of "turning" in a case like that..you have already been advised that sometimes you have to come from the other direction because of grain.

[Kenny_S]

I have several of those hated thin bladed Flexcut knives and curves are no problem. You can't horse them through but let the blade curve a bit as you cut.
ALA is right on with his advice also in using sandpaper wraped around your finger to clean up.

[Jaysonmol]

WOW! Thanks everyone for the super fast and helpful replies.

A quick response to Al's questions I'm doing more of a working decoy, and it was really the "body" I was refering too. (although some will be "displayed".) the decoy I'm doing is comming along nicely and will look like a hand carved wooden fish when done. (which is just what I wanted)

I've seen some this groups carvings in the gallery, and can't imange doing those fish that look like a real fish that has been taxidermied. (I think that's a word)

A quick question on sweeps, someone suggested a #7 gouge, What does a #2 or a #3 do? would it be possible to then go across the grain?

Jayson

[Clifford_Parker]

Originally Posted by Jaysonmol

A quick question on sweeps, someone suggested a #7 gouge, What does a #2 or a #3 do? would it be possible to then go across the grain?

Jayson,

The higher the number the "deeper" the curve of the gouge. A #11 is a U shape and as the numbers go down the gouge flattens out. A #2 or #3 would have very little curve.

Any gouge, properly sharpened, will cut cross grain.

[squbrigg]

Welcome Jayson, to the world's greatest pasttime...... carving. As you have seen, the folks that carve are very willing to share their experiences with newcomers, and encourage your efforts. Tools......that is a choice you have to make based on your needs or style of carving. Carving in the round uses different styles than relief, and so on. You can end up spending a lot of money on tools, so buy carefully. A #7 gouge has a pretty good curve to it, a #2 very little, but both have their uses. Check out Rick's site at www.Littleshavers.com he has some great information there on tools and sharpening, applicable to any type of carving.

Have fun carving and good luck to you.

Bob

[mdallensr]

Unless you're carving a small fish or a really sharp curve, a #5 1/2" (12 mm) will probably be your favorite gouge to clean up that transition. It should be really sharp, to avoid tearing the grain as you cross it.