High relief fish complete (3rd carving)

[Dundee]

I finally finished the high relief fish from Chris Pye's book. I had trouble getting clean cuts in the basswood. I tried to sharpen my tools and it seemed to help for a bit. But I ended up sanding it. I'm going to try Mark Gargac's woodspirit tutorial next.

Chris

[Thor]

Dundee, sanding it worked out just fine apparently. That's a really nice looking fish carving! Your scales turned out really well. No fuzzies there.
The fins are impressive too.
Thor

[chpster90bu]

NICE fish, Dundee! I sure don't see any signs of trouble. You did a great job on that! Bonnie

[Joy]

The fish looks great! I think the clean cuts come with more practice. Also when I first started what I thought were sharp tools.....weren't. Since I am getting better at honing and sharpening... my cuts are much cleaner. Also that little slicing cut that Chris talks about produces a cleaner cut.

[AlArchie]

Very nicely done, Chris! Everything seems to be well defined.

Al

[GaryMc]

Great job Chris! everything look very clean and crisp, keep up the good work>
GaryMc

[chuckt]

Nice job Chris. Looks beautiful to me. My wife & I are still in a state of partial completion of the low relief version in bass wood. I need to get back on it and finish it up. Then move on to this one. I've gotten distracted lately working on woodspirit faces in sticks and bark. Really like your fins and ground work is really clean and level looking. Well done!

ChuckT

[doris]

very nice carving, and looks very clean and curves and shapes placed with confidence. like that a lot.

[RUssL.]

Beautiful!

As for trouble with the basswood, I have some of the pieces (with the grain pattern running right to left or left to right as it sits on the bench in front of me) where the greain switches back and forth in some places in bands less than an inch wide. This requires switching directions almost constantly while lowering the background in order to get a smooth finish directly "off the gouge".

I didn't realize that was what was happening until I watched the Ivan Whillock DVD and saw just how frequently one must sometimes switch directions to accomodate the direction of grain...Something I jut never picke up from books...

Prior to that I kept thinking that indeed my tools just weren't sharp enough.
Once I recognized the situation I was able to lower the background smoothly provided I used a narrow sweep gouge and not drift over the adjacent band of grain running the opposite direction...

RussL.

[susieq]

Chris, if that is only your 3rd carving, wow! It would be a great job for a much more experienced carver. Way to go. If you like carving fish you should visit Susan Irish's website. She has some awesome gold fish patterns availible.
RussL. is right about grain switching directions on you. You would think that the grain on a board would be all running the same way but it doesn't. As soon as the gouge starts to dig and splinter the wood, carve it from the opposite direction and see if it doesn't go back to smooth again, but also, sharp tools are a must. A tool isn't sharp until it cuts cross grain smoothly....

susieq