Fish scale burning

I am a fairly new carver and i carve fish. I just ordered a woodburner and will be scaling my fish with it. I'd like to stay busy in the shop so I have a question: Should I go ahead and put the fins on before I burn scales? CAn I get in behind fins to burn in scales? :

Accornding to the book I just got, ' Carving Fish' by Jim Jensen pub by Fox Chapel (available here) you should leave the fins off. This book has step by step instructions on laying out and burning the scales.

Thanks. A book is exactly what i was looking for and I could not find one anywhere.

[miket]

you definetly want to burn before attaching the fins-otherwise your going to have tears spotting your carving if you happen to drop the fish while burning !!!(the fins are likely to break).

[AlArchie]

Here's a couple photos of the scaling process in progress. First is with the fins removed, and the second is with the fins temporarily in place just to see how mthe whole thing looks. Note that there are several different sized scales.....fairly large on the cheek, and forward part of the body. then smaller toward the tail, smaller still around the fins and under belly. It's tricky making the transition, but with patience you can get the feel for it.

Once the fins are inserted and secured, they have to be blended into the body with some type of filler. I use plain old Elmers wood putty, but there are all sorts of others that will work just as well. Once the putty has set up, you can go back with either a burner tip or a small radiused gouge to fill inthe sclaing on the musculature supporting the fins.

Check on my site and you can see the finished result.
http://www.woodcarvingillustrated.co...00/ppuser/1637

Al

[Nancy-ID]

Get photos Al. You should post those in the Reference area. I may need them someday

[Donna_T]

I agree. Burn all the scales before you insert the fins. That way you'll only have some slight touchups around scales. Just be careful to cut the slots for fins accurately so that you don't have gaps too large and then need to fill them with wood dough--then need to burn again.

Because the fins are thin and brittle, you don't want to do much handling of them. I've coated them with super glue and/or wood hardner to given them strength.

Donna T

[miket]

have any of you used ed walicki's ball bearing stitcher to make small scales on trout carvings?
the stitcher looks like a tire patch rolling tool that is used to seal patches on tires and tubes. i have one of these tire stitchers but its pattern doesn't produce what i call a good diamond scale.
what does the metal wheel look like ?

[DiamondWillow]

I have not used the product that you are talking about so can't comment on that. However, on smaller trout a lot of the carvers, myself included use the crosshatched ends of ratchet sets, or the crosshatched ends of nail sets. Another option is to take a large nail and with a file or grinding bit cut little scallops around the nail head so you can kind of roll the nail around and it gives you little scale type of cuts. Usually what you are doing is giving the appearance of scales rather than cutting in the actual scales. If you go with doing a large trout then you will need to start grinding in scales or burning them in to make it look good. Hope I have not confused you too much with the crosshatching patterns. Good Luck

Gene

[Benjamin]

Pat Kennedy's wood burning scale tips are great. They give the lateral line and you can match the rest all the way down with the different sizes. Look close at a real fish and you see the scales are not all the same size. Using the various sizes of Pat's make it pretty easy. Hope this helps. Benjamin