Pine Brookie finished (finally)

[AlArchie]

Well, after a couple months of frustration, I finished this pine brook trout posted over in the gallery. It's carved from a piece of pine my neighbor recvovered from the bottom of the cheboygan River in lower mich. Probably 150 years old. The eyes are turned brass and the base is Lake Superior driftwood.

Al

[Mike-in-WV]

Beautiful job Al. Spent some great times with my Dad fishing for brookies many , many years ago. Mike

[Kenny_S]

Sur is prettiful! Great job Al.

[Nancy-G]

He's a beauty, A l.....a real keeper. He's well worth all the work.
Congratulations.

[squbrigg]

Beautiful trout Al, how was the wood to carve? I've heard/read stories of recovered woods from the bottom of the Great Lakes being recovered and used for various things, this is the first time I've actually heard first hand of one. Was there any difference in the wood from fresh cut or even seasoned wood? What does it smell like? Any special problems you had to overcome?

Bob

[AlArchie]

Thanks for the kind words, everyone!

Bob, one of the suppliers of that recovered timber is Timeless Timbers in Ashland, Wisconsin, about 30 miles west of here. They have some really beautiful wood of all sorts. Pricey but worth it. I haven't used any of theirs, but have gone over and drooled a lot. Most of theirs is cut to nominal sizes or planed to stock size so is not well suited for carving. If you can catch the sawyer at the right time,I understand he'll cut custom sizes, but they really don't seem inclined to do that in small quantities.

Pine is kinda quirky anyway, but this particular piece had a lot of separation between the growth layers, so I really had to watch which way I carved with the grain. It looked very similar to wind-shook stock. I did another one of these earlier from the same chunk of wood and did not run into this problem. this piece seemed a little more inclined to chip than regular cured wood.

Smell.......hmmmmmm, sort of a smokey, musty smell. Not exactly like anything I've run into before. Probably from the silt that covered this log for a hundred years or so. After the area was logged off, back in the 1800's there were several burnings (really large fires) of the logged off areas, and I'm guessing that the ash and debris settled into the river mud.

Once I carved and stained the body, I used a heavy coat of Cabot's sanding sealer and worked it into the shakes. That seemed to pretty well stabilize the wood and the following coats of spray poly finished it off nicely. There are some darker lines where the stain set the shake lines off, but I think that really adds to the character of the piece.

Al

[Bandaid]

Well done Al...I've been wanting to do a fish with a natural finish, I think you've inspired me...Reg

[AlArchie]

Bandaid, here's a couple ideas for natural finish fish, if you don't mind power carving (or REALLY SLOW knife and gouge work). see if you can find a nice piece of birdseye maple for a brook trout. The eyes do a real pretty job of the spots on a brookie. Or try either a quarter sawn chunk of birdseye or a piece of tiger or fiddleback maple to do a sunfish or perch. The vertical grain patterns of these look great on them. Stain with a light oak, pine, or maple stain so the grain isn't overwhelmed.

If you'd like I'll send you a few pics of some I've done in these woods.

Al

[Bandaid]

Hi Al...thanks for the tips on the different woods. I would really appreciate it if you could send me pics. of your fish when you have the time. My e-mail is frizis@shaw.ca. Thanks again...Reg

[AlArchie]

They are on the way...check your email, Reg!

Al