Carve a Northern Pike From Wood

I'm a 14 year-old boy who enjoys carving small things out of wood. I thought it would be fun to try carving a northern pike chasing some perch. This is a time-consuming project, but the reward after it is done is big. If you have patience and like to pay attention to detail, this is the project for you.

1. Solid chunk of basswood (needs to be big enough for the pike, fins, and perch)

2. Pattern (see step #1)

3. Band saw, scroll saw, or coping saw

4. Awl, or other sharp-pointed object that can be used to prick the pattern

5. Sharp carving knives

6. 5 minute, 2-part Epoxy

7. Super glue

8. Dremel, or other rotary tool

9. Acrylic paints

10. Rust-Oleum Clear Gloss Spray Enamel

11. Airbrush

12. Fine mesh netting

13. Sharpie markers

14. A stick and mounting board for displaying the completed carving

15. 1/16 inch wire

16. Picture frame hanger

17. As always, be sure to have an adult help you with power tools and sharp knives.

I used pictures of a northern pike and perch to trace a pattern for each. Simply re-size the image to get the desired length before tracing your pattern. You will need a side pattern and a top pattern.

I made the pike about 9” long and the perch about 2” and 2.5” long.

· Glue the patterns onto the block of basswood.

· Using a band saw, cut the side view of the pike out first.

· Make sure the wood grain is head to tail, rather than crossways. If it is not, it will be very easy to mess things up when carving detail.

· Using the band saw, saw the top view of the pike out (make sure the pattern is straight).

· Use a pin or something with a hard, sharp tip to poke through the pattern along the gills and other important details so they can still be seen after rounding the body.

· Draw a line down the center of the top and bottom of the pike as shown in the first picture above.

· Make sure you have sharp knives to carve with. A gouge and V-shaped chisel are very handy.

· With a knife, cut into the wood along the lines of dots previously made with the pin around the gills.

· With carving knife carefully round off the edges of the pike.

The head

· It is time to start carving detail on the head of the pike. You will want to carve the larger detail first and then carve the smaller detail based on the larger detail.

· Using the Dremel tool, hollow out the pike’s mouth as shown in the picture.

The tail

· After the detail on the head is done, carve the tail down to the thickness you want.

· Now using the V-shaped chisel, carve lines in the tail. It will be very easy to cut through the tail at this point, so be careful.

· After you are done carving, use a very fine sand paper to make it as smooth as you can.

The fins

· First, cut a piece of basswood that is around 1/16 inch thick.

· Then, carve the fins from this piece until they are about as thin as you can get them without cutting through the fin. Remember: the thinner the better on the fins

· Now, use the V chisel to make lines in the fins. Make the lines in the fins go the same way they would on a real fish.

· Make the fins the right size so they look realistic on your carving.

· Don’t forget to leave extra on the fins where they will attach to the fish’s body because they will be glued into a groove.

· Use the Dremel tool with a cutting bit and make grooves in the top and bottom of the pike. This is where the fins will go.

· Put the pike into a safe place for now.

· You will first need to find a pattern. Finding a picture of one is the easier than drawing one.

· Make the patterns for the two perch small enough so that they can almost fit inside the pike’s mouth.

· Glue the patterns onto the basswood and cut them out.

· Carve the head, body, fins, and tail of the perch using the steps from carving the pike in ”Step 3.”

· Glue the two largest fins (top and bottom by the tail) onto the pike. The four smaller ones will be glued on later.

· Glue all of the fins onto the perch. It would be very hard to paint the little fins without them on the perch.

· Before painting, find a stick or piece of wood to mount the pike and perch on after they are painted and varnished. I used a dead hickory stick that had fallen from a tree outside our house.

· Choose the mounting locations for each fish. Then drill small holes in the pike, perch, and stick so you can fasten the fish onto the stick after they are completed.

· Acrylic paint colors needed…white, green, blue, brown, black, yellow, red, and metallic gold

· You can either make a paper stencil or paint the lines on the pike without a stencil. If you are going to use a stencil, make one before you start painting.

· Mix the paint on a piece of glass or a paint palette, mixing different colors together until you have all of the colors needed to paint your fish.

· To prevent your paints from drying out, use a sandwich bag and put the paint in a corner of the bag. Seal the bag.

· Do this with all the colors you will need to paint the pike.

· To prevent the paint from getting on the tail and fins while painting, cut out pieces of paper that are a little bit bigger than the fins. Then punch a hole in these paper pieces to allow the tape to stick to the fins through the paper.

Painting the perch

· I chose to paint the perch first, since they were smaller and would be easier to remake if I messed up.

· Airbrush a coat of white paint over both perch

· Then paint brownish-orange on the top of the perch, fading it from the top to the bottom

· Using the brownish-orange paint, paint the tail and bottom fins

· Use a stencil to paint the black lines down the side of the perch

· Paint some red paint under the gills

· Paint a thin coat of bluish-black paint on the top fin

· Use a stencil to paint fins onto the front of the perch

I used a two-stage air brush to paint the fish. If you do not have an air brush, or know how to use one, you could paint them with a regular brush, but that will end up with a different look.

Painting the pike

First, paint a good coat of white paint on the whole pike.

· After this is done, tape the paper pieces (previously made) onto the tail and the two already attached fins.

· Paint some greenish-blue on the top of the pike, fading it as you go down the side of the pike.

· Paint the dark lines on the head.

· Paint the yellowish lines onto your pike carving.

· While the yellowish paint is still in your airbrush, paint the yellow lines on the head.

· Take the protective paper off of the fins.

· Use some brownish-orange paint to paint the fins and tail.

· Once it is the desired color, paint black spots onto the tail and top fins.

· Paint the four smaller fins by repeating the steps for painting the back fins.

· Wrap the fish in fine scale netting and use gold paint to make scales on the pike. Do not make them too pronounced or it will not look good.

· Make sure the paint is dry before taking the netting off.

Making the eyes

· Mix up a small amount of epoxy and very carefully put it in the holes for the eyes on both the pike and perch.

· Let the epoxy dry.

· Use a yellow Sharpie marker and color the epoxy on the pike’s eyes.

· Using a black Sharpie marker, color the eyes of the perch black and put a black dot in the center of the pike’s eyes.

· With a brown Sharpie marker, color a ring around the outside of the pike’s eyes, leaving a thin line of yellow between the brown and black. (See the pictures for detail)

Spray the fish with a light coat of clear enamel to protect the paint. I used a can of Rust-Oleum clear gloss spray enamel on the pike, perch, and stick.

· Cut four pieces of 1/16” wire to fasten the fish to the stick.

· Make the wire pieces just the right length so the fish fit against the stick.

· Use super glue to glue the wires into the drilled holes on the perch and pike. Then glue the perch and pike to the stick with those same wires. Try not to get excess super glue on the side of the fish.

· A ¾” thick basswood board with the bark on it from a local hardware store works good for a display board.

· Cut the board to desired length and sand it smooth.

· Varnish the board, then fasten the stick, with the pike and perch, onto the board with screws from the back side of the mounting board.

· Install a picture frame hanger onto the board so you can hang it on the wall.