Bonjour Danny, Merci pour tes excellents tutos qui me permettent de me lancer dans la scultures de poissons. Peintre assidu depuis mon enfance (spécialisé dans le trompe l’œil) J’aime les choses abouties et de bonne facture. J’ai maintenant 75 ans, et grâce a toi, je me lance dans cette aventure de la sculpture poissons. Concernant la réalisation des écailles, j’ai réussi à trouver le fil argent sur Amazone France. Voilà deux mois que je rassemble tout ce que je peux trouver concernant cette activité. Merci encore Danny pour l’élan que tu nous donne ! A bientôt Daniel B. Chartres France
Thank you for the kind words and happy to hear from you. If you are a Facebook user by chance, several other of my fish carving friends and I have started a Facebook group dedicated to fish carving. We love for you to join if you do Facebook that is. But we’d love to see your work and you can post photos of it and ask any questions you may have. I hope the nichrome wire works for you let me know how it goes.
Depending on the snake species you’re carving some have keeled scales and others are smooth. Razortip has a decent selection of snake scale tips with some that make keeled scales. Have you ever watched Mike Stinnett of Stinnett Sticks?
Thanks Albert. I do the same thing sometimes. After I finished this one I kinda wished I had added a little more detail on the process but I tend to go too long. I’ll talk more about making them in my next video when I’m actually burning the scales on the crappie project.
Yeah the last trout I carved had around 7000 +/- I admire your patience! I get to impatient to attempt to carve each scale. I have been contemplating carving a gar and probably will have to hand carve them because of their unique shape.
Hi thanks for the video it's great your sharing your knowledge rich at chose your own path said to check out your channle glad I did stay safe Just carve
You’ve inspired me to start carving, I’ve been using a knife set but noticed you use a dremel a lot! If you don’t mind me asking, what kind do you use? A lot of the ones I looked at were huge! Is it a flex shaft or tiny dremel?
I started off with an old dremel 3000 i had laying around and soon bought the 4000 and a flex shaft, holding the Dremel itself gets tiresome after a while and many times is in the way for doing detail work. The flex shaft is far easier to hold and control. i still use it occasionally but I use a Foredom rotary tool now most of the time and have a couple different hand pieces. but the Dremel 4000 does a good job with small projects.
Hi Danny, Glad I found your site. I do fish taxidermy and started to carve. I am using Nichrome but was wondering if you have tried music wire? Maybe in a pinch? Thanks, Carl
Thanks I hope you like the channel and can learn from my mistakes😜I have not tried music wire. It may work if you can find 16 gauge. Anything smaller would get too hot and anything bigger may not get hot enough or fit the hand piece. Since it’s spring steel and already hardened you’d have to heat it to take the temper out in order to hammer it out for shaping other wise it would just crack or break. after you’ve softened the wire shaped and tuned it to where it’s burning right. Heat it back to red and quench it in vegetable oil to harden it back. I’ve experimented with another brand of nichrome and it didn’t work. The metal kept splitting before I got it to the size I wanted. You can order the good stuff from fishcarver.com. I don’t know where he got it he doesn’t specify in his video. He said he had tried several different brands and this was the only one he found that worked properly. It’s like $10 for a 5ft roll and that’d probably make more than you’d ever need
Hey Denny.. I believe Ed died a number of years ago.. Question.. On a 9" or so Bluegill.. What size scales do you recommend? I have a collection or Razertip scale burners.. but I think the largest I have is 5mm. I don't know if they are a Regular or Flat style tip.. I know none are the deep curve.. Thanks for these great videos
Thanks! Yeah I knew he died of cancer several years ago but his wife and son kept the website going until just recently. I just finished a bluegill that’s approximately 9 inches. And the biggest scale was about 5-6mm and the smallest was about 2mm. So your 5mm should be fine. The bigger ones are a little flat on the arch. I also free hand the scales on the cheeks and gill covers because they tend to be a little more irregular shaped. And by free handing with a small rounded flat tip gives it a more natural organic look. If you haven’t seen it, it’s part 4 in the Bluegill Bream 2023 series. ua-cam.com/video/rO1bmdxHRG0/v-deo.htmlsi=USBkqyHzt5f7mjPv
Right now I use a Razortip with the BPH pen because I can change out the tips. But I’m going to be ordering a Colwood Super Pro ll hopefully before my next project because their heat range is a little more consistent. Unfortunately they don’t have pens with easily replicable tips but I can get an adapter that will allow me to use my BPH pens.
Yeah i think you did. Once you get the tips made and burning even and clean scale impressions turn the burner all the way up so that the tip will glow red for a few seconds then turn it off and let it cool on it’s on. You may also take a small butane torch and heat just the tip until it glows red.
It’s possible I guess. I’m not sure what kind of steel they use. The Nichrome wire I use is designed for heating elements. It’s fairly soft until it’s heated then it turns hard. After I get the tip made and tuned to where they’re burning right I turn the temp to high and let them get red hot for about 30-45 seconds then turn the temp down about half for 2-3 minutes then turn it off. Try straightening one out and heat it cherry red and quench it in vegetable oil and see if it breaks before it bends if it does it may be usable
Are you asking about the pen itself or the tip? You can buy the pen from Razortip it’s called the BPH pen. If you don’t have a Razortip burner you may have to buy an inexpensive adapter to make it work on another brand burner. Im getting ready to buy a Colwood burner and I’ll have to buy the adapter to make the Razortip BPH pen work on it.
I don’t think so. It needs to be an alloy that can be tempered and withstand varying heat. Any Galvanized metal is dangerous to use when heating because it gives off toxic fumes when heated. It needs to be 16 gauge nichrome wire. Nichrome is designed to be heated to high temperatures and it doesn’t loose temper. It’s used in things like hair dryers, space heaters and other things where the wire is heated specifically to produce heat. 16 gauge seems to be the sweet spot. Not to heavy or big so it fits in most wood burners pens. And not too thin so it withstands a lot of use before failing. (And they eventually will)
@@Danny_Harris-Arts Thank you for replying. Only problem is I have a piece that needs to be finished by Monday and no store carries nichrome 16awg. The tips I purchased broke after an hour of use. They sent me replacements and the still broke. And my temp was at 6 to 6.5.
Bonjour Danny,
Merci pour tes excellents tutos qui me permettent de me lancer dans la scultures de poissons.
Peintre assidu depuis mon enfance (spécialisé dans le trompe l’œil) J’aime les choses abouties et de bonne facture. J’ai maintenant 75 ans, et grâce a toi, je me lance dans cette aventure de la sculpture poissons.
Concernant la réalisation des écailles, j’ai réussi à trouver le fil argent sur Amazone France.
Voilà deux mois que je rassemble tout ce que je peux trouver concernant cette activité.
Merci encore Danny pour l’élan que tu nous donne !
A bientôt
Daniel B. Chartres France
Thank you for the kind words and happy to hear from you. If you are a Facebook user by chance, several other of my fish carving friends and I have started a Facebook group dedicated to fish carving. We love for you to join if you do Facebook that is. But we’d love to see your work and you can post photos of it and ask any questions you may have.
I hope the nichrome wire works for you let me know how it goes.
AWESOME video! I'm getting ready to burn a snake and this info will be invaluable!!! Thanks so much.
Depending on the snake species you’re carving some have keeled scales and others are smooth.
Razortip has a decent selection of snake scale tips with some that make keeled scales. Have you ever watched Mike Stinnett of Stinnett Sticks?
love this danny, killed it! :-)😆😅🐟🐠🐡🎣🍥
Thanks, I hope it’s helped folks
Great Danny!! I will be making some scale tips!!! Awesome!! Thank you Sir, from the free State of Arkansas. 👍
Feel free to message me if you have any questions about the process
Wow right when I think I could never find a video for my exact problem, you post this! Keep up the videos! 👍
Thanks Albert. I do the same thing sometimes. After I finished this one I kinda wished I had added a little more detail on the process but I tend to go too long. I’ll talk more about making them in my next video when I’m actually burning the scales on the crappie project.
Very cool! I like to carve the scales because I think it looks better but on something like a trout that has super tiny scales this may come in handy!
Yeah the last trout I carved had around 7000 +/-
I admire your patience! I get to impatient to attempt to carve each scale. I have been contemplating carving a gar and probably will have to hand carve them because of their unique shape.
nice work. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for sharing.
Hi thanks for the video it's great your sharing your knowledge rich at chose your own path said to check out your channle glad I did stay safe Just carve
Thanks, I’m chatting with him on messenger now😄
Hope you like it. Do you have a channel? Never mind I found it.
You’ve inspired me to start carving, I’ve been using a knife set but noticed you use a dremel a lot! If you don’t mind me asking, what kind do you use? A lot of the ones I looked at were huge! Is it a flex shaft or tiny dremel?
I started off with an old dremel 3000 i had laying around and soon bought the 4000 and a flex shaft, holding the Dremel itself gets tiresome after a while and many times is in the way for doing detail work. The flex shaft is far easier to hold and control. i still use it occasionally but I use a Foredom rotary tool now most of the time and have a couple different hand pieces. but the Dremel 4000 does a good job with small projects.
Hi Danny, Glad I found your site. I do fish taxidermy and started to carve. I am using Nichrome but was wondering if you have tried music wire? Maybe in a pinch? Thanks, Carl
Thanks I hope you like the channel and can learn from my mistakes😜I have not tried music wire. It may work if you can find 16 gauge. Anything smaller would get too hot and anything bigger may not get hot enough or fit the hand piece.
Since it’s spring steel and already hardened you’d have to heat it to take the temper out in order to hammer it out for shaping other wise it would just crack or break. after you’ve softened the wire shaped and tuned it to where it’s burning right. Heat it back to red and quench it in vegetable oil to harden it back.
I’ve experimented with another brand of nichrome and it didn’t work. The metal kept splitting before I got it to the size I wanted.
You can order the good stuff from fishcarver.com. I don’t know where he got it he doesn’t specify in his video. He said he had tried several different brands and this was the only one he found that worked properly. It’s like $10 for a 5ft roll and that’d probably make more than you’d ever need
Good
Hey Denny.. I believe Ed died a number of years ago.. Question.. On a 9" or so Bluegill.. What size scales do you recommend? I have a collection or Razertip scale burners.. but I think the largest I have is 5mm. I don't know if they are a Regular or Flat style tip.. I know none are the deep curve.. Thanks for these great videos
Thanks!
Yeah I knew he died of cancer several years ago but his wife and son kept the website going until just recently. I just finished a bluegill that’s approximately 9 inches. And the biggest scale was about 5-6mm and the smallest was about 2mm. So your 5mm should be fine. The bigger ones are a little flat on the arch. I also free hand the scales on the cheeks and gill covers because they tend to be a little more irregular shaped. And by free handing with a small rounded flat tip gives it a more natural organic look.
If you haven’t seen it, it’s part 4 in the Bluegill Bream 2023 series.
ua-cam.com/video/rO1bmdxHRG0/v-deo.htmlsi=USBkqyHzt5f7mjPv
@@Danny_Harris-Arts Thanks again Danny
Very nice, what brand burner do you use? Thanks
Right now I use a Razortip with the BPH pen because I can change out the tips. But I’m going to be ordering a Colwood Super Pro ll hopefully before my next project because their heat range is a little more consistent. Unfortunately they don’t have pens with easily replicable tips but I can get an adapter that will allow me to use my BPH pens.
Thanks 😊
I've never seen someone swing a hammer as fast as you.
fast and precise! 🤣😂
Did I miss the part on the process to harden the tips?
Yeah i think you did. Once you get the tips made and burning even and clean scale impressions turn the burner all the way up so that the tip will glow red for a few seconds then turn it off and let it cool on it’s on. You may also take a small butane torch and heat just the tip until it glows red.
I wonder if you could use a heavy duty staple
It’s possible I guess. I’m not sure what kind of steel they use. The Nichrome wire I use is designed for heating elements. It’s fairly soft until it’s heated then it turns hard.
After I get the tip made and tuned to where they’re burning right I turn the temp to high and let them get red hot for about 30-45 seconds then turn the temp down about half for 2-3 minutes then turn it off.
Try straightening one out and heat it cherry red and quench it in vegetable oil and see if it breaks before it bends if it does it may be usable
Can I purchase pen you use in demonstration of burning scales rather than building one?
Are you asking about the pen itself or the tip? You can buy the pen from Razortip it’s called the BPH pen. If you don’t have a Razortip burner you may have to buy an inexpensive adapter to make it work on another brand burner. Im getting ready to buy a Colwood burner and I’ll have to buy the adapter to make the Razortip BPH pen work on it.
How do you connect it to the pen????
I use the Razortip BPH pen and it has two screws on two small spade terminals that holds the tip in.
Okay the question is where can I find some of this wire? Can’t find this stuff anywhere near me
I’ve seen it on amazon it’s 16 gauge nichrome wire. I got what I have from fishcarver.com when I bought the dvd series on burning scales
Thanks your the man
FYI Danny the link to fishcarver seems to have been hijacked by some sort of Asian gambling site@Danny_Harris-Arts
Can I use galvanized wire?
I don’t think so. It needs to be an alloy that can be tempered and withstand varying heat.
Any Galvanized metal is dangerous to use when heating because it gives off toxic fumes when heated.
It needs to be 16 gauge nichrome wire. Nichrome is designed to be heated to high temperatures and it doesn’t loose temper.
It’s used in things like hair dryers, space heaters and other things where the wire is heated specifically to produce heat.
16 gauge seems to be the sweet spot. Not to heavy or big so it fits in most wood burners pens. And not too thin so it withstands a lot of use before failing. (And they eventually will)
@@Danny_Harris-Arts Thank you for replying. Only problem is I have a piece that needs to be finished by Monday and no store carries nichrome 16awg. The tips I purchased broke after an hour of use. They sent me replacements and the still broke. And my temp was at 6 to 6.5.
@@mosfet51 I know it’s not doing you any good right now but I order it from fishcarver.com
@@Danny_Harris-Arts already did. I have some solid copper wire that will hand to do for now.
@@mosfet51 it may work for a while. Good luck with it.