Hints Page.

I intend to use this page to share some of the techniques  that members have developed over the years.   

To set the ball rolling  I will show the way in which I put the eyes into the fish and animals I carve on

the handles of sticks

Fish Eyes

Even though fish eyes are aspheric (not true spheres) I do make mine round..

Insert and glue the dowel into the eye holes, cut off about 1mm above the body.  Mark the centre of the eyes and drill for the brass tubing, in this fish the eye holes are 7mm and the brass tubing is 4mm, then make a dowel out of a piece of black buffalo horn for the centre of the tube fit and glue into the hole and cut off. Brass tubing of various sizes can be found in most model making shops.

With a small round file start to take the edge of the eye working from the outside to the middle, the aim is to get a nice domed effect. It should be pronounced enough to show but not to be uncomfortable to the hand when using the stick.

Always draw the eyes and other

body features on before drilling

or burning, you can rub out pencil

marks! Using photographs you

can establish the position and size

of the eyes before drilling them. I

always make them slightly oversize.

Drill the holes at right angle to the

plane of the body and make a dowel

out of a scrap of Horn.

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