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CARVING BIG MUSKELLUNGE By CHARLES WEISS

N A T I O N A L F I S H C A R V E R S G U I L D � J O U R N A L S E V E N T E E N � APRIL 2009

INTRODUCTION by Ray Dodge

If you have ever looked into the eyes and mouth of a Muskie (Muskellunge) you will understand why it is considered to be at the top of the aquatic food chain in many Northern lakes. Reading this article will help you understand why one of our Canadian members is passionate about his Muskies and how it has carried over into his art.

Charles Weiss is a full-time artist, sculptor and painter living in Toronto, Ontario. As a graduate of Sheridan College with a degree in Illustration, he has won many awards including the coveted Chrysler Search for Canadian Wildlife Artist contest. He has illustrated covers and provided cartoons for the likes of Muskie Hunter, Bassman and Canadian Sport Fishing magazines to name a few. He takes his art seriously, but also has a humorous side to him that surfaces in his illustrations and occasionally his carvings. He has been carving for ten years, mostly

Pike and Muskie.

Created in hatcheries for stocking in a variety of waterways across North America, the Tiger Muskie is a hybrid cross between a Pike and a Muskie. Although the Pike and Muskie have a lot in common, their differences are greater than their similarities. The Tiger Muskie is rare in nature and can be recognized by the dark vertical stripes that give it its name.

The Muskie CAN grow to 70-80 pounds reaching 5-feet/ 155 cm. in length. They fish for them with plugs the size of most fish you will find at your local carving show.

Tiger Muskie IllustrationBy Charles Weiss

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The NFCG staff has a lot of photographs of carvings that cross our desk and we appreciate every one of them. It seems each one has a story behind it. When Charles sent a picture of his Tiger Muskie, I was impressed with the beauty of it and particularly intrigued with the 43-inch size. I have carved what I considered large fish in the 24-31-inch sizes. And I’m aware of the inherent problems that come with carving fish that large. Ed Barrett talks about his experience with a 42-inch Steelhead carving as akin to wrestling a pig. Myself, I will never forget the sound of an in-line fin hitting the edge of my workbench. Not just once but three times during scale burning. It sounds kind of like a ping or a pong or something in between and is always followed by mild cursing.

While the industry trend is to carve large trophy fish from Styrofoam, Charles carves big fish in the 30-70-inch sizes from wood. He comes from several generations of woodworkers, so he has developed methods to solve some of the inherent problems that occur when carving big fish from wood.

Below is some of his art. The Walleye is what Charles calls his caricature fish. It measures 28 -inches in length. The caricature is of Gord the owner of the Vermilion Bay Lodge in North Ontario. The lodge celebrates the walleye with a weeklong fishing contest called "Walleye Madness". Charles says, “It was a fun way to express the excitement of the fishing contest.”

Northern Pike illustration

Muskie illustration for magazine

Two Large Mouth Bass on the same lure Muskie carving

Gord caricature carving

Charles Weiss with Pike carving

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Carving the Tiger MuskieBy Charles Weiss

Having good reference material is very important. Although I'm very familiar with muskies and have illustrated several pieces of cover art for Musky Hunter magazine, I never start a project like this without my reference material. This is Ed, my good fish’n buddy with his trophy tiger Muskie. 1- Using the photograph and measurements, I drew my pattern.

2- I lay the pattern on a piece of 2 x 6 pine, and then trace the outline of the fish shape.

Wood of choice My father is a retired carpenter, and he

introduced me to a variety of tools for carving and what wood carves easily. Many fish carvers prefer jelutong, but finding a good piece of jelutong large enough for a carving of this size can be difficult and quite expensive. Instead, I use carefully chosen Canadian white pine and laminate pieces to achieve the desired dimensions. White pine has a consistent grain and is soft enough to be shaped easily with carving tools. I use power tools, wood chisels and rasps.

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4- I cut the upper and lower sections of the caudal fin (tail) out of half-inch pine, careful to make sure the grain is running parallel with the fin rays. I glue the two sections together and inserted them into the caudal peduncle or

tail section.

5- I cut out a section about 4-in x 28-in. from the middle, which reduces the weight of the carving. The opening continues into the mouth shape.

6- Cut two more body pieces out of 2 x 6 pine without the tail section. The layers will be glued later creating a sandwich effect, which adds to the strength of the carving and gives me the desired thickness for the body.

7- Next, using large rubber bands to hold the three body pieces together, I rough out the mouth and head, except for the gill covers. Those will be completed later, after the wood sections are glued together.

8- I use small toothpicks for the teeth on roof of the mouth. There are three rows of palatine teeth. I drill a small hole to glue and insert each tooth; I use about 80-90 toothpicks. Using a power carver, I complete the details of the mouth, including the tongue and gill parts.I then seal the wood with white shellac and prime the whole mouth area with gesso. When dry, I paint with acrylic the red gill area and pink areas around the teeth. I then finish the inside of the mouth with a gloss Varathane.

9- Then, I glue the two body pieces to the

main body clamp them to dry.

3- Then I cut it out using the jig saw.

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10- The gill is carved. I use a section of wood for the gill cover. This piece is shaped to also cover the lower gill cover. I then seal the gill area with white shellac. Then I prime the area with gesso. When it’s dry, I paint the gills and inside the gill cover with acrylic paint. I finish with gloss Varathane, and then glue the two pieces using Weldbond glue.

11- After the glue has dried, I use a variety of rasps & 80 grit sand paper to shape the rest of the body. I will do final sanding with 150 and 300 grit sand paper.

12- I accurately shape each fin, from half-inch thick pine. I’m careful to have the fin rays run parallel with the grain. I cut a notch for the fin insert, then glue in the fins. I seal the whole carving with white shellac.

13- I then prime the carving with several coats of gesso and sand between each coat with 300 grit sand paper.

Colours: The palette of colours I've used are Golden brand acrylics, hookers green, ultramarine blue, ochre yellow. burnt umber, black, titanium white, cadmium red, antique gold, bright gold, hansa yellow hansa orange. and iridescent silver.

Close-up of the gill

Close-up of the head

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Charles Weiss with 66-inch Muskie carving

Keeping the weight down on really large fish.

Another method I have used to keep the weight down on some of the really large fish, is to build the rough body blank in three sections, head, body and Tail, then glue them together. I won’t go into a lot of detail, because each large fish will be different and I would be repeating many of the steps already discussed earlier. 1- For this method, I start by cutting all the pieces to be assembled.

2- My next step is to build a box out of half-inch white pine for the body cavity of the fish. For the 66-inch Muskie above, the box was 4-inches wide, 8-inches deep with a length of 36-inches. The box ran from just behind the head to just before the dorsal fin. It had two end pieces, two sides, a bottom and a piece dividing it in the middle.

3- Then I glue together the half-inch layers of pine for the head and attach it to the body cavity.

4- Next I attach additional sides, top and bottom panels to achieve the desired thickness and depth.

5- Then I glue together the half-inch layers of pine for the tail section and attach it to the body. I clamp everything into place to ensure a tight bonding.

6- After allowing several days for drying, you will be ready to do the final shaping, adding fins and final detailing of the head.

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Needless to say, when Charles is finished wrestling big Muskies, at the end of the day he’s ready to relax with his favorite Canadian beverage, in his favorite chair and contemplate his next big Muskellunge carving.

To learn more about Charles and see more of his art, visit his website. http://www.charlesweissart.com

Thank you, Charles for sharing your method of carving big fish.