How to Carve Fish

A beginner’s guide to knife-carving a fish, by Terry Nokes.

Wooden toy fish on sticks
A beginner’s guide to knife-carving a fish, by Terry Nokes

For this project I chose to carve a lunar-tailed bigeye fish (Priacanthus hamrur) because is it is an ideal subject to carve and is also a delightful fish with oversized eyes that can grow up to 400-450mm. But for this project I will carve small ones just under 100mm in length. You can scale the plans up or down to suit your requirements. The colouration on this species of fish can vary from red-silver orange, to silver with red or orange stripes. I have chosen the orange variant. The fish inhabits the tropical waters of the Indo-Pacific and is often seen on reefs.

This project is designed to be carved with just one tool –  a carving knife. Of course, carving chisels can be used if preferred, but carving with one tool, a knife, is a wonderful way to start your journey into carving and keeps the costs down.

The knife blade I have used is manufactured by Murphy Knives USA, but there are many other makes to choose from. However, the knife handle is homemade and the blade has been modified and ground back to be thinner at the tip than originally supplied, so is ideal for detail carving.

All tools need regular sharpening to not only cut the wood cleanly, but also for safety. Sharp tools need little force to cut with, so remember to strop the blade regularly to maintain the cutting edge and wear a slash/cut/stab-resistant safety glove, which also protects the wrist against a slip with the knife when holding the workpiece.

Wooden handle knife wrapped with rubber bands
The modified knife with homemade handle from coloured ply. Note the rubber band wrapped around the knife handle. I find this useful as it gives me extra grip and ensures it does not slip

Things you will need

Tools

  • Personal and respiratory protective equipment
  • Safety knife-carving gloves
  • Carving/whittling knife
  • Pointed bradawl
  • Drill
  • 8mm drill bit

Materials

  • Lime carving blank 90x45x13mm
  • 8mm fishing lure eye
  • Template
  • Glue stick
  • Paint – red oil based paint
  • Abrasives down to 320 grit
  • Nitrile gloves/protective gloves
  • Bright-red stain, dye or paint
  • Finishing oil
  • Finishing wax
  • Mixing tray
  • Brushes
  • Cloth/paper towel
  • Optional mounting: piano wire/pin drill

Drawings and how to resize them

To enlarge or reduce the size of drawings right click on the image to download it and then go HERE to watch a video on how to use paper with a grid to do exactly that.

Blank preparation

Band saw cutting wooden plank with fish drawing.
1. Create two paper templates to the required size, one for each side of our fish blank. This helps us to align the two eyes later and keeps the carving symmetrical. The fish shown in this project example is approx. 85-90mm in length. Align your front template length ways along your timber, so you have the grain of the wood running along the length of the fish. This will minimise any short-grain areas which can easily snap across the grain. When happy, glue on the front template only with a glue stick and then carefully cut out the fish with a bandsaw, scrollsaw or coping saw. Please note: If you plan to carve with gouges and chisels, perhaps leave additional wood behind the tail, just enough to secure the work piece by vice or clamp
Two paper fish on wooden table
2a. Once the shape is cut, glue the back template on the reverse of the blank. This will help with the carving later
Hand marking grid on wooden stick with pencil
2b. Now, draw a centreline around the entire piece
Man carving wood with gloves.
3a. Make vertical cuts through the paper template to mark out the stop cut lines for detail. Please note the dotted lateral line along the fish body is not to be cut as it’s a finely painted, white-dotted line if desired
Person engraving fish design on metal sheet.
3b. Mark the centre of the eye with a pointed bradawl
Wooden toy fish on green mat
4. Now you need to draw the symmetrical waste lines for the sides along the top of the fish. Hatching the waste areas makes it even clearer what timber to keep and what to remove

Carving

Hand carving wood with a knife
5. Wearing a knife safety glove, with a sharp knife use a push cut to remove waste towards the tail. Good practice is to hold the knife relatively still, create a fulcrum (pivot) with your thumb and move the workpiece with your other hand
Carving a fish shape from wood.
6a. As you remove waste the stop-cut detail lines will slowly vanish…
Wooden fish carving on green mat with wood shavings.
6b. …with your knife put them back before they disappear completely
Hand carving wood on a workbench
7. Here is the fish tapered back towards the tail. Now repeat on the other side – make the fish symmetrical before moving to the next stage
Hand carving wooden fish figure with chisel.
8a. Cut in the mouth lines. Go gently here – make multiple light strokes until you get to where you need to be
Wooden fish-shaped craft on table.
8b. Once done, round off the front of the fish
Hand holding marked piece of carved wood
9a. You now need to mark out the lower and upper dorsal fin width, which is about 1mm either side of the centreline
Carved fish shape on wooden piece
9b. Continue these lines around the whole fin
Partially carved wooden fish on table
10. Mark out the waste areas
Hand carving wood with knife
11. Here I am using a push cut to remove waste. It is advisable to try to cut with the grain where possible. This image shows me using a push cut against the grain and ending up with a rough, torn cut. So, if you find the knife cuts are tearing wood fibres and leaving the surface rough, you need to carve in the opposite direction
Hand carving small wooden fish
12. This is the pull cut, where you carve towards your thumb. Safety gloves or leather thumb guards are a must. But note how I am cutting with the grain and the shaving off the knife is clean and not jagged. The surface of the wood is also nice and smooth
Crafting a wooden fish with gloves
13. Carve along the dorsal fin to make it thinner. Note this needs to be a depth-controlled pass. Try not to leave any unwanted cut lines in the fish body
Carving wooden fish figurine with hand gloves
14a. Perhaps try – grain permitting – to make a vertical slice down the fin’s length
Partially carved wooden fish on textured surface.
14b. Do the same on both sides
Person carving wood with gloved hand.
15. Now carve away the square edge where the top of the body meets the dorsal fin and thin out the body towards the tail
Person carving wooden bird with gloves.
16. The tiny pectoral fin behind the gills needs to stand out. Remove about 0.5mm, just a minimal amount, away from around its sides. If any paper is left on the pectoral fin, just scrape it off. Don’t alter the height of the wood
Gloved hands carving small wooden item on table.
17. Design and draw in the tail end. Make it straight, curved or S-shaped as you wish
Person carving wood with precision tools
18. Draw in the desired shape of the lower two pelvic fins. Perhaps make them a little fatter than the template guide
Person holding small fish wood carving.
19. This needs time as it’s really easy to snap these pelvic fins off due to the short grain of the timber, so go gently at this stage. Ensure the knife is sharp. Start by making V-shaped cuts in between the fins and gradually deepen. Best to always carve towards the fish’s body for strength. As these will be so brittle, perhaps leave chunky and finish shape later with abrasives

Sanding

Sanding a small wooden model on a table.
20a. Now you need to sand the wood smooth. I would advise to use a dust mask. I use a combination of soft and firm-sided hook-faced sanding block on which is affixed loop-backed abrasive. If you sand away details cut them back in with your knife. For the trickier areas like the tail, roll up abrasive into a tube. I worked down to 400 grit
Hands carving wood on a table
20b. Remember, always finish by sanding with the wood grain direction and be aware that any defects and unwanted marks left in this sanding stage will appear in the final colouring

The eyes

Person drilling a small wooden piece
21. I bought some eyes from a craft store. The eyes I bought adhere better if stuck on a flat surface. Although not shown in the images, one option to fix the eyes in place is to surface mount them – draw an 8mm circle on the eye position and flatten its inner surface with your knife or abrasives. Another method, which looks better and is the one I have used here, is to slightly recess the eyes. I don’t have an 8mm Forstner bit so I used an 8mm brad pointed drill bit to make an eye recess. The Forstner bit or a Bullet tipped drill bit would make a cleaner cut. A shallow hole is required somewhere between 0.5-1mm deep. Beware, after all this work there is a chance that surrounding wood fibres around the hole may tear. To minimise this use a brand new brad drill bit and ensure the bit is spinning before making contact with the workpiece. Perhaps try on some scrap wood first. With the hole now made, depending on the drill bit design used, you might have to still flatten the area inside the hole circle with your knife. Although the eyes are self-adhesive, it’s perhaps best to add some contact adhesive as well and then insert the eye
Person assembling a wooden toy bird
22. Once the eye is fixed in place it is time to add fin detail. With the knife, finely cut/score all the little fin lines

Colouring and finishing

Person painting a small, orange fish model
23. The colour stain and finish I used is made by mixing a small amount of bright-red oil-based paint with neat Danish oil. Blend the two together, approx. ratio 1/10 mix. Apply the stain or dye to the fish and leave for 5-10 minutes then remove surplus with a cloth. Repeat this process if a darker colour is desired. All the detail lines are now visible and highlighted as more stain is held in these cuts. Be aware that oil-based finishes on cloths can self-combust and can be a potential fire hazard. Read and follow the precautions for safe use on the containers. Leave it overnight to dry and in the morning apply a thin layer of wax with a soft toothbrush or cloth. Follow instructions, but likely you’ll leave the product for so many minutes and buff to a shine
Two orange fish on blue background
24. I did an optional mounting extra. For this example, I chose to drill a tiny hole in the bottom with a pin drill and suspend the fish on piano wire. An alternative would be to suspend the fish from wires on a frame so they can move and sway with any movement of air. I hope that you find this project is a great example to show you do not need a lot of tools to create something wonderful and have some fun

Further reading

Norman ‘beakhead’ corbel in oak

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