King Salmon

[chriscraft]

Making a strap to replace the worn out nylon webbing shoulder strap on my fishing bag. I fly fish for King Salmon on the Milwaukee River in the Fall. These are stocked Lake Salmon that run up river and are a blast to catch on a fly rod. Will be making a 2 1/2" wide shoulder strap with a Buck and Hen on it.

Here is what I got so far.

[Basically Bob]

Sweet!

[chriscraft]

Bob, I see your also into carving. How long would it take you to get this far into a carving? Maybe its just me, we'll I know its just me that works slow. I've never been fast at creating any kind of art. Worried I'd make a mistake at one point and have to start over again if I would speed up. I have about two hours just in tooling so far. Just wondering if that's a normal time frame. I know in the long run It's not about speed, more about how the piece turns out. Also if I were to make this again I don't think I'd be much faster. Maybe after 4-5 times repeating a same pattern would make me gain some speed. I'm also not adding as much detail to the back ground to not make it look too busy. I layed this design out so the salmon stand out from 30 feet away while wearing it even though its a small 2 1/2 inch wide shoulder strap. Chris

[Wishful]

Great job!

[Colt W Knight]

That is awesome. Great 3-d effect.

[chriscraft]

I'm using Fiebings products, antique paste in black. It still needs a matte finish to seal the paste when dry.

[chriscraft]

This shoulder strap turned out nice. Took me longer than expected to make it but I really didn't know what direction I was going. The next ones should take less time if I keep the same strap design. Chris

[J Hayes]

Well the time looks well spent, that's a pretty awesome piece. What did you use on the pebble background?

I've heard that river is a lot of fun in the fall, I've been meaning to get over there for years. You'll definitely be looking good on the river with that strap!

[chriscraft]

I have an inexpensive 3 piece pebbler tool made by Pro Crafter. Do you know who makes a better tool?

[J Hayes]

I see some in the Barry King catalog, but you seem to be doing a pretty great job with what you have, and that Salmon is just plain awesome!

[Lowrider mike]

Great job! I really really like this a lot.

[Jimbob]

Well done, super clean work you are showing here....I like it !!!

Jim