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HAND CARVING YOUR OWN FISHING LURES Do you have an idea for a “new and improved” lure or an oldlure that’s not available anymore? Or would you just like to copy another lureand make some modifications to it? That’s not a problem any longer. I'm going toshow you in the following steps how to hand carve your own custom lures. If you follow the steps below, you'll find outthat it's really not a hard thing to do and you can step away from repaintingother people’s lures. I’ll start by selecting a pattern for my lure. This can be apattern that somebody else has drawn up or I can create my own pattern. I usecardboard for my lure patterns. I then write on my pattern any informationabout that lure such as: location of hook hangers, location and amount ofweight for the lure, thickness of the lure, eye placement, lip angle and type,and any other pertinent information. That way the information is always handy.I also cut the lip slot into the pattern. Select the wood that you want to use to carve your crankbaitout of. Here, I'm using Paulownia. I have several boards that I have planned tospecific thicknesses. You can also use a block of wood and after you cut outthe profile of your lure, you can just cut the lures off at the thickness thatyou want. There are other various woods that can be used including basswood,balsa, and poplar. The choice is up to you. I’ll trace my pattern onto the wood making sure that I markthe location for the eyes and for the lip slot. I also want to make sure thatthe grain of the wood runs the length of the lure and NOT from top to bottom.This will ensure that the lure has structural integrity. Once I've completed that, I’ll take the wood over to theband saw and cut out the profile of the lure. At the same time, I’ll cut thelip slot. Before I cut out the lure I will check and see that the table of theband saw is 90-degrees to the band saw blade. This ensures that the lip slot will beperpendicular to the lure. If I wait until after I carve the lure, it's hard tocut the lip slot and get it right. Using a small 1/16-inch drill bit, I’ll drill a guide holefor the placement of the eyes. NOTE: This is optional. I do it to give me areference point to countersink my eye sockets. In this step I will widen the lip slot. For that I use a1/16-inch diameter diamond grinding bit. I like to use one that has a 1/16-inchshaft. That way I can get deeper intothe lip slot. This bit will follow the already cut lip slot almostperfectly. Be sure to widen the lip slot before you do the tapers on your lureas the bit will sometimes tear out a small chuck of wood as it exits the lipslot. After I widen the lip slot, I then hollow out a smallchannel at the bottom of the lip slot that will allow me to insert the back endof the line tie if the line tie is in the lip. Next, I'll go ahead and drill the holes for the rear hookhanger and line tie (if the lure’s line tie is not going to be in the lip). I willalso drill a hole to accept the belly weight. The next step is to taper the nose on both sides and thentaper the tail. I can do this taper either by carving the taper with a goodcarving knife or I can sand the tapers on a belt sander. I’ll try to keep thesetapers as symmetrical as I can. You can see in the picture that the nose istapered about a quarter of the way back from the nose and the tail is taperedfrom about midway of the body to the tail. This taper may vary depending a loton the type of lure that you're making. Now I’m ready to start carving the lure. I will start bycarving the shoulders on either side of the back as in Fig. 1 above. I willcarve until the widest point on both sides is about the same width as what I'veleft across the back. I want those threeplanes to be basically the same width. You'll see what I'm talking about in Fig2 above. Once I get those flat planes carved on the shoulders I will roll thelure over and do the same thing on the belly. I originally started with four corners on the lure. Now thatI have carved those corners off, I have eight corners. Carve those corners offand that will basically round the edges of the lure for you. For you guys thatare carving musky lures or large swimbaits you will wind up with sixteen corners.Just carve them off like I did the eight corners. That should be enough tofinish the rounding of your larger lures. After I carve the lure I glue in the belly weight, the rearhook hanger, and the line tie, if there is one. My carving is now done. I’m going to sand the lure. I liketo use the fingernail sanding sticks that you find in the beauty department ofyour local shopping center. The ones at Wal-Mart are 100-grit on one side and150-grit on the other side. I use these because they tend to round the lurebetter than just sandpaper. Sandpaper tends to follow all of the contours ofthe lure and doesn’t give me that good rounded finish that I want. It’s just myway. Your way may work better for you. After I have finished sanding the lure Iwill sand the lure again with some 220/240-git sandpaper to give me a finalfinish. I give the lure a final inspection to ensure that I have allof my tapers symmetrical, all of my knife marks are sanded out, and the lurehas a general overall good appearance. My lure is now ready for a couple of coats of sealer. A few final notes: keep your knife sharp, take your time,and always check and make sure that you keep both sides symmetrical. I hope that you’ll give this a try. One you create your ownlure that swims like you want it to, there will be no holding you back. Good luck and I hope this helps. Gene Graham aka “Lincoya”

What helped me the most in rounding over baits by hand was to use layout lines for everything possible. Once I have the basic blank cut from my scroll saw and sanded to maximum final width, I use a compass to draw a center line around the bait. That locates my hook hangers, ballast, and gives me a cut line if I'm going to split a balsa bait for thru-wiring. Then I lay out the head and tail tapers with a ruler, measuring from the center line and then marking the taper lines with a straight piece of bendable plastic. I use a disk sander to to the tapers. When ready to round over the body, I use the compass again to mark out lines on both sides of each corner of the bait to guide me in making a facet on each edge. On the top and bottom of the bait, I usually adjust the compass to 1/2 the distance to the center line. On the sides, I usually make the lines twice that distance. When the facets are cut, that gives me the beginning of an oval shape in cross section for the bait's body. If you use this method, you will notice that the lines at the tail and head of the bait, if followed, would result in pointy ends on the bait- so you have to cheat when cutting the facets so as not to take off too much material. Nonetheless, the lines help me regulate how to facet the edges of the bait body, which I do with a Dremel sanding cylinder. Then I use the same cylinder to blend the lines of the facets into the bait body and finish/fine tune the shape with 220 grit sand paper by hand. Dong all this layout is a pain in the neck. But it hurts worse when I don't use layout lines to control cutting and end up with a bait that is lopsided or a toothpick. And using the layouts allows me to do most of the shaping "on auto pilot" without having to worry so much about the grain effects in the wood misleading my eyes. Maybe there are those who can truly freehand a whole bait and make it symmetrical - unfortunately, I'm just not one of them.