kahawai

thanks for the feedback & suggestions. the lure swims well and i'm happy with the joint. its a configuration of same orientation overlapping wire eyes with a stainless steel screw acting as a pin. i could put the lure together to test it, then take it out of the water, take out the screw and foil each segment seperaterly. haven't had the time to paint it up yet. for the scales - its carved in the balsa, sealed, then foiled over.

have been working on this for a while. not sure if its been done here before. i make my wood lures mostly out of balsa with thru-wire and have always had problems doing jointed lures - the topcoat gets everything stuck togther. was trying to figure out a way that i can paint and finish each segment indivually before linking them up. pls see pics for a solution i am working on right now

thanks for the replies! There's no photo finishing involved in this method. the details are a combination of carving, etching in the foil, & hand colouring. attached is a pic of the raw state of the lure. blending/fading done with different toned markers plus solvent applied over to blend them.

been toying around with an alternative painting method. would like to share cos i'm fairly pleased with the outcome. the steps: 1. foil 2. clearcoat 3. art markers 4. solvent applied with cotton bud to create patterns 5. clearcoat. simple! posted a pic in the gallery. not sure if i am allowed to put it here!

pic attached of work in progress.

i'm coming back to lure making after a rather long break. right now i am working on a double prop(one in front and one at the rear) woodchopper style lure and need some advice on weighting. does anyone have advice on the "best" way to ballast this type of lure to achieve maximum splash? i was thinking that the lure need to be lay horizontal with the hooks on(incl rear hook) with the props lying exactly on the water surface film. however my kitchen sink test shows that this results in a rather light lure. i was wondering if i am being a little too obsessed with getting the lure horizontal and getting the props to lie at the surface? basically my question is - would a heavier, tail heavy, prop under water lure throw up more splash, and fish better?

i've done something similiar to this on balsa swimbaits. a bit finicky for smaller lures though. http://www5b.biglobe.ne.jp/~f-sense/build2.htm