How to Carve Realistic Snakes

Study reference photos to see details and postures for your snake carving. Decide what pose works best for your wood stock.

Draw the snake contour lines in pencil, on a piece of pine or basswood. Make your pattern wider than the plans for the completed snake carving. Undercuts take away more wood than you may think.

Mark the areas that will be removed.

Cut the basic shape into the wood with chisels and a hacksaw. This is the roughing out portion of the carving, where you develop the basic shape of your design. Take away large areas of wood that do not belong on the finished carving.

Use stop cuts to start refining the snake body. Drive a chisel into the wood, along the pencil lines, with a hammer or wooden mallet. Cut into these slices, at a 90 degree angle, and remove the wood. This results in a squared version of your finished design.

Use a shallow gouge to round off the top of the snake body. Work over the entire surface with this round gouging motion and remove all the square corners.

Taper the head and tail onto the form. Refine the bulging eyes and their corner recesses. Use a V gouge and scalpel to shape the eyes, nostrils, scales and recesses at the corner of the eyes. Make a single V stroke for the distinctive iris.

Remove waste wood to refine the whole snake shape. Compare your carving to the reference photos, as you preoceed.

Remove gouge marks and continue to refine the shape with a knife, rasp and sandpaper.

Define scales with a small gouge and a cutting sequence. Outline the contours with a stop cut on each side of the scale. Make shallow undercuts for smooth scaled subjects. Finish with a surface cut that mimics the particular species. Order the scales as bricks are layered, in a staggered arrangement.

Apply paste wax as a finish. Rub and buff it onto the wood with clean rags.