Swing weight keels

patrick mccarthy

patrick mccarthy

Active member
Does anyone have any insight on swing weight keels?
I've seen them where the pivot points are front and back and also side to side.
They did this type in the great lakes thought I would give it a try.
Thanks
Pat
 
MAD decoys out of PA did some on E Allen decoys that I liked. Copper wire with the lead molded onto it. I have them on some of the E Allen decoys I have. What I like is that they fold flat in the decoy bags. I searched for a mold to make them, never saw anything appropriate. MAD decoys is no more... I bought some paint form them years ago, and it was last of what they had at the time. IDK if Lou might have some insight?
 
I made one once. I put two small screw eyes in the bottom of the decoy, one front and one back. Drilled a hole in a piece of lead, ran a wire through, and loosely connected the wire to the screw eyes so the whole thing would flop side to side on the decoy and self right. I kept the weight where I wanted it on the wire just by putting a small bend in the wire on both sides. It was simple and fun to do once and it worked fine. But all in all I prefer a traditional keel.

Give it a shot.

Mike
 
We used to use galvanized chain, usually 4 large links on our broadbill stool when layout shooting. We didn’t wrap our lines (1/4 inch Manila) we used round lead weights over the head and stacked the in the boat.
 
The best I have seen have been on decoys from Canada.

Different applications can be viewed in WATERFOWL DECOYS OF SOUTHWESTERN ONTARIO AND THE MEN WHO MADE THEM by R. Paul Brisco

Many are shown on decoys, and page 95 shows over ten different styles of Swing Weights.

Years ago at Turkey Point. I had the pleasure of spending time with two old hunters, gunning Bluebills off the beach, over a old rig of hollow wooden decoys, all of which had swing weights. Very impressive.
 
I was able to track down the guy who used to sell MAD decoys. He will take inventory of what he has left and make me a deal. Also investigating get the molds from him too. Stay tuned!
 
Jim Wicks made a variety of swing weight keeled decoys back in the early '60's. He worked in the Steven T. Mason building for the MDNR. When the Mason building underwent an electrical/mechanical renovation he, John Armsman, and Matt Pierce were able to pick-up a large volume of vinyl clad copper multi-strand cable that the contractor was going to toss. They used it, via a jig and hand-made hardwood mold, to produce a tear drop shaped crescent keel to fix to the decoys they made. Jim said it was not a lot of fun to make these since he had to flatten the section of copper than ran the length of the mold cavity with a ball-peen hammer, and heat it hot enough to enable adhesion with the molten lead added in the pour. The other variation they made employed one or two gillnet lead line weights mounted on the wire, much like Chuck's style. I have five or six of these decoys in a variety of species. I also made molds for two sizes of keel weights for some goldeneye and ringneck decoys I painted and assembled that I bought from Lou Tisch (e. Allens).
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Several of Jim's birds pictured were carved from multiple materials. The juvenile hen scaup has a cedar wood bottom board with the pancake style upper body carved in 1968 from balsa (He made a number of scaup and ringnecks in the 1990s out of balsa wood bodies for about ten years.), the earliest balsa decoy of his I have found. The ringneck was one of his first foam birds (note the underside in the previous picture). The buffleheads are tan cork on cedar bottom boards with integral cedar tails and wing inserts. The only downside of these swing keels is the added weight for a large rig of birds. They ride the water exceptionally well!
 
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Thanks. Getting some solid information from you guys.
Dave keep me posted on the swing weights I would be interested in buying some or the mold
Pat
 
Jim had rigged a jig that enabled him to get the wire eyes uniform with two to three twists. The one point I would add that you should be aware of is that these keels require you to mount the wire to the decoy with wire staples, versus the screw eyes on Dave's example.

Good luck!
Rick
 
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