APRIL FOOLS WORK BENCH - What's on yours ? (April 2019)

Rick, not a gift! These were brought for me to paint for the buyer! Though I may have sold my time cheap. The resource to create the molds will be an additional value as I will be able to cast heads for guys in the future like I have the coot mold already.
 
Last edited:
Very nice, Pat, you've been quite busy. I saw the canvasback cut-outs on DCF, That recliner hasn't gotten much use!
 
All~


This is a proto-type. A friend asked me to re-paint some Al McCormick Mallards AND put eyes in them (which Al did only rarely).


[CLICK to enlarge any image]



Here is the Drake BEFORE:


View attachment sm 1 Castelli McC Mallard Drake FULL - BEFORE.JPG



Best way to locate eyes on an existing decoy is to measure off the tip of the bill:


View attachment sm 2 Castelli McC Mallard Drake Head w calipers BEFORE.JPG



Here's the AFTER:


View attachment sm 3 McCormick Mallard Drake with eyes FULL.JPG



Eye detail:


View attachment sm 4 McCormick Mallard Drake with eyes HEAD.JPG



Another pending project is a bunch of silhouettes - mostly songbirds - for a local NGO. The Fort Edward Grasslands Important Bird Area (IBA) has a big event each May. They asked me to make 25 or 30 painted silhouettes - most of which will hang on wires. Here is the first output - a pair of Bobolinks (where the singing-on-the-wing drake is a bit too small) - sorry for the blurry image.



View attachment sm 1 IBA Bobolink Pair.JPG



Some Eastern Meadowlarks (a third is in the works):


View attachment sm 2 IBA Meadowlark Pair.JPG



These Snow Buntings will be part of a big mixed flock of Buntings and Horned Larks - flying to their Arctic breeding grounds:


View attachment sm 3 IBA Snow Buntings - Threesome SQUARE.JPG



All the best,


SJS

 
Yes, I lied... Instead of stopping to rest my knuckles and heal the self-inflicted cuts I grabbed the Crazy Glue surgical glue out of the dog first aid kit and sealed them up and grabbed the last two heads I have carved for these magnum bodies (about the size of the Godin GHG bluebills) and finished off the last two I had glued-up with bottom boards. I just glued the head on the bird on the left which will have to sit for a couple of days prior sanding the neck/body joint. I tried epoxy with some heads, but didn't like it when sanding the joint, so I went back to Titebond III and a furniture clamp-better seal, less gummed-up sanding drums. Instead of tossing the three hen heads I had carved from Duck Blind head stock supplied with the wrong grain direction, I ground-out some black cork bodies I had sitting around. View attachment Scaup remnants 002.JPG

All the bills have an epoxy coated finishing nail inserted in them for support. It's been three years since I touched black cork bodies. I forgot how easily you can buzz through making a body in black cork (basically an hour from layout to finished body; compared to 2.5 hours for a tan cork body) The downside? Another hour and a half of clean-up to remove the charged particles that are stuck to everything within eight feet of the carving station. Then another hour filling voids in the cork with cork dust and Titebond III that are too large to leave prior sealing and painting. I have some redhead heads too that will also now go on cork bodies, but they will be ground and sanded outside this summer...I received a good reminder lesson!

I forgot, the cork pieces I have had to add are a consequence of cutting these tan blanks from a full size sheet of HD cork on a bandsaw that is mounted on a portable stand. I have to use the existing work surface to make the cuts, so some o the tight radius cuts get distorted when the blade binds from the weight of the sheet, since I have no work table support under much of it.

These bring the total to 37 cork decoys carved since March 4th.

View attachment Scaup remnants 003.JPG
 
Last edited:
Rick~


Nice birds - even those made from old refrigerators!


Your point about that sticky cork dust - just like foam bodies - is well-taken. Except for sawing out the plan and profile views, I eschew all power tools. A bread knife, a rasp or two, and sandpaper are the tools I use. Much less mess. I brush the rasps off before putting them away.



I usually do not fill the crevices or crevasses - just soak with a heavy coat (or two) of spar varnish before my flat oil primer.


All the best,


SJS

 
Finished up the mallard with the urn in it a few days back. Took the picture using Dave Hagerbaumer's print, The Mallard Hunter, as a background. Worth sent me that one with the one showing pickleweeds in use a few years back.



View attachment 73.jpg View attachment 82.jpg




View attachment 71.jpg

Took an interesting trip to the Glen Helen Raptor Center yesterday. One can get close up to a whole lot of birds of prey that are housed in captivity there due to an injury that has left them unable to hunt effectively in the wild.



View attachment IMGP2073 (700 x 517).jpg View attachment IMGP2072 (700 x 456).jpg
 
I've carved well over a 100 black cork decoys. Like many, black cork was my choice when I first started carving, I used some Stanley Sureform hand rasps- flat, round rat-tail, convex face to shape the bodies after vertical profile cut-out on a band saw. I actually thought I broke Eric's Craftsman bandsaw while Dennis and I were cutting up three blocks, when the on/off switch stopped working. After clean-up of our mess, I took the switch apart, assuming the contacts were shot. Nothing was wrong...except that the switch housing was packed with cork dust!

Steve, the principal issue with these cork blocks is in the quality of the cork sheet. I think, from what I recall, that this sheet came from Chesepeake Decoy Works. As you know, black cork is simply cork bark particles ground and steam autoclaved to release their resin content, which serves as the binder when the blocks are pressed. The particle size within the cork block is key to the quality of black cork; the larger the particle size, the poorer and lighter the cork density. If you zoom on the pics of these decoys you can see the black cork particles are large, which essentially equates to poor particle-to-particle adherence. I can't work these with a burr bit, even a fine one without particles flying-off constantly, often leaving large voids. I use a 1/2" diameter 3" long sanding drum mounted on a mandrel in a Foredom handpiece to essentially sand these into finished body shapes,. as well as to outline the tertials, primaries and shoulder/cape feather groups. This minimizes the filling, but, as you pointed -out enhances the volume of finely charged cork dust. I usually end-up doing three filter changes with the Tornado 1000 when grinding a cork body, because the filter plugs so quickly.

The old refrigerator cork that I have seen blocks of had quite fine particles, but it was poorly bound. The life vest cork often was doweled together-like the balsa blocks in that life raft I made canvasbacks from when the Marquette Maritime Museum folks decided to pitch it.
View attachment DSC00829.JPGView attachment DSC00832.JPG
This is a threatening mallard decoy I made for a jerk line. Note the second coat of Val-oil's sealing abilities!!!

View attachment DSC00844.JPG

These were made from The Duck Blind's 11lb density cork...very nice material to work with, but still messy! There is a 1/2" diameter dowel that runs 8" into the body from the base of the neck, epoxied in place.
View attachment DSC01076.JPGView attachment DSC01075.JPG
 
Last edited:
Good morning, All~


This photo made its way to me from Delaware, I think.....it depicts (most of) the new Runamuck Decoys banner.



I'll let George Williams explain....it appears to my eye that he is imparting some solemn wisdom to his board of directors.



View attachment Runamuck Decoy Banner.jpg



I appreciate the tag line: "So many carvers, so few decoy makers." I am definitely in the former bunch - especially after Joe Daly told me that Al McCormick had made about 27,000 decoys by the late 1980s - and he wasn't done yet.


More at: http://www.runamuckdecoys.com/



All the best,


SJS

 
Good morning all,

I always enjoy reviewing the workbench threads, because they inspire me to get back in the shop. This month is no exception.

I have photos of a few birds that I've been working on that I held off on posting because I was taking them to The Gathering - a small carving competition focused mostly on spearing decoys, but with a few duck and other bird categories in Perham, Minnesota. The competition was this last weekend, so I can post pictures of the birds.




View attachment DSC_0060_NEW (600 x 412).jpgView attachment DSC_0067 (600 x 400).jpgView attachment DSC_0065 (600 x 400).jpgView attachment DSC_0066_NEW (600 x 384).jpg

It was good to interact with other carvers, and get inspired by their work.

Joel
 
Yes, Joel, those are very nice birds! Did you place in any of the competition categories? Were any Jim Wick's spearing decoys among those on display. Jim has gone in that direction after Weldon's death. I don't think he carves waterfowl anymore.
 
RL -

I'm very partial to stretch neck gunning decoys. Done correctly, they add realism & action to a rig.

Black cork is a very traditional, and trying medium to work with, but nothing floats like it does.


Your drake Mallard looks like a dandy, that would pass the "Back Yard Toss Test" no problem.

Far as I'm concerned the top view sez it all. Two Thumbs UP.

As the seasons pass it will only get better with age.


Best regards
Vince
 
Hi Rick,

There were a lot of fish decoys both at the tables and in the competitions. I don't remember seeing Jim Wick's fish, but they may have been there.

I took 4 second place finishes. There was a fellow there from Michigan with very clean paint that swept those same categories.

Joel
 
Rick, A friend of mine is having trouble with his bandsaw. He just returned from a few month in Fla, but wasn't usable when he left. I suspect his problem is the dust from the black cork and to try a good cleaning. I'll let you know if that was his problem!
 
Good morning, Joel~


That's one fine foursome! Nice work all around.


Question: In what "category" did they compete ? (I'm baffled by all of the "new" categories since the early 90s when I was more conversant in contests.)


Here are 3 Grey Ducks from The Bench of George Williams. He was trying different paint treatments on the vermiculated capes and sides.


Drake 1 - darker


View attachment GWilliams Grey Duck 3.jpg



Drake 1 - lighter


View attachment GWilliams Grey Duck 2.jpg



Drake 2


View attachment GWilliams - Grey Duck 1.jpg



All the best,


SJS



















 
Back
Top