What's on your WORKBENCH ? -April 2020

Good morning, Brandon~


Spectacular! It's good to see your wonderful style again - those White-wings have all kinds of presence!




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Here are Three Amigos From the Bench of George Williams....


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George tells me this Cinnamon Teal is known as Pato Colorado down in Argentina. It is apparently a subspecies (Spatula cyanoptera cyantoptera) - distinct from and a bit larger than the one we see in North America.



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This is a Speckled Teal - Pato Barcino


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And this is a Silver Teal - Pato Cappucino.

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George's Lab is named Pato Cappucino - aka "Cap" - because he has a coffee-colored head from a yellow mom and a chocolate dad.




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Here is the finished pair of E Allen Greenwings from my shop. Lou Tisch confirmed that Keith Mueller had carved the master for these sweet little birds.


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Even though they still need leather loops for anchor line attachment, they made it through their sea trials.


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All the best,


SJS
 
Good morning, Dax~


Those are my usual Behr sample jars on the topcoat.


After coating with epoxy + fine sawdust, I sealed and primed with flat oils - in this case Pettit 3303 Dull Dead Grass duckboat paint. I did not stipple the sides on the Drake with the darker Suede Grey - because I thought the texture gave enough suggestion of the vermiculation.


The decoys in the color charts are hollow White Pine from a couple of years back.



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Hen - except I toned down the feather edgings on the back - used Mocha Latte instead of Woven Straw.



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All the best,


SJS

 
D. Hinton said:
Mr Sanford;

Are those real painted with your home Depot specials or oils?
(Typo or no typo???)

D. Hinton,
This is probably not the first time Mr. Sanford has been accused of using real birds. The other thing he is not telling you is the actual complete paint recipe for his birds. It is a know fact that Mr. Sanford uses a yet to be determined secret substance when he paints. He is very sly about it and no one has been able to catch him adding this secret ingredient to his paint jars. Some folks say he does this in the dead of the night in total darkness as he has been known to be up at all hours.

I have my own theory, much like a magician who makes a card appear out of thin air, Mr. Sandford is able control this ingredient at will. The paint on his palette is void of this ingredient, yet when he dips the brush into said paint and as the paint is being applied, some how some way the ingredient is there. I believe he has this ingredient hidden somewhere within, it flows down his arm, onto the brush handle and into the brush fibers, where it comes alive with the paint.

That's my theory, and I'm sticking to it.
 
Good morning, Dave~


Thanks for the kind - and very imaginative - words! Enough to make a fellow blush.


I am shocked that you discovered my secret - I had always thought it was safe in that vault down in Atlanta, alongside the original recipe for Coca-Cola....


All the best,


SJS

 
Hello all,

I haven't posted much this year - I was working on birds for a local competition that has been put off until next year. Since then I finished this urn decoy for one of my son's co-workers (another game warden) who lost his lab.


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Hollow cedar, bass head, painted in acrylics.

Joel
 
Jamus said:
Well, getting some quality time in the shop and adding to the rig with a few mallards. Looking to add five in total and birds 1 and 2 are off to the side with 3 to be a high-head hen.

Jamus, I know you said mallardd but that low-head just screams "I'm a black duck!" to me. Very nice.

Eric
 
Eric Patterson said:
Jamus said:
Well, getting some quality time in the shop and adding to the rig with a few mallards. Looking to add five in total and birds 1 and 2 are off to the side with 3 to be a high-head hen.

Jamus, I know you said mallardd but that low-head just screams "I'm a black duck!" to me. Very nice.

Eric

thanks Eric. It does have that look to it a bit now that you mention it. Mostly I have been mostly carving black ducks over the years so it's possible that my eyes tend to see everything from that perspective!
 
Great work everyone I love seeing all the "quarentine work".

My job is fairly chalanging right now and I am working a lot of hours due to all the people at home using the internet now but ill find time to steal a few hours and paint again soon.
I have a rig of 12 of these all hollowed cedar that I need to get ready for this fall.

Picture from the other day when I painted a base coat on one.
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Ever since I built my workshop I envisioned a long workbench down a wall that would also be my slider station. This fall I finally started the build, then stopped to work on the Broadbill, re-started, stopped for hunting season, started again, and am about to stop again for a couple projects I've committed to. Regardless of the herkie-jerky schedule I am getting pretty close. I still need to install the slider saw to make her operational and will do that this weekend.

The drawers will wait until summer or fall. Timing is good on that because I've worked out a trade on a dovetailer for a cyclone I have and am not using. So the drawers will be a good first project for the dovetailer.

Basically the bench is a 21 feet long with a break about halfway for the slider. It is 34" deep and that was driven by slider needs and turns out to be a comfortable reach for when I add tool racks on the wall just behind the bench. I was going for a built-in look and made the base from the same pine bleacher boards that cover the shop walls and trim. I pretty much worked from plans in my head, and sometimes that cost me, but I'm pretty pleased my mind's eye could see where I needed to go and get me there. Somewhere down the road I really need to take time to learn CAD. The oak for the top was reclaimed from a Tennessee barn. I picked up the wood for 75 cents a board foot and spent several weekends machining and gluing. In the end it saved me money and I think it looks better for a workbench top than had I gone with wood from the hardwood center. There is a T-track lengthwise that will be used for the slider stop block. The overhead cubbies were completed this fall and have proven to be a good design so far. With the bench under them now I think they'll be even better. The parts bins in the base really saved a lot of space over their old location on top of a table. This is one project I look forward to completing but am happy to take a break and use as-is.

Note the "old-school" Waterlox can. I found a batch of cans in an old hardware store out in the county for less than $8 per can. I cleared the shelf!
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Eric that looks great and a very functional design. You do nice work. I can see you spending lots of time in front of that bench. I?ll be interested in hearing how you like that Waterlox on the bench top. I can see why you mounted your vice on that side but I?m wondering if you are left handed.
 
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