June - What's on your workbench ??????

Gods morning Steve, thank you! Yes I use lead pads on all my decoys. I prefer them for the ease of balancing the decoy and for the reason the decoys will sit flat and level on the bottom when our tide drop to zero.

I make two different size pads , one for big ducks and one for smaller. Bigger are about 2.5 by 1.5 and around 1/4" thick. Smaller are 1.75x1.5.

I can vary the weight on the larger I've by the thickness of pour from 4.5 to 6 oz. most standard ducks take about 5. ( which is on these GEs)
 
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I am curious,Bob, how much background work-up time-pattern cut-out prep.,reference photos, paint pattern and color mixing notes,etc.- do you put in for a non-endemic species like these teal?

Thanks for all the nice comments; glad everyone liked the teal.

Rick,
With all the sources at one's fingertips (literally, with our keyboards ;-)), there's a wealth of information out there for the taking. It's really amazing that we now have the ability to instantly look at enough reference to help determine what it is we're really seeing. Mostly a matter of deciding how much to keep and what to incorporate in order to pull something off well.

Putting together a pattern is just a matter of sketching, and oftentimes adjusting until it looks pleasing.....at least on paper. Thinking about what you want/need to paint before you start to carve helps avoid lot of problems down the road.

Nice thing about gunning decoys is that (as Joe Wooster used to say) you can "leave something to the viewer's imagination."

The technical manual that most paint manufacturer's put out (in my case Jansens / Traditions) is a huge help when trying to come up with colors "The Book" where I've kept mix notes for so many years also provides at least a starting point (if not the answer) for a color I'm trying to duplicate.

As for time spent - you must know now that for us retired farts, time is just the river we go fishing in. Once I "make" the time to sit down and carve or paint, things actually go pretty quickly, yet I don't mind spending what turns out to be a minimal bit of extra time to throw in a little finish detail that I feel really improves the overall quality of a particular decoy. In all honesty, the most important time I spend is in paying attention to the mundane "construction" tasks that I have always felt need be a part of any well-made working bird - and taking the time to see that those are done well. I'm talking about things like gluing, clamping, eliminating the use of fillers, weighting properly, strengthening heads & tails with dowels, keels, float-testing, self-righting, sanding, sealing, texturing....

It's been huge to have separate shop and painting studio areas. That somehow makes it so much easier to come to a logical "stopping point" where I can leave off on a piece and later come back fresh and pick up right where I left off. Makes working on birds so much more enjoyable.
 
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Thank you for the overview and insight. Assuming these are each first renditions of their species, your teal are a remarkable depiction of their real-life counterparts.

ps If you are a Cavaliers fan, congratulations! Heck of a game and a heck of comeback!
 
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Not exactly a Cavs "fan," but given Cleveland's 50+ years of defeat being snatched from the jaws of victory, I was pulling for Lebron.

Certainly a lot of jaw-dropping athleticism on both sides last night. The memorable one for me was seeing LeBron pin that shot to the backboard after hustling over to defend. :0)
https://youtu.be/kIZqOTIbWDg
 
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In all honesty, the most important time I spend is in paying attention to the mundane "construction" tasks that I have always felt need be a part of any well-made working bird - and taking the time to see that those are done well. I'm talking about things like gluing, clamping, eliminating the use of fillers, weighting properly, strengthening heads & tails with dowels, keels, float-testing, self-righting, sanding, sealing, texturing....

Bob, even with my limited few years of carving experience, I wholeheartedly agree with you! And for whatever reason I currently hate doing all of that... just get me to the carving and painting. Maybe in 20 or 40 years I could get an "apprentice"or a nephew or something to do that stuff and I can just draw, carve, and paint :D
 
Dennis et al~

In response to Popular Demand, George Williams cleaned his shop...

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...then was invaded by Hordes of Marauding Mourning Doves.....



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All the best,

SJS

 
Time to get some decoys on workbench thread...


Just finished refurbishing the hen bluebills in my rig. Mostly a mix of burlapped and plain Herters, plus a few corks, all with 15+ years of gunning. I really didn't see much difference in the condition between wrapped and unwrapped foam birds even after literally 100s of hunts. I hated wrapping when I did it last time so I left the unwrapped ones as is, and just repaired shot holes and wear areas with Titebond III.


I thank Mr Sanford for the inspiration and bayman painting techniques, as well as the suggested use of Behr brand colours and latex paint. Twenty eight hens in total. Nothing too fancy but will certainly get the job done.


Before:





After:



 
Dennis et al~

(72 + 81) x 24


I do not know who first got the idea of putting a duck's head on the body of a goose - but Zack Taylor - in Successful Waterfowling (pp. 190-1910) - probably spread the word pretty widely. I have certainly seen many rigs with Black Duck decoys that used the Herter's Model 72 Mallard-Black Mallard head on their "small goose" body - the Model 81. I believe Herter's offered it as a factory option in their later years.



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These birds - 8 Blacks along with 18 Mallards - came to me after circumnavigating New York State. One duckboats.net member from eastern Long Island took them to another member - a bit further west - to be burlapped. They were then purchased by another member from central New York. The heads were coated with epoxy + sawdust and then fastened with S/S screw eyes. He brought them to me - all assembled, sealed and primed - for final paint.




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I worked on these Blacks whilst completing my Sneakbox - and a long list of the usual mechanical, plumbing, grounds maintenance chores - in my travels between Lake Champlain, here in Washington County - and on Long Island.

A little bit of paint.


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A dab of varnish to brighten the eyes.
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Ready for temporary storage - until I get around to the Mallards.



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All the best,

SJS

 
well- not actually "on the workbench" at the moment but -

i plugged the bolt holes with wine corks after the pics and will add some more guide lines and start with the rasp this week- and do a little fine tuning on the heads/cheeks
so - maybe with paint by the August or September postings

been slow going- but too many projects- this past week I also epoxied a Parker stock split through the wrist in three places- so this coming week, that will get a threaded rod for reinforcement and a staple to prevent the all too common split in the stock head (which it shows signs of) prior to putting a finish on it- and I fitted a replacement forend to a grade 2 hammer gun that was missing it's own.

and trying to train Macallan (one of us is training the other ;-) )


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Years ago I converted a rig of herters brant to black duck. Didn't have any brant in our area, so it was a win win. They did look good.
Converted them back to brant after getting a invite to shoot brant by a member of this forum. Going back into barn with the one brant limit.
 
Rich, better keep them available, since the little oops by the feds that increased the brant population by over 50,000. Seems they were looking in all the wrong places for the past few years!
 
Had a guy reach out to me a few months ago wanting to do his first bird. He wanted to do a blackduck so I let him draw his own pattern. He drew a big one...almost 20in long and we had to use a bottom board with 4in cork. Anyway, he finished it up yesterday. Hollowed cork in acrylics. First bird that has been completed in my shop since last fall.

I've got a lesser bb and can on the paint table, hope to post them up soon.

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Good morning, All~

George Williams just fended off the Mourning Dove Hordes when he was overwhelmed by a Mass of Mallards - both Greenheads and Black Mallards....


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These 48 birds were born in 1984 and last visited George's ICU in 2006.


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Repairs range from stem to stern....
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All the best,

SJS

 
Steve, thanks for posting--May have confused you a bit--A number of the dekes now in the shop for rehab range from 1984-2" Wiley, sandwiched-to 2007. For some, this is the first paint job. Others were last refurbished in 2006. I still have two masonite tails to pull and replace on the '84 models.
Don't you just love seeing how stuff held up after a long absence?
 
Steve,
Keep in mind this is just my opinion. A couple of years ago i wrapped 8 81's and painted them as blackducks and mallards. After hunting them for a season i sold them to a guide from the Chicago area.
Reason for the sale i just didn't like the proportions, their butts looked enormous to incoming ducks. Too much black and tan on the mallard butts and too much dark brown on the blackducks, IMO.

I will finish the remaining birds as Canadas using your goose painting tutorial and Behr paints.

Also gonna try epoxy and corn cob in place of burlap wrapping.
 
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