October Workbench

[MLBob Furia]

Finding an "interesting place to stop" is a natural part of the carving & painting process, but a few days ago I finally decided to go back and re-work some details on a carved dead-mount tableau with a mallard drake that I had done some time back. For quite a while now, kept thinking that the mantle, back, & upper tail coverts needed to be improved.
Here's the piece with the re-painted areas completed:

 

[William Reinicke]

Got a few more mallard done. 6 skimmers headed to Cali and 6 uprights headed to NY. Sending some proto stuff to some friends. I am still not happy with many things, but in 8 months, I am not terribly unhappy with how some of my birds are turning out. I will never have the talent many have here, but I am just happy to be making something of my own that I can kill birds over. Shocked when some of my friends asked for some pieces. I hope to have bills cleaned up next go around (these are atrocious but I tried something and it didnt work). I am working on one "custom" bird that will end up in Florida one day. I hope to get it finished next weekend with molds sent to the hunter so he can make his own as well. Thats all the workbench posts for me until 2025. Love seeing you alls work, definitely motivates the young decoy maker in myself.

 

[Rick Pierce]

@jode hillman, @MLBob Furia, & @Rick Pierce

I appreciate what you guys are saying and the anecdotes from older hunters you've run across certainly jives with things I've heard said over the years. I have zero doubt that some carvers harvested their own and they specifically went for the bell bottom, positively. But I sure would like to see some comparisons between wood from different parts of the tree to better understand any differences and their magnitude. In my shop right now I have a big hunk of tupelo that we cut four or five years ago from a stand on the property I have permission to hunt. It was taken above the bell. It's about 30" long or so and was approx. 18" before I quartered it on my 36" bandsaw. It feels VERY SOFT to me. In fact, the pith is probably too soft (not rot) to do anything with. I need to take a knife to it just to get a better feel but kind of doubt you'd consider it hard. Taking into consideration Rick's dad's wood duck experience and you all's comments maybe there is a lot of hardness variation within a tupelo, or between tupelos, and the base is the only consistent place to carve from. But for the carver buying bell wood, I would be very leery that what I was getting was from the bell. My hunch is the likelihood I'm getting wood somewhere up the trunk is high, unless the vendor is upfront, honest, and in control of the sawing.

Speaking of wood from the hunting property. Last fall we cleared a swampy area when it got really dry and cut five large white oaks (26" - 38" diameters) and drug them out of the swamp with a D3 bulldozer and bucked them (see below pictures). Just last night these logs were pulled from the bottoms and hauled to a gravel lot near the lodge. I have a portable sawmill coming this weekend to saw them. I'm afraid I may have bitten off more than I can chew! If the sawyer can cut them I have A LOT of hauling and stacking to do, to the tune of 3500 board feet. I am going for quarter sawn. Hopefully the mill can handle the logs, and we can flip them for quarter sawing. Getting these logs sawn, moved to my shop, and stacked is going to be a challenging task to say the least.View attachment 59783

Love those white oaks...3500 bf...wow. Enough to keep you for a year or two with various projects.

You bring up a good point. If you are just buying tupelo blocks, there is NO way to know, and as a matter of fact, it was pretty common knowledge (historically) that the guys who cut it saved the best blocks for themselves or their preferred customers, and what they sold was whatever was left over. Again, rumors, but historically at least some of it was obtained without regard for who actually owned the land or timber.

 

[Eric Patterson]

@Rick Pierce

About twelve years ago they widened a road here on base. That road runs right through a large tupelo swamp. The trees were cut down and the stumps (3-4' dia) pushed over and hauled off, probably to be burned. If I had a means at the time I would have talked to the foreman and see if I could have carried some of the stumps away. I do have access to a several private tupelo stands now. If the need to cut, even one, arises you can be darn sure I'm sawing those logs.

The white oak is for the gunning boxes I'm going to make in retirement. If all goes well it will be quarter sawn. In my mind's eye quarter sawn and ammonia fumed duck hunting boxes will be exquisitely unique.

 

[Rick Pierce]

@Rick Pierce

About twelve years ago they widened a road here on base. That road runs right through a large tupelo swamp. The trees were cut down and the stumps (3-4' dia) pushed over and hauled off, probably to be burned. If I had a means at the time I would have talked to the foreman and see if I could have carried some of the stumps away. I do have access to a several private tupelo stands now. If the need to cut, even one, arises you can be darn sure I'm sawing those logs.

The white oak is for the gunning boxes I'm going to make in retirement. If all goes well it will be quarter sawn. In my mind's eye quarter sawn and ammonia fumed duck hunting boxes will be exquisitely unique.

Nice.

I haven't tried to find any tupelo in a few years; I have enough cedar and basswood to last me for a while yet, but I would still like to carve "native" species.

 

[Eric Patterson]

Rick

Native? You mean like Hickory?

 

[Huntindave McCann]

@jode hillman, @MLBob Furia, & @Rick Pierce

I appreciate what you guys are saying and the anecdotes from older hunters you've run across certainly jives with things I've heard said over the years. I have zero doubt that some carvers harvested their own and they specifically went for the bell bottom, positively. But I sure would like to see some comparisons between wood from different parts of the tree to better understand any differences and their magnitude. In my shop right now I have a big hunk of tupelo that we cut four or five years ago from a stand on the property I have permission to hunt. It was taken above the bell. It's about 30" long or so and was approx. 18" before I quartered it on my 36" bandsaw. It feels VERY SOFT to me. In fact, the pith is probably too soft (not rot) to do anything with. I need to take a knife to it just to get a better feel but kind of doubt you'd consider it hard. Taking into consideration Rick's dad's wood duck experience and you all's comments maybe there is a lot of hardness variation within a tupelo, or between tupelos, and the base is the only consistent place to carve from. But for the carver buying bell wood, I would be very leery that what I was getting was from the bell. My hunch is the likelihood I'm getting wood somewhere up the trunk is high, unless the vendor is upfront, honest, and in control of the sawing.

Speaking of wood from the hunting property. Last fall we cleared a swampy area when it got really dry and cut five large white oaks (26" - 38" diameters) and drug them out of the swamp with a D3 bulldozer and bucked them (see below pictures). Just last night these logs were pulled from the bottoms and hauled to a gravel lot near the lodge. I have a portable sawmill coming this weekend to saw them. I'm afraid I may have bitten off more than I can chew! If the sawyer can cut them I have A LOT of hauling and stacking to do, to the tune of 3500 board feet. I am going for quarter sawn. Hopefully the mill can handle the logs, and we can flip them for quarter sawing. Getting these logs sawn, moved to my shop, and stacked is going to be a challenging task to say the least.View attachment 59783

Eric,
Glad I'm too old to offer you any help in your loading, flipping, stacking and stickering project.

 

[Rick Pierce]

Rick

Native? You mean like Hickory?

Lord...I wouldn't want to carry six hickory decoys...even hollow...much less try to carve it...

With what they've done to our hardwoods here, "native" at this point is loblolly pine...

I wouldn't mind cypress, but I've had good, dry cypress lumber check or split for no reason all of a sudden. I know they also use cypress root for decoys, and occasionally cypress knees.

I didn't see that it was you that responded initially, so I deleted the tupelo reference...smart aleck.

 

[Don Mintz]

Towards the end of July a friend let me know that her black lab had died. I've been working on this wigeon urn ever since and finally finished it yesterday.

 

[Steve Sanford]

Thanks
Its white oak bent to keep the grain structure. They bend without breaking

Patrick~

For my Oldsquaw and Pintail tails - I use Hickory limb wood grown to the curve.

Thanks for your gorgeous work!

SJS

 

[JasonM]

Lord...I wouldn't want to carry six hickory decoys...even hollow...much less try to carve it...

With what they've done to our hardwoods here, "native" at this point is loblolly pine...

I wouldn't mind cypress, but I've had good, dry cypress lumber check or split for no reason all of a sudden. I know they also use cypress root for decoys, and occasionally cypress knees.

I didn't see that it was you that responded initially, so I deleted the tupelo reference...smart aleck.

Oscar Carroll of Back Bay, VA decoy carving fame used cypress knees for all his decoy bodies 100 years ago. Lends itself to some neat character in some of the bodies.

 

[William Reinicke]

Got the mallard finished and sent out. I am trying a removable keel system. I made 12 protos of this keel and they got sent out with the decoys. Based everything off movement in current. If not in current, then no point in having a keel and extra weight. I use thread inserts to achieve this. I like a decoy without a keel in late season for ice shelves or shallow mud flats. So when I started building my decoys, I knew I had this intention in mind. Also found a new purple for my eyes. If you dont know by now, purple is my fav color and has always been kind of a signature of everything I do. Shop is getting cleaned after the scouting trips this weekend. Ill still continue to make head molds and maybe a couple body molds, plan to cast some foam throughout the winter as well. But I wont be very active with it. Kind of plan on having a small pile ready to paint by the time the season is over. Also got this fulvous whistler done for a buddy who chases them. Not my best effort and he bills are atrocious. I am bagging the idea of restle coated bills. I might even mess with learning to carve a bill or two and start my carving adventures there. I tried it, I gave it my best effort, but it isnt going to work. To my first year making decoys.... see the workbench next spring. Until then, time to get shop cleaned and shotguns ready.

Serviced the boat. Mine isn’t as cool as most the ones here. But it’s always a good feeling when you change oil, change spark plugs, pump a bulb a couple times and first key turn it fires right up. This 5000 efi has been the best mud rig I’ve ever owned. Was put away last Feb.

 

[Todd Duncan Tennyson]

Finding an "interesting place to stop" is a natural part of the carving & painting process, but a few days ago I finally decided to go back and re-work some details on a carved dead-mount tableau with a mallard drake that I had done some time back. For quite a while now, kept thinking that the mantle, back, & upper tail coverts needed to be improved.
Here's the piece with the re-painted areas completed:

View attachment 59782

Man, this is really outstanding. I can't fathom doing something like that, I mean, the skill and artistry it would take are just off the charts.

I can write a decent story, or do an abstract painting like Pollack, something like that, but this... Godlike skills and talent.

 

[Cody Foster]

This is Sage, Urn 1 of 2 that I’m doing for our dog we lost last year. This one contains the majority of the ashes and will reside in the house. The other I will hunt over.

I haven’t done a hen in quite some time and this one was a challenge. I painted the head and tail multiple times until I was comfortable with the look. I still think the tail is not quite right. So let me know if there any improvement I need to make, I will start the second one here soon.

 

[William Reinicke]

This is Sage, Urn 1 of 2 that I’m doing for our dog we lost last year. This one contains the majority of the ashes and will reside in the house. The other I will hunt over.

I haven’t done a hen in quite some time and this one was a challenge. I painted the head and tail multiple times until I was comfortable with the look. I still think the tail is not quite right. So let me know if there any improvement I need to make, I will start the second one here soon.

Looks really good. I do my tails backwards from how you did it. I lay down a white base and then build up the darker colors. I am in no way a pro and havent even been making decoys a year. So take anything I say with a very very small grain of salt. But since you were asking, I figured that would be my only critique on the tail. See my pics of my decoy and one of a mallard pic I pulled from google. Dont change much though, that is a fantastic bird. And always so very sorry about losing a best friend. I miss my girl every single day still.

 

[Don Mintz]

That's a fine looking urn, a great tribute to a retriever. I like the work you did with the paint, especially the head.

 

[Steve Sanford]

This is Sage, Urn 1 of 2 that I’m doing for our dog we lost last year. This one contains the majority of the ashes and will reside in the house. The other I will hunt over.

I haven’t done a hen in quite some time and this one was a challenge. I painted the head and tail multiple times until I was comfortable with the look. I still think the tail is not quite right. So let me know if there any improvement I need to make, I will start the second one here soon.

Cody~

Wonderful bird! But....since you asked....

I like the way you nailed the main patches of color and tone over the body: light undertail, reddish cast to chest, back darker than sides.

Here is what I would suggest:

On face, add the "mustache". In life, some are very pronounced, others are "barely there". But, it is a feature which distinguishes it from a Black Duck face.

Here it is on a Beans Coastal - fairly subtle.



Here on a Herter's Model 72. - more pronounced. Note also the wash. The hue and intensity vary among individual Mallards, of course. I use Behr Butter Rum, I believe.



Also, I have long used Pat Godin's work for reference - and inspiration:



One last thing is the speculum. My "rule" is to show it on most puddle duck hens - but rarely on drakes. This reflects Nature. I believe hens "need" to show it because most of their plumage is otherwise "stock puddler hen (mottled)". Displaying the speculum tells other ducks she is a Mallard.

Here is a Herter's Model Canada (with custom tucked head done by a friend). I suggest iridescence with 3 hues (each a different tone) of Blue and Violet. (Such extra effort is for me - not for the ducks!)



And, since you've been talking tails...I add the White edges then over-top with some stylized mottling. This is a Pete Hilliard bird (with Sanford paint)



Finally, you might look at: https://stevenjaysanford.com/tutorial-painting-homer-mallards/

Hope this helps!

SJS

 

[benp]

Haven't done much wood working lately, but did make this miniature breaker bar and 5/32" socket from some fasteners I had laying around. Working on another one that's a little longer and will have a 1/8" socket as well. Would be fairly easy with a lathe but use what I got, not easy getting a center drill hole by hand.

 

[Steve Sanford]

Good morning, Ben~

WOW!!! My mind is swirling wondering how you did that beautiful work. Can you share your magic tricks?

All the best,

SJS

 

[benp]

Good morning, Ben~

WOW!!! My mind is swirling wondering how you did that beautiful work. Can you share your magic tricks?

All the best,

SJS

Not much magic but a lot of patience since I don't have the equipment that is designed for this kind of work. Battery drill can make a nice lathe for little stuff, have used it for making bushings or small pins for different things.

Chucked the fastener in the drill and used different files to cut it down to the desired diameter and design, jewelers file for the grooves. Then use different sandpaper starting at 320 going to 1000 and finishing off with leather strop to polish it up to the shine.

The socket was difficult because I had to drill a small hole and use a jeweler's file to make the square which only goes in about a half inch before it bottoms out, so short strokes. The 6 point side I marked with the file and then used a dremel with a small ball file to go down the throat and finish off with a jewelers file to make the flats.