Grandpa’s decoys

[Kevin Puls]

My father and grandfather lived on Chautauqua lake and hunted it routinely in their Alumacraft ducker.

They made their own decoys out of a chopped up telephone pole. And I have quite a few of them on display. But several of them did not pass the test of time. There were about half a dozen that were so chipped, broken, and scared that they just remained on the shelf in the garage collecting dust. While I would never rework the ones that are still display worthy it seems a shame to have these in a pile. In fact, I have already redone a canvasback that my mother stripped to bare wood years ago and made it into an urn for some of my father’s ashes. (Cool long story short, I hunted over it one day and killed my first canvasback and retired it immediately). It is pictured with the bird.

I wanted to share some pictures of a few I have on display, the Canvasback noted above and the three remains decoys that I plan to rebuild and actually hunt over. They are three hen blubills. I will be updating my progress over the weeks ahead, and may have a few questions along the way.

I hope you enjoy this thread!

 

[Kevin Puls]

The three in process. I will strip them to bare wood, seal and repaint.

First question- any one have tips on how to rebuild broken bills?

 

[Vince Pagliaroli]

Kevin,

How wonderful that your dad and grandfather lived and gunned on lake Chautauqua and made their own decoys. That is some serious family history in my world. I have a very good friend that lives on Bemus Point. I have fly fished the lake but never waterfowl hunted it. Jim Schmiedlin and his crew gunned the lake laying out.

The lake is more well known for it's antique fishing lures and fish decoys than waterfowl decoys I believe. I really like the decoys that you are caretaker of. Telephone poles are not easy to chop or carve. A whole lotta Rasping. Bill repairs can be done different ways as some here will tell you. Me... I'd have hard time messing with those old warriors. My only tip on repairs would be to Do as little intrusion to the original decoy work as possible.

Best regards
Vince

 

[benp]

Kevin,
@Steve Sanford , on here has done many bill repairs, and it took me awhile to find one of his threads that shows some of his method. You'll have to click to see the pictures since it's one of the older threads before the move but should give you a good idea what can be done.

https://duckboats.net/community/threads/miscellaneous-decoy-repairs.345685/

 

[Kevin Puls]

I am starting with bill repair. Two of them were damaged and the third was broken off. I experimented with epoxy sculpt on the two and was happy with the result. I used a nail and a larger amount of the material and so far seems to be getting very hard and well attached. I tried to pull the bill off and could with my bare hands. I pushed the epoxy into the jagged crevices and there is a lot of bonding surface.

I realize now these had been painted twice, with the outer layer chipping off while handling. The original paint was very tight to the wood. I will brush off the flaking paint and overpaint what’s left rather than stripping them completely. It will make for an interesting finish. If the overpaint fails I can sand them later.

 

[Don Mintz]

One thing the apoxie sculpt will do is give you the ability to shape the bill more accurately over the first few hours. It works better after it starts to kick a little and will hold the shape, leaving you with less sanding in the end.

 

[Kevin Puls]

One thing the apoxie sculpt will do is give you the ability to shape the bill more accurately over the first few hours. It works better after it starts to kick a little and will hold the shape, leaving you with less sanding in the end.

Thanks. I didn’t think to try that but I will next time. I have a variety of foredom bits and sanders that should make it easy though.

 

[Don Mintz]

Once you catch on to what you can do with Apoxy sculpt you will be able to do a lot of detail work with paper embossing tools https://www.amazon.com/Dotting-Pain...-1-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&psc=1. It's a very timing sort of thing and I'm generally checking every ten minutes or so to see where it's at. You can manipulate it just with your fingers to a large degree and it gets to the point that it's no longer sticky, but will be easily tooled. You can do a lot of stuff with Apoxy sculpt like the creases on the bill, around the nostrils, the little wrinkles at the back of the bill. It something just doesn't seem quite right, you can smooth it out and do it again for a period of time. I'm kind of shocked it didn't stick on one of your heads, I can't even lay it on the bench without having to chisel it off later. Of course my approach is always from a sculptors standpoint. It's a fantastic way to repair bills and add detail. The mallard bill, the pheasant beak and head, and the bill and throat area on the mandarin, all Apoxie Sculpt enhancements.

 

[Kevin Puls]

Shaped the bills and used a scrubber pad to knock off the loose paint. Really surprised how well the original paint layer stuck. Probably a lead or oils based paint given they were originally made in the 1950’s.

Also wonder about this style of keel weight. It is free hanging lead. I have never floated one of these with the weight on. They are clearly homemade, wrapped around a thick copper wire.

 

[Don Mintz]

That keel weight is on the same principle as some of my keel weight options, a swinging keel like that is far more reliable to keep decoys upright in wind and waves and can be attached right to the cord.

 

[Kevin Puls]

That keel weight is on the same principle as some of my keel weight options, a swinging keel like that is far more reliable to keep decoys upright in wind and waves and can be attached right to the cord.

A good chance to honor the original design.

I have to decide how to paint them. I intend to hunt over them. The basic scheme (I have others that have the full paint in good shape that are simple in their appearance) or a more complex version that I have developed using Steve Sanford’s tutorials.

Based on the number of shot holes in them, they were very effective in their own right.

 

[Don Mintz]

diver decoys and shot holes, pretty typical. They probably have a little lead shot in them