April 2014 - What is on your workbench ?

Brandon Yuchasz

Brandon Yuchasz

Well-known member
Well Its been a while since I was the one to start this thread for the month. Happy April Fools Day!!!

Recently I found out that one of my oldest friends and his wife are having there first child. It would be hard to over state how happy I am for the two of them. In the past I have always carved a decoy for a niece of nephew and hunted it a few times and then retired it until they are old enough to hunt over it. At that time I will hand it over to them. This time I was inspired to do something a little different and carve something that the baby can play with right now. I drew a pattern based loosely on a real duck and off I went. I'll be painting this one very soon in order to deliver it to my friend before his daughter is born so Ill be sure to post that picture as well. I got it carved, sanded and hollowed today. After an internal pad weight its time for some glue!

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Brandun;That would make a nice ern for my yellow lab -busters ashes [which sits in a wooden box ern in my living room] ,this way he and I could still hunt ducks with his remaines inside of this decoy among my decoy spread .God bless buster. Gone but never forgotten for the 8 memorable years we had together hunting.Cas
 
Cas, I have carved a couple urns now for people and I know quite a few of the carvers here have as well.

Dave, Thanks for the idea. I put some coins in and that was pretty good but my wife is going to bring a few bells home from town today. Ill give them a try and report back.
 
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Brandon,

I've put a single marble in mine and that itself does make some noise. I would tend to think a couple small sleigh bells might be the best choice. Lets us know what you end up with. :>)
 
My other work this afternoon:

Still frozen solid up here but it won't be long and the water will start to open up and when it does the kids and I like to go watch the waterfowl. Last year the GE's were displaying like crazy and the kids loved it. They mentioned that I should carve one and so its been in the back of my head since then. I finally decided to carve a pair, displaying drake and a high head hen. Drake is ready for sealing and the hen hopefully won't be to far behind.

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Brandon, That's some really cool work you have going this month. I always love seeing what your working on!

It's almost that time of year again to be chasing Gobbler's, so I have been doing some of these lately.




 
Good stuff everyone. I have a few Shirt that need pressing, and I don't own an Iron so I'm jealous of Chuck J's that's all wound up not in service.

Here's a Mallard I'm done painting. Still gonna stick a Pad-Weight on there.

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Jode, one of these days I would love to make a call and decoy for turkey hunting but I think I have enough balls in the air right now. Any turkey decoy pictures to share?

Derek, I noticed the wing tips and curl as well very cool. Any top pictures? I would like to see how you laid it all out.

Bob, Paint before you carve has finally set in with me I have been drawing lines as I go and am really looking forward to the next batch to hit the paint bench. Thanks for bringing it up before and outlining what it means. Do you get tired of hearing amazing! Honestly just love your work!

Chuck, ... bah never mind!

Good month everyone I wanted to post up that I took Dave's suggestion of the bells. Coins made noise but the bells were even better. I did an internal weight that would be sealed inside last night and coated the interior with epoxy. Today the bells went in and I closed it up with more epoxy. I can tell you one thing weighting them on the inside sure is more challenging at least it was on this little bird!

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I might as well put these up as well. What can I say I love me some mergansers. They are fun to carve and even more fun to paint. These guys have been waiting for their hair plugs. Courtesy of an old horse hair brush off eBay. It showed up in the mail today.

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Sealed with epoxy.
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Paint to come soon! Its a fun month and its only two days into it!
 
Got back in the studio today after our trip and completed the hen widgeon of the pair I was working on. Will glaze after it dries overnight.
Paint before you carve.
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What a spectacular hen widgeon, Bob.
Al
 
Dave, That rig will kill ducks for sure. They look nice and will look even better on the water!

Brandon, you would love Turkey hunting. With your Woodsmanship, plus ability to Carve you would be hooked. Maybe it's best if you don't start!

As we talked about at the show my 11 year old daughter took her hunting test last week and passed. She managed to break 2 out of 3 clays and was so excited.

Her goal is to join me in the woods this Spring and as Such I figured she would need her own call and a decoy to go with it.

Here is her finished call and a hollow feeder I have a couple weeks to finish.

I wanted to make the decoy as light as possible and before finish carving it comes in at 2 pounds 14 oz.






 
Dave-

Nice job on those Blacks ducks. The NJ marshes are going to be a little less safe this year.

Chad
 
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