Bottom Boards and Grain?

L

Lee L.

Active member
When it comes to wood I like to try to get the most out of it that I can. I saw a video on Youtube where it appears that the decoy maker angled the top view pattern on his 2" bottom boards to get the most out of the wood:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6obRM__Ko4

Does anyone else do this? Have you had any bad results from it? Figuring it up I can get more decoys per length of bottom boards if I do it this way. I still want to run the top board with the grain for hand carving ease and I want the tail to run with the grain. Even then I wonder if it really matters that much on a body? Thoughts?

Thanks!
 
I think Jeff does this mostly to conserve wood and get more birds out of a stick of cedar. I don't know of any benefit to turning the pattern at an angle like that. On all of my birds, I lay the pattern straight with the grain and cut the bottom board the same way. I do make sure the curved grain of the wood is the same on the top and bottom pieces.


Nate
 
Thanks for the reply. I knew there was no benefit from doing it this way other than gaining extra bodies per board but I wonder if there would there be any negatives?
 
Lee.
If your power carving I doubt there would be any negatives to it. However if you cave by hand I doubt that it would peel off as clean with a spoke shave or draw knife. That is the reason I have not done it myself and instead lay out with the grain running straight through the body.
 
The last one I did had the grain at an angle to get one last decoy out of the wood. You have pay more attention to which way the grain is going because you can't just do one side like the other or you will get tear out with the draw knife or spoke shave. I carved the top and bottom halves separately and screwed up so the grain is crossed and not parallel when mated to each other. We'll see how it works out.
 
Thanks for the replies!

I carve the majority of my bodies with hand tools and I know about the grain and all. My figuring was that I rarely get into the bottom board with the hand tools so if I was to run the grain straight on the top board that I wouldn't have any problems at all with the tools. Only the bottom board would have angled grain so I don't figure that would be an issue for me. I was just wondering about any flaws coming up structure wise from people who have done it this way.
Probably going to buy some 2 bys for a coot rig and try it this way and see how it comes out.
 
I can't say it will happen every time, but years ago my family made some decoys that way to make use of scraps. Several out of a dozen or so decoys popped at the glue joint, I believe because the wood works with the moisture across the grain. Shrink/swell in the different grain directions creates stress, and something has to give. I suppose if you can seal absolutely every little bit of moisture out it won't be a problem, but over time some always finds a way in. Especially if you hunt with waterswatters. ;-) ha,ha,ha
 
When glue two pieces of wood together you want to match up the grain as much as possible to minimize the joints coming apart later as previously mentioned. Mismatched joints may not come loose every time, but the odds are definately much greater.

If you are knocking out dozens and dozens of decoys that are for rough and tumble use, they will likely get beat up anyway. If you take a long time to make your decoys and handle them with great care, I would take great care with the glue joints as well.
 
The bottom board, is as important as the integrity of the wood for the rest of the Decoy.....if not more so, in my opinion. I learned that the hard way about 28 years ago.
 
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