POINT OF INFORMATION regarding burning WILEY. Just got done chatting with Bomber, and we concurred that IF you are torching WILEY, there is NO NEED to do anything other than maybe wiping off some of the residue char with a damp rag. Wiley was already waterproof, and did NOT absorb water, unless left out for extremely prolonged periods of time.
If you need to rehit the body with the torch after a few seasons, just do so, but using linseed or anything else is unnecessary. Now, if you are talking about torching the newer materials, which ARE NOT of the same composition as Wiley, you may have to jump thru hoops to ensure that the decoy does not wick water.
In all probability, the best thing to do with non WILEY, is to carve, seal really good, then paint. Good paint formula for black duck color is 2 parts burnt umber to one part ultramarine blue. Works great with matte acrylics, and will likely do the same with the other stuff![angelic]
Again, if you have Wiley and are scorching the bodies to simulate black duck color, DO NOT do anything to it except perhaps a light rubbing. Paint heads last, better yet, take head off and replace AFTER torching the WILEY cork.