Rutgers
Well-known member
First of all and most important-I've thought about posting this for a while but I've been hesitant because I'm worried someone would get hurt. After some thought, I decided to post it, but warn you-This is inherently dangerous. I'm simply telling you how I do this. If you choose to do this you do it at your own risk. Be careful, the hatchet isn't very forgiving to careless use.
After seeing so many guys talk about wanting to carve decoys but not having access to a bandsaw, or money for tools, etc. I decided to post how a guy can carve a decoy without wrapping up a lot of money in equipment. Thousands of decoys have been carved this way for a lot longer than how things are done now. Talented men created masterpieces that now fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars at auction now carving this way. Most importantly though, those decoys were carved to gun. Seems today, that is the furthest thought from many carver's minds; actually carving a decoy to fool a duck.
While I use a hatchet and spokeshave in my carving, this is the first body completely done using only them (and a chisel a little bit). Total time carving from log form to what you see at the end of this is about an hour give or take. I think with some more experience I could just about cut that time in half. I started with a crappy piece of wood and wish now I hadn't. I just didn't know how it would turn out. This is as far as I am going to take this decoy. IF there is enough interest, I will do another tutorial from start to finish for my rig.
First off, material. I'm using northern white cedar. Pine, Cedar, basswood, poplar, pretty much anything you have available to you will work. For a long time I carved decoys out of scrap construction lumber glued together. It was a little tougher to carve, and a bit on the heavy side, but it worked, and I couldn't beat the price. I know there are a lot of guys that are always searching for that perfect piece of wood, but I don't worry so much about small knots, heartwood, minor checking, etc. I only carve very dry wood, and I hollow all of my decoys. This stabilizes things enough that I don't have much trouble. I carve enough that I could never afford to if I only carved select clear wood. Sure, I have the occasional decoy fail, but the percentage is low and I feel its an acceptable amount for what I have invested into my materials.
Tools. Nice and simple. A good hewing hatchet, flat on one side, and VERY sharp. I can shave with this thing. Look for one that is forged and not cast, and make sure it has an chisel edge, not a knife edge. For right handers, the flat is on the left. For lefties, the flat side is on the right. This is changed by sticking the handle in either top or bottom of the head. Sorry for the bad pic, but s you can see, one side is at a right angle, offset.
The other tools you'll need are a good knife and a spokeshave.
Knife. Everyone has their preference. I like a long narrow blade. This one is made by Cape Forge and the blade is 1 3/4" long. I don't use it on the body, but it is all I use on my heads aside from a little final rounding with a rasp and sandpaper. Flexcut makes some excellent knives as well, and they are priced right. Their roughing and pelican knives are my favorites and they are easy to care for. Keep a good knife stropped and you will hardly ever have to sharpen it.
Spokeshave. I use a Dunlap. They aren't too expensive, and with a little looking not that hard to find. The iron is made of good steel, and they are comfortable to use and adjust. They also have a good angle for the softer woods. I've got a lot of spokeshaves and find most are too steep for use on soft woods and just chatter and foul constantly. Save yourself the aggravation and get a Dunlap.
I also used a 1/2" flat chisel for cutting in the head shelf, but it's not in the picture.
Now on to the carving. I get my cedar from a log home MFG and it's already sawed flat on two sides. First I draw the pattern on the top and start to hacking with the hatchet until I have the top profile close.
Be sure to keep the wood between your "free" hand and the hatchet at all times. Also, I never strike above the middle point of the decoy. I start with heavy blows, and choke up on the hatchet as I get closer to the line and use lighter blows.
Once I get close to the line I use the spokeshave more so I dont take a big chunk out of the side. I leave the breast and tail a little square at this point to help in holding it against my push block for spoke shaving. These will be rounded off later.
Bear with me, I only have so many pictures. Above I'm using the push block to hold the decoy as I spokeshave on it. I'm using the spokeshave in a bicycle tire pump motion while holding the decoy between my gut and the push block.
Once the top profile is set, I draw the side profile and go back to work with the hatchet. You can see it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure this out. so far we've only used two tools.
More hatchet work on the side profile and starting to round. By God, it's starting to look like a duck. Probably just over 1/2 hour invested so far.
Time to pick out a head. I carved this last week, and I admit I cut out the blank on a bandsaw. Since it is only about 2 1/4" wide, this could easily be roughed out with a coping saw and finished with a knife.
Now we finish getting the body rough shaped and cut in a shelf for the head with a chisel. try the head on and do some more shaping. At this point its just a matter of how much work you want to put into details. If I were going to carve this to completion, I would really put some more time into it, hollow it, etc, but you get the picture.
Viola! Mallard!
I hope you enjoyed and learned something from this. Happy carving, and watch those fingers!
Paul
After seeing so many guys talk about wanting to carve decoys but not having access to a bandsaw, or money for tools, etc. I decided to post how a guy can carve a decoy without wrapping up a lot of money in equipment. Thousands of decoys have been carved this way for a lot longer than how things are done now. Talented men created masterpieces that now fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars at auction now carving this way. Most importantly though, those decoys were carved to gun. Seems today, that is the furthest thought from many carver's minds; actually carving a decoy to fool a duck.
While I use a hatchet and spokeshave in my carving, this is the first body completely done using only them (and a chisel a little bit). Total time carving from log form to what you see at the end of this is about an hour give or take. I think with some more experience I could just about cut that time in half. I started with a crappy piece of wood and wish now I hadn't. I just didn't know how it would turn out. This is as far as I am going to take this decoy. IF there is enough interest, I will do another tutorial from start to finish for my rig.
First off, material. I'm using northern white cedar. Pine, Cedar, basswood, poplar, pretty much anything you have available to you will work. For a long time I carved decoys out of scrap construction lumber glued together. It was a little tougher to carve, and a bit on the heavy side, but it worked, and I couldn't beat the price. I know there are a lot of guys that are always searching for that perfect piece of wood, but I don't worry so much about small knots, heartwood, minor checking, etc. I only carve very dry wood, and I hollow all of my decoys. This stabilizes things enough that I don't have much trouble. I carve enough that I could never afford to if I only carved select clear wood. Sure, I have the occasional decoy fail, but the percentage is low and I feel its an acceptable amount for what I have invested into my materials.
Tools. Nice and simple. A good hewing hatchet, flat on one side, and VERY sharp. I can shave with this thing. Look for one that is forged and not cast, and make sure it has an chisel edge, not a knife edge. For right handers, the flat is on the left. For lefties, the flat side is on the right. This is changed by sticking the handle in either top or bottom of the head. Sorry for the bad pic, but s you can see, one side is at a right angle, offset.
The other tools you'll need are a good knife and a spokeshave.
Knife. Everyone has their preference. I like a long narrow blade. This one is made by Cape Forge and the blade is 1 3/4" long. I don't use it on the body, but it is all I use on my heads aside from a little final rounding with a rasp and sandpaper. Flexcut makes some excellent knives as well, and they are priced right. Their roughing and pelican knives are my favorites and they are easy to care for. Keep a good knife stropped and you will hardly ever have to sharpen it.
Spokeshave. I use a Dunlap. They aren't too expensive, and with a little looking not that hard to find. The iron is made of good steel, and they are comfortable to use and adjust. They also have a good angle for the softer woods. I've got a lot of spokeshaves and find most are too steep for use on soft woods and just chatter and foul constantly. Save yourself the aggravation and get a Dunlap.
I also used a 1/2" flat chisel for cutting in the head shelf, but it's not in the picture.
Now on to the carving. I get my cedar from a log home MFG and it's already sawed flat on two sides. First I draw the pattern on the top and start to hacking with the hatchet until I have the top profile close.
Be sure to keep the wood between your "free" hand and the hatchet at all times. Also, I never strike above the middle point of the decoy. I start with heavy blows, and choke up on the hatchet as I get closer to the line and use lighter blows.
Once I get close to the line I use the spokeshave more so I dont take a big chunk out of the side. I leave the breast and tail a little square at this point to help in holding it against my push block for spoke shaving. These will be rounded off later.
Bear with me, I only have so many pictures. Above I'm using the push block to hold the decoy as I spokeshave on it. I'm using the spokeshave in a bicycle tire pump motion while holding the decoy between my gut and the push block.
Once the top profile is set, I draw the side profile and go back to work with the hatchet. You can see it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure this out. so far we've only used two tools.
More hatchet work on the side profile and starting to round. By God, it's starting to look like a duck. Probably just over 1/2 hour invested so far.
Time to pick out a head. I carved this last week, and I admit I cut out the blank on a bandsaw. Since it is only about 2 1/4" wide, this could easily be roughed out with a coping saw and finished with a knife.
Now we finish getting the body rough shaped and cut in a shelf for the head with a chisel. try the head on and do some more shaping. At this point its just a matter of how much work you want to put into details. If I were going to carve this to completion, I would really put some more time into it, hollow it, etc, but you get the picture.
Viola! Mallard!
I hope you enjoyed and learned something from this. Happy carving, and watch those fingers!
Paul
