February Workbench Thread

After much reading and some lurking i finally have something on my workbench. This is my first attempt at cork decoy. I have some filler on the neck joint now to hide the seam. I was going to add a tail board but decided against it for now.


 
looks nice. Like I said to another carver, "I sure wish my first decoy had looked as nicely as yours......."

Keep going.........

Not sure what you plan on using to fill the holes in the black/brown cork. To me that is the worst part about making brown cork decoys. It takes a lot of time and effort to fill em, and I can never get a totally smooth finish........

Going to paint in oils or acrylics?

It is still too cold to work in my workshop (northern WI) so I won't have any new projects to post until March (at best!)

Mike
 

Mark,

I like it!! I would strongly suggest a tail board. It will go a long way toward protecting your work in the field.

GREAT bird!!!

Mike
 
Mike, you have a good point, voids are a great character thing, and they do break up the surface.

My biggest problem with them is that they can make sealing and painting more difficult, in some ways.

If you are spraying/air brushing, voids might not be a big deal, but sometimes with brushed on paint, they can be a pain.....

That is really the beauty of making your own decoys, refurbing or making your own boats, etc...............you can do it in the way that you prefer and which appeals to your eye....
 
I made my pattern with a slot for a tail board but after cutting the cork by hand i decided against it for now. I need to get a band saw but that will have to wait until after this furlough stuff.

I love the look of black cork decoys, they have that old-time look about them....

Thanks for the kind words guys......
 
Mark~

Just a few thoughts on black cork:

1) The Broadbill was sealed with one heavy coat of spar varnish - making sure to slop it into every nook and cranny - before painting. (Note tail insert)

View attachment Hudson River Broadbill - vs.jpg View attachment Sanford Brant - Cork Swimmer - vs.jpg

2) The Brant was filled with a slurry I mixed out of spar varnish and cork dust. It was a mayonnaise-like consistency. This adds more weight but fills more. (Note tail insert)

3) If your bird will be a Black Duck, I've known guys who drench or dunk it in Thompson's Water Seal and do without paint in the body. It gives a very low lustre (like real feathers). I do not know how it wears. (These guys all use tail inserts)

4) re Tail Inserts. The Broadbill insert is plastic - actually scrounged from a piece of auto interior I found by the side of the road. It'll never break, rot or absorb water. Best of all, slot for it can be made with just a coarse hand saw as plastic is about 1/8" thick. (I just picked up some more -wheel well plastic - from the side of a different road....)

Hope this helps!

SJS
 
I am working on getting some very large diameter PVC pipe, I'm thinking that after my experience using it for the long sprig on pintails, PVC might make a great tail insert period, even on cedar decoys.

Biggest problem I am having is getting big enough diameter PVC (by scrounging) to keep the curvature of piece manageable/realistic.

Will it work Steve?

Mike
 
Mike & Tom~

I think the key is that it's a plastic that is flexible - and will stay flexible in very cold temps. I'm not organic chemist but I know there are lots of different PVCs, with different properties. I remember a guy showing me how he could pick his Pintails and Oldsquaws up by their tails - I can still see him wiggling them around. I think he used garbage can lid "stock". I know some guys use the flexible black PVC pipe (1" or so) - but that's only good for the central tail feathers. I prefer the whole insert to be one piece.

The tail in this foamer 'Squaw was made from a barrel lid - from a very heavy drum used by my dairy farmer (I'll be polling a bunch of my farmer friends later this week when my Deer QDM meets in my shop - to get more to have on hand) It started out flat and pretty stiff. After sawing it out, I heated it with a heat gun to bend the shape in - then hung a spring clamp on it as a weight while it cooled. It has retained the curve I wanted. Sanded with 80 grit, it takes adhesives and paint nicely.

View attachment Foamer Oldsquaw Drake - vs.jpg

Scrounging is half the fun!

All the best,

SJS
 
Steve, so you are saying to add the tail board?..... :~)

I was thinking about a tail board this morning, might see what i can do. Carving with limited power tools really gives and appreciation for how it was done by those before us.

I liken it to how a native american could take use flint rock and a branch to make an arrow that would rival the straightness and sharpness of any one made in modern times.
 
Have not made any decoys (for too long), but I am going to need a bigger boat now. I kept busy in February...

Passed the tests to get licensed to get my Captain's license up to 100 ton vessels. Sea time on a 100 ton duckboat might be difficult to acquire. Now just file the paperwork with USCG.

IMG_1980_zpsdca2647a.jpg

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Steve, when I made a dozen pintails for Christmas presents a few years back, I made a crude curved form from scrap cherry wood, lightly heated the PVC and then clamped it in the form to set an upward curve.

BUT, I found that PVC is weird stuff. Not enough heat, the bend does not set or take, too much heat and the temper is forever lost and the PVC I used became both noodley and weak........

Since I was just doing the central sprigs, I could use 2" PVC and cut a blank for the sprig with no problem caused by the radius.

Mike
 
Mike,

For what it's worth, if I'm adding a bottom board, tailboard, or sprig, I'm thinking protection it affords to the cork + its overall strength and rigidity.

Your example of a "sprig" made from PVC is a good one. A properly bedded, pre-bent but rigid PVC spig set deep into a pinnie drake is far stronger than any I could insert that was made out of hardwood. To my thinking, the strength and rigidity become even more important when adding a more delicate piece like those involved in simulating a sprig or long tail. Flexible materials would seem to be a solution, but the reality for me has been what transport in pocket bags will be like, and what that flexion does to paint in terms of adherence and cracking. The material may flex beautifully, but the paint won't.

View attachment Pinpaint7.jpg

I agree that a PVC tailboard would be strong, but here again, I like to carve that "tented" shape that is natural to a duck's tail into a tailboard, so the best soulution has been wood stock of a sufficient thickness to do so. Finding PVC carvable / grindable material of sufficient thickness would be the trick and overkill on a normal tail, as the wood is sufficient. When pegged through the bottom board with a hardwood dowel, it easily meets the protection + strength + rigidity qualities that I'm looking to have.

View attachment Casperpin45.jpg

View attachment k.jpg

Black cork can be a "bear" when it comes to tailboards. Best to stay thin and flat with a minimal slot-cut and plenty of material left to surround the board- as well as some thought given to what pattern shape on the tail end best accomplishes that. I used to use a slurry of Val-Oil and black cork dust to fill larger voids before sealing. Nevertheless black cork birds always seem to be riding lower in the water by seasons end, regardless of how well they get sealed ;-). Total immersion in a bucket of sealer is probably called for. I carved a rig of 22 magnum - sized, black cork decoys in the late 70's. All those birds had a circular block of solid cedar under the heads that ran all the way to the bottom board + a dowel pegging the whole shebang together - not so the tails. Traded one to Gene Chandler to reimburse him for gas on a scullboat delivery, then sold the entire rig to some collector from Michigan at the old Stillwater Show in about 1985.. The only one I kept got sawed off for this shop sign (...probably had a broken tail ;-):

View attachment signs 023 (250 x 600).jpg
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top