February Workbench Thread

Tim - That's one mighty fine Rock Dove painting. I loved hunting those birds in the Amish fields of western Pa, prior to the poisoning. The farmers told us "They are not fit to eat any more". That's when I stopped shooting them. Good game birds taken fairly, and not from out of the silo. They made good soup, and I had a few other recipes. Where ever ya find Rock Doves, in the country Mourning doves will be there. I have carved a few...
 
Kevin Puls,

Nice job on the head blank, but IMHO, it looks like you didn't take grain direction into account when you laid out the head pattern on your stock. For durability, the grain should run the length of the bill as best as possible. Look at Tom Barb's teal on page 4 of this thread to see what I'm talking about. From your picture, it would appear that your grain runs 90 degrees to the bill length. You may find yourself with a broken bill at some point on this decoy. You can reinforce the bill with a piece of 1/8th or 3/16th dowel glued in along the bill length. Looks great though. Looking forward to seeing your progress in the March edition. Jim
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Jim, you are correct, and thanks for the tip. In this particular case I used two pieces of scrap 2x6 glued together, and could not really pick a grain direction if I had even thought to do so. I will have one or two more like that but with some better wood that I have come across should be able to give it more consideration.
 
Thanks guys.

Vince,
Thanks. As much as I like my homers I still enjoy shooting feral pigeons. Around here they decoy well to early season Canada Goose field spreads. As long as they look good when I clean them I have no problem eating them. I do have some pigeon silhouettes that I use when dove hunting. I figure they will see them a lot easier then dove decoys.

Tim
 
The most fun i ever had was shooting pigeons off the cow barn at a farm that my uncle hunts. They poop in the cow food so the farmer wants you to shoot them. They are a tough shot, they are always stalling and changing course.
 
Thanks for the kind words!

Steve, I have one "end" of most of the scaup done...just have to work toward the tail from here on out!



I can see two bills on the drakes(pale yellow eyes, large pupils) that need to be altered...interesting how looking at a photograph gives you a different perspective versus staring at an object in-hand.


 
Good morning, RL~

It is reassuring to know there are others so seriously afflicted that we have to put different eye colors in the Drakes and Hens! (and I usually put "pinpoiint pupils" in the males, "normal" in the females). Now I just have to hope you computed the "correct" sex ratio........

Keep at it!

SJS
 
I usually do a 4:1 ratio of drakes to hens, but this is largely a consequence of the differential that results from the time expended for me to paint each gender!
 
I changed up the side profile on my "standard" broadbill pattern. I like it for now, but I'm sure I'll change it up again before long. Here is a hen I put the finishing touches on this week.

 
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