help restoring an old decoy.....

U

uncle mike pierce

Active member
I am restoring an old mason, Detroit grade merganser, and I am looking for a source for the tacks used by the Mason factory and other carvers when they used tack eyes in lieu of glass eyes.

Can anybody give me a source of those and approximate sizes? The merg I have no longer has the tacks in it, and I have nothing for reference......

Also, any suggestions for glass eyes to use when restoring older decoys (like pre-1940's) or making replicas of decoys from 1890 - 1930's? I have planned to use pinpoint or small pupils as most of the older glass eyes seemed to have much smaller pupils than modern glass eyes, and the carvers back then seemed to use much smaller diameter eyes too.

Any suggestions or ideas to set me in the right direction would be appreciated. thanks!

Mike
 
Mike - Contact Pat Gregory. If I'm not mistaken, I believe Pat uses vintage tack eyes on his gunners. Don't know about the vintage glass eyes. I think the old Mason glass eyes were manufactured in Germany.

Ken
 
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