How Do You Carve Your Decoy Heads

C

Capt. Frank Miller

Active member
Just curious about how you guys carve your heads and how long it takes you? I cut mine out with a band saw and finish with a spokeshave and a knife. Total time is about two hours plus rasping and sanding.
 
I did a Head Carving Tutorial for this site last spring - it's in the Carver's Corner (scroll down on the Main Index page):

http://www.duckboats.net/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=216695;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;;page=unread#unread

You can see the same thing at my site:

http://stevenjaysanford.com/carving-a-mallard-head-tutorial/

As you can see, once it's sawn out, I pretty much use just an X-acto (blade # 22) and then sandpaper. A fancy or first-time head might take me 2 hours - because of the fussing - but a gunner is more in the 20-30 minute range.

Hope this helps.

SJS
 
Just curious about how you guys carve your heads and how long it takes you? I cut mine out with a band saw and finish with a spokeshave and a knife. Total time is about two hours plus rasping and sanding.
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It depends on how "nice" you want them to look. It would take me 2 days (and probably bandsawing out a couple extra heads) to make one head as nice as what Steve shows in his links, however, a couple weeks ago I whipped out a dozen coot heads in about that time.

Chuck
 
It all depends on what type, and quality of wood I'm using. Also what kind of waterfowl. After the band saw it's knife, rasp, rifflers and sandpaper. Making rigs, I work faster after the first one. Often I will leave a head on the vice for a day or two, especially when making slat/canvas decoys. I'm never in a hurry. Even when I do watercolors I'm slow. Everyone has their own speed, and style. George is correct it gotta be FUN, when is is tedious Walk Away, and check it out later. What your working on, will tell ya what it needs if ya look.

Never had clock in my shop, it's either daylight or dark outside.
 
This should be fun, not tedious.
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George, you are my Hero!

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Seriously!

How many SB's did you knock out last year?
 
Yup, GW aka DecoyMonsterMachine makes more Decoys by mistake, than I make on purpose. He's on a Mission........... leave no Decoy, or Specie behind. So far he has done a Fine J-O-B.
 
Bandsaw a head out and use a knife and rasp on a few. The first ones will take time, you'll learn alot. Then if you find a foredom it will cut the time down alot. Got to know what to cut off first. The carver that helped me had a saying, cut off everything that doesn't look ducky.
Invest in a good knife and a couple of cut outs. Good therapy...
 
not counting the minis, maybe 100+ with the little ones-150-i keep count by the number of washers i use attaching heads, and i went through a full box and around 20 from another--That made the 120 SB thing!
 
Did you enjoy the process? If I am chillin', watching some football or fishing shows, it may all be knives over the top of a trash can for a few hours, then outside to sand for a bit. Sure it takes longer, but I am not in a hurry. If I am on task and want to get done, a foredom and microgrinder do quick work up until the point of deciding how much like a duck its going to look. I can really appreciate Steve's tutorial. Thats about my speed and attention for a rig bird. I wouldn't go any less. The ducks may not care, but I do.
 
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