January workbench

D

Don Mintz

Active member
I've been working feverishly trying to get some decoys in our own bag now that the ducks are here in force. I did take the time to finish this pair this morning. They have been migrating around the shop for several weeks. I'm not sure about this year since things seem to be so late, but we usually see a little breeding activity toward the end of season. I put my old Chessy's empty collar in the photo, I haven't hardly duck hunted since he died in 2017, he retrieved hundreds and hundreds of divers.

IMG_5484.jpg
 
Outstanding artwork!
Completely understand why you took a break, but also glad to hear you are getting back into the game.
I think you'll pull every GE within site distance with this pair!
A long time ago, there was a thread on here about using a male GE with that pose in the spread next to a female, and how the combo was like a magic GE drake magnet. If you get out, please take some photos of them on the water for us!
 
Well if you want a good laugh- here is my first 30 minutes on a long tail gunner. Planning to use the Sanford painting method and won’t have the truly long tail. It’s inspired by Sanfords Homer decoys and Blue Ribbon carvers pattern. Thankfully long tails aren’t that smart.

Wanted to spend more time but my fingers froze since my workshop isn’t heated, which I am fixing soon.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_5031.jpeg
    IMG_5031.jpeg
    482.5 KB · Views: 10
Don
Are you still burlapping your foamers??? In following your posts, it seems like you have discontinued the process. I'm curious about your thoughts on this.....
I'm a rookie working on 6 Whitefront "preeners". It sure would be nice to forego the burlapping gig for a number of reasons, especially increased weight.
Could just the neck area be burlapped for strength?
Wish I had your skilled hands for the feather detail!!!
 

Attachments

  • 20260102_112939.jpg
    20260102_112939.jpg
    272.6 KB · Views: 13
Kevin Puls said:
Well if you want a good laugh- here is my first 30 minutes on a long tail gunner. Planning to use the Sanford painting method and won’t have the truly long tail. It’s inspired by Sanfords Homer decoys and Blue Ribbon carvers pattern. Thankfully long tails aren’t that smart.

Wanted to spend more time but my fingers froze since my workshop isn’t heated, which I am fixing soon.
Click to expand...
Some progress
 

Attachments

  • IMG_5036.jpeg
    IMG_5036.jpeg
    514.2 KB · Views: 13
  • IMG_5035.jpeg
    IMG_5035.jpeg
    540.7 KB · Views: 13
  • IMG_5040.jpeg
    IMG_5040.jpeg
    481.5 KB · Views: 13
Carving night # 2 (working on in between cases)
I watch a guy on the YouTube called Doug Linker that does caricature carving .
These are about to be turned into 12 leprechauns for both myself and gifts to various people .

Side note …. Don’t order your basswood from Amazon

IMG_8280.jpeg

IMG_8278.jpeg
 
Well. I've been retired a week now. Hunkered down and stayed warm last week (-45 to -50) and the shop was too cold. It's warmed up to -15 and the shop is warmer.
Getting some carving started. Broke down some dry spruce beams and planted the halves. I'll cut them out and hollow the halves tomorrow. Working on a bunch of harlequins first for a guide friend. Lots of sawdust to clean up.
Man, this feels so good. 1168.jpg
 
50 below can really get your attention, but usually it's calm out, when the wind starts to blow it's usually warming up, but that's a relative term. I'm pretty good up to 25 below, still could walk a trapline or shoot grouse if the gun will still fire. Driving around the block to round out your tires. No fun. I'm getting ready to head out to duck hunt this morning, it's snowing, wind is howling and about 30 degrees, should be a great day. I'm getting old and slow, we will see how much fun I really have.
 
I got to do a little field testing this morning. The barrows decoys were on the bench yesterday, in the water today. We had out a dozen commons and and 5 barrows decoys, only shot one barrows hen, but had to bug out at 10:30. The weatherman was promising 20 mph wind, and we do have that now at 2:30, but this morning it was dead calm. It's always nice to have a little weather chaos when diver hunting, but we just had a nice beautiful morning. We did alright and got the decoys on the water.

Common hen and barrows drake. I only have one coat of white on the back and face, but didn't have time to get it finished before heading out this morning. You probably notice how the flank is much brighter than the back spots. Two coats of flat white rustoleum oil based enamel would have helped.
IMG_5509.jpg

Barrows and bufflehead hen

IMG_5508.jpg
a couple of the common GE decoys and 4 drakes that came in and stayed. The easiest way to pick out the barrows from the commons on the water is commons have a lot more white, with barrows you really only see the white flank. In flight, barrows drakes have a distinctly different wing whistle.
Unknown-1.jpeg
 
my nose is plugging up just looking at that saw dust. I'm horribly allergic to sawdust and have asthma, hence all the foam carving I do. I have a wood urn I'm about to start on in the next month, hopefully I'll survive it. Since I've started wearing a fly fishing shirt with a hood along with my respirator and goggles I'm hopeful it won't be such a miserable project. I love carving wood, but just can't do it very much anymore.
 
Carl said:
To cold to snow.
Its a hard concept to wrap your head around!
Click to expand...
It's amazing. When air gets to about -20 it is very dry. It can't hold moisture since it is in the form of ice crystals. Tiny tiny crystals. When warm moist air moves in it brings enough moisture to form flakes. Above zero the amount of moisture increases and so do the flake size.
A strange part of living this far North.
 
Cold I think I experienced grownup in northeast PA was -10. But that was pretty uncommon. The lake we lived along would be making ice and booming from expansion cracks all night.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top