March 2014 Workbench Thread

Brian - Sweet looking sprig... Pat

Dave - Careful. I had a carving friend of mine get so mad at a duck body, he threw it to the ground, it bounce back up, hit him square in the chest and knocked him to his knees. He never did that again... :(

Be careful out there... Pat
 
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Dave,

When things go wrong, fish and fishing gets a person back on track. Speckled Trout looks good. Concerning Basswood, I've got a piece almost the size of a railroad tie. The plan is to carve a Big Muskie.
Only problem is I've had that hunk of BW for 30 years, and no doubt it's harder than the Hubs of Hell. Should be a real work out, hope my drawknife hold up.....

What you had was what a good friend calls a, "Ball Peen Moment". He threw a ball peen hammer against the brick wall of his shop in disgust. It ricocheted back and almost beaned him.

Keep on keepin' on, and lets see that trout, and gull when yer ready.
 
Got started on a basswood laughing gull yesterday and forgot to take some pics, broke my drawknife, threw said gull across the room in anger.

Today I started over and chopped the head off the gull to use on a cork gunning gull....again no pics.

Changed directions and ended up with this Speckled Trout. It's a thin piece of cypress I had laying around. Maybe 16" long. Still a toss up whether I'll paint it or make it stain grade.

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Click to expand...

Ski, free wood is never free my friend!!!
 
Here's today's progress.

I am messing with an onion bag and some goldens to get the scale pattern I wanted. This is the first test and it's still wet. Once it dried it looked pretty good and with some light sanding I think it will knock the texture down to what I'm looking for. Going shopping for iridescent paint tomorrow and testing it before it's final paint time on the Speck.

The gull needs some work on the head to get the shape right. I hand sketched the pattern and am realizing that I always make everything too big and make a lot more work for myself than I should. The mahogany beak also makes things look kinda funny until I get it just right.

Relaly enjoying the fish and went and picked up some fancy wood to mount it on, and some more cypress for the next few fish.

-D



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Progress on the Speck today at lunch...I'm not used to painting in light washes, but am having a lot of fun with his one. Hope to get another coat on tomorrow and wrap this one up soon.

Got a nice piece of some south american hardwood ( can't read what was written on the end grain) Gonna rout the edges, sand it and start putting some varnish on it tomorrow. Then I'll get an engraved plate and attach it underneath the trout. This one is gonna be available at a Coastal Conservation Association(CCA) Banquet here in MD on 4/10. Glass eyes are on the way.

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-D
 
Brandon, Nice looking batch of birds. The sleepers look great. I like the style with the wide bodies and the sharp lines up the tail. Now back to work!
 
Brandon, its the flow in the decoys, when you close your eyes and run your hand over them they "feel " right. You are on the right track with that shape!
 
Here is my first attempt at carving a decoy. I have been wanting to start on carving decoys for some time now. After a few conversations with Jode Hillman, much reading, perusing, photo study, etc, I have finally decided to get started. I have purchased a few hand tools and have decided to focus on NJ Coastal style decoys. I plan to carve with the traditional NJ Atlantic White Cedar and use traditional hand tools with only the use of a few power tools for roughing the shape.

One of the books I have gotten my hands on was a pattern book put together by Harry V. Shourds. This decoy is being carve based on his Bufflehead pattern.

I will humbly submit my very first attempt at carving any decoy. Here he is. Still carving left to do on the head and blending of the chest and neck area. I still need to hollow the decoy so I can attach the head and glue the decoy together. I will also need to address the gap that has developed along the hemisphere of the body.

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Let me know what you guys think. Open to any and all critique and helpful criticism.

Thanks

Chad A
 
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Chad~

It looks like you are well on track. Here are a couple of thoughts:

1) As you are finishing the head carving, you will have to fuss with the dimensions (mostly the width of the brow and cheeks) to get the head in proportion with the body. Even though you adhere to the drawn profile and plan views of the head, there is always latitude to carve it heavier or lighter.

2) Fairing the head and neck into the body is the most enjoyable part of a bird for me. I do not complete this step until the head is permanently fastened - but I do try to get everything within a 1/16 of an inch of finished before I fasten. Sometimes I do this (glue the head on place) even before I glue the body halves together. (What I mean is that I usually do all the gluing at once.)

3) I use marine epoxy to glue my birds. The body gap you mention is manageable once you hollow. I hollow with a Forstner bit - probably a 1" bit on a small bird like your Butterball. I get the walls about 3/8" thick (thin), about 1/2" on the bottom. (Jersey birds are probably thicker.) You may want to thicken the epoxy (to peanut butter consistency with microballoons or wood flour) but I prefer to use straight epoxy and get a tight fit during clamping.

4) When gluing up, the halves will want to slide around. I use 2 or 3 brass escutcheon pins - snipped off about 3/16" proud - to "register" the halves so they cannot slide. See steps 47 - 62 in my tutorial: http://stevenjaysanford.com/carving-a-mallard-body-tutorial/

I hope this helps - and welcome to the club!

SJS
 
The grain on the head, especially the bill, is going to leave the potential for checking and splitting--Try to be more careful when lining up the grain on the wood.
 
Thanks guys Ill post up after they are painted.

Tom, I know I am confused too I don't need eye holes for tacks so something must be wrong with them!

Chad, I could have guessed that pattern before you said it I have a few of those buffies in my rig. Fun to carve and paint and if Jode is giving you advice your in good hands. George it right though your bill is in danger of breaking with the grain aligned the way it is. I have a few early birds missing parts of bills because of that. You may want to consider (especially if using epoxy) drilling a hole in the bill and glueing a finish nail into it. It should help add strength. Another option again with epoxy would be to use warm epoxy and brush it onto the finished bill and let it absorb it then add one more coat. Should add strength as well. Please post up when your done and painted. Love buffies.
 
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Rick~

Nice birds!

I was just given a case of brown cork - am thinking of putting some of it to use, maybe for some Woodies, too.

How did you seal your birds? I've used a really soaking coat of spar varnish in the past.

Thanks,

SJS
 
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