O.K. here they are

MLBob Furia

MLBob Furia

Well-known member
These are all the completed blackducks for my frond-rig. Will let the paint cure for a week or so and then take them to the River and float them.

frondrig26 (600 x 403).jpg

frondrigblks 014 (600 x 368).jpg

frondrigblks 027 (600 x 411).jpg

frondrigblks 063 (600 x 368).jpg

and my favorite:

frondrigblks 051 (600 x 362).jpg
 
Wonderful, amazing!! You can still tell they're fronds, but that's what you want. I love 'em.

Hitch
 
Ok. I'm stupid. Frond is fern or pond fern related. How is it these are "Fronds"?
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Ron,

Bodies of all these decoys are made from the pod off of Queen palms from So. California. Used to be a source of material for the old CA makers. The actual leafy fronds grow out from the upper part of these.
California Open show actually sponsors a frond decoy category to keep the tradition alive. That's what got me interested in the idea of doing a working rig for next season.

Frondrig (600 x 373).jpg
 
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Bob

Very nice. To take something crude like a frond and turn it into a refined work is intriguing. Do they carve at all like tupelo or basswood or any of the normal materials used?
 
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think what you've got there is called a "boot". The frond comes off the boot, and is the leafy part of the palm branch. I've got 5 palms in my yard, and we've got lots of boots.

Ed.
 
I think what you've got there is called a "boot".
Ed..................................................................................... Ed, That may well be. All I have heard them referred to by carvers as are "palm- fronds" and "palm-frond decoys." Palms in MS??
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Eric,

They carve nothing like tupelo or bass. Require an extremely sharp blade, can disintegrate under a grinder unless one is very careful, and have fibrous strands running through them that fuzz even under the finest sandpaper. I have to get the fuzzy end grain soaked with a few coats of Val-Oil so it stiffint before I can sand it clean. Some fronds have punky spots that require a little filler; others are good & solid. I imagine it's a matter of when they're cut and how long they've dried. Steve Sutton can probably tell you more than you'd like to know about them. (Actually, it was Bobby Sutton from Long Beach who got me started on this project). Don't know if I'd call the decoys "refined," but they (the fronds) have an interesting shape that lends itself to becoming a decoy body once you spend some time "lookin' and head scratchin'."

By the way, my girls love to check in on the pictures of Cassie's pups. Good looking litter - nice to think of the line continuing to work in the marsh doing what they live to do.
 
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Beautiful birds Bob. I was talking to my sister in law, who lives in San Diego. She said there are fronds laying everywhere. Not sure if it is the right thing she's talking about though. Great birds, thanks for sharing.
 
Yeah, there are palms in MS. Palms native to MS, sabal minor and the saw palmetto, maybe a few others. Sabal minor's range goes up to New Jersey, along the South through OK, and up the west coast to Washington. They're very common in the swamps in Louisiana, mostly trunkless scrub palms, but one growing wild next to our fishing camp had a trunk 8 ft tall before the guy next door cleared the lot to build his camp. I've got 5 Sabal Palmettos (Cabbage Palms), the state tree of Florida and South Carolina, hardy to zone 8a. Mine are all >12 ft, and they have beaucoups of those boots.

Nice dekes by the way.

Ed.
 
I love that notion of taking a material with a natural shape, carving it closer to the final shape, then painting it so convincingly lifelike...very very cool
 
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