October - What's on your Work Bench?
- Thread starter Steve Sanford
- Start date
David Rearick
Member
Excellent work guys! Always enjoy looking at what everyone is working on.
jode hillman
Well-known member
It's that time of year again, all the work this month is great.
Ready to hit the water!
Ready to hit the water!
MLBob Furia
Well-known member
The blackducks in Jersey will be hurtin' this season, Jode. Looking forward to meeting you in Salisbury.
First set of calls made from some of that "out of the ashes" wood salvaged from the workshop fire:
View attachment BradB.jpg
This was a beautiful piece of maple with great figure & striping flames.
First set of calls made from some of that "out of the ashes" wood salvaged from the workshop fire:
View attachment BradB.jpg
This was a beautiful piece of maple with great figure & striping flames.
jode hillman
Well-known member
Beautiful set of calls Bob! See you in a few!
jode hillman
Well-known member
Very cool Tom!
Neal Haarberg
Active member
JimG I made a mold last night for anchors almost identical to the one you posted. My existing ones didn't fit over the heads of the last 6 mallards I am just about finished with so I had to do something. I will be pouring the anchors tonight and see how they work! This is my second attempt at a mold so I am keeping my fingers crossed.
Steve Sanford
Well-known member
Neal~
Question: What material are you using for your molds?
All the best,
SJS
Question: What material are you using for your molds?
All the best,
SJS
Pat Gregory
Well-known member
Great group of decoys Bob! You have lots to be proud of. I appreciate you passing on our craft. The smiling faces in the picture confirms the joy that decoy carving can bring to a person's life. Have a great time in Salisbury. Wish I was there with you guys. Godspeed in your travels. Pat
Neal Haarberg
Active member
Steve,
This has been quite the experience in experiments! First off let me say that I am doing this on the cheap. No nice aluminum molds for me. I used silicon caulking for my first pass and did a poor job of it and I was able to make anchors but not to the quality that I wanted. The mold was not very good and it degraded after each pour which is not surprising. Then I made a 2 part Plaster of Paris mold which worked fantastic and I got 1 good anchor out of it but one of the Molds broke when removing the anchor. Still determined I took another approach. I work in the electronics industry and we had some contaminated solder that was going to recycler so I thought I would try the Silicon again with Solder becasue of the lower melting point approx 225deg less than lead. So I made a 2 part mold from silicon and it failed miserably. As I was screwing around with this I made a 1 piece Plaster of Paris mold for pad weights for my decoys since this last batch had no keels which was new for me. The Pad weights turned out great so I made a 1 piece Plaster of Paris mold for my anchors which is baking out in the oven at home right now (As long as my wife did not turn the oven off). I will give a shot tonight and see what happens. I actually remembered to some pictures as I went on the last one to share if they turn out.
This has been quite the experience in experiments! First off let me say that I am doing this on the cheap. No nice aluminum molds for me. I used silicon caulking for my first pass and did a poor job of it and I was able to make anchors but not to the quality that I wanted. The mold was not very good and it degraded after each pour which is not surprising. Then I made a 2 part Plaster of Paris mold which worked fantastic and I got 1 good anchor out of it but one of the Molds broke when removing the anchor. Still determined I took another approach. I work in the electronics industry and we had some contaminated solder that was going to recycler so I thought I would try the Silicon again with Solder becasue of the lower melting point approx 225deg less than lead. So I made a 2 part mold from silicon and it failed miserably. As I was screwing around with this I made a 1 piece Plaster of Paris mold for pad weights for my decoys since this last batch had no keels which was new for me. The Pad weights turned out great so I made a 1 piece Plaster of Paris mold for my anchors which is baking out in the oven at home right now (As long as my wife did not turn the oven off). I will give a shot tonight and see what happens. I actually remembered to some pictures as I went on the last one to share if they turn out.
MLBob Furia
Well-known member
The six participants in my Ward class were people who had never done a decoy before, so staying one step ahead of them before class was a great help in trying to figure out what difficulties they might have with the process......as well as with my explanation of things.
I made sure to stick to using the same tools they would have at their disposal (even setting aside my more familiar knives to use the Warren tools & rasps that I purchased for them through Willy). It was surprising how much I took for granted in terms of what they should be able to see & understand, let alone pick up, in a short period of time. I quickly learned that what I may take for granted as a simple procedure just because I've done it so many times wasn't so simple after all.
)
After I had my own class bird done and painted, I decided not to bring it to class so they wouldn't feel they had to attempt everything they saw on it. Turned out to be a good decision, as we were pressed to get the simple paint job in during the sessions we had.
Here's my interpretation of the "frond-style" pattern they did for their cork black ducks. Of course, I spattered the head on mine. I offered that option , but they voted to go with ticking. I also rag-stippled some lighter values of color onto the umber of my body color to simulate a bit of a burnt cork look:
View attachment BobNEA1 (989 x 565).jpg
View attachment BobNEA2 (909 x 637).jpg
View attachment BobNEA3 (795 x 621).jpg
I made sure to stick to using the same tools they would have at their disposal (even setting aside my more familiar knives to use the Warren tools & rasps that I purchased for them through Willy). It was surprising how much I took for granted in terms of what they should be able to see & understand, let alone pick up, in a short period of time. I quickly learned that what I may take for granted as a simple procedure just because I've done it so many times wasn't so simple after all.
) After I had my own class bird done and painted, I decided not to bring it to class so they wouldn't feel they had to attempt everything they saw on it. Turned out to be a good decision, as we were pressed to get the simple paint job in during the sessions we had.
Here's my interpretation of the "frond-style" pattern they did for their cork black ducks. Of course, I spattered the head on mine. I offered that option , but they voted to go with ticking. I also rag-stippled some lighter values of color onto the umber of my body color to simulate a bit of a burnt cork look:
View attachment BobNEA1 (989 x 565).jpg
View attachment BobNEA2 (909 x 637).jpg
View attachment BobNEA3 (795 x 621).jpg
Last edited:
Colin Fitzpatrick
Active member
Finally got around to finishing this guy
Steve Sanford
Well-known member
Colin~
Great style! How fast is he swimming, anyhow????
All the best,
SJS
Great style! How fast is he swimming, anyhow????
All the best,
SJS
Bill Embacher
Well-known member
Bob I love the finish on that blacks body...perfect.
Bill
Bill
P. Revicki
Active member
I second what Bill said the body and head look great. I have 2 blacks that I am painting now and I will try the raging.
Pete
Pete
Mark Spolarich
Well-known member
Not exactely carved but i did some repainting of my old herters to work on my technique and how i want a decoy to look. I am fairly satisfied with the results thus far but have a few things i will change.
Here are the mallard drakes i have finished so far, just need to apply a flat varnish:
Here are some repaints of old cork black ducks i did as well (i like the way the hen's head came out):
...and a picture i thought i would share, interesting head/neck position:
Here are the mallard drakes i have finished so far, just need to apply a flat varnish:
Here are some repaints of old cork black ducks i did as well (i like the way the hen's head came out):
...and a picture i thought i would share, interesting head/neck position:
Neal Haarberg
Active member
So I have been trying to finish up these mallards for the opener this weekend. I also needed anchors for them because what I had did not work so I decided to make my own.
The pattern using my first anchor from a 2 piece mold that broke and modeling clay.
Plaster of Paris in the in the mold frame over the pattern
My high tech crucible for melting the lead
The finished mold. The first one piece mold broke when taking the first anchor out so I added more draft to it and then added a few layers cut out from an old t shirt on the back of the mold to strangthen it
The final product
I filed down the sharp edges and then put them on the wire wheel to smooth it out. then coated half of them with the plastic dip stuff. That is why the 2 that are on the decoys in the picture above are black
The pattern using my first anchor from a 2 piece mold that broke and modeling clay.
Plaster of Paris in the in the mold frame over the pattern
My high tech crucible for melting the lead
The finished mold. The first one piece mold broke when taking the first anchor out so I added more draft to it and then added a few layers cut out from an old t shirt on the back of the mold to strangthen it
The final product
I filed down the sharp edges and then put them on the wire wheel to smooth it out. then coated half of them with the plastic dip stuff. That is why the 2 that are on the decoys in the picture above are black
