One man's trash...

MLBob Furia

MLBob Furia

Well-known member
A few years back, Bobby Sutton of Long Beach, CA was good enough to send me a box of palm fronds along with a note that said "See what you can do with these!" Seems that frond cuttings were a favorite material for some of the old California makers. Not long after that - and thanks to Bob's willingness to track me down a bunch of puddle duck-sized fronds - I completed a decoy rig of frond birds that I always hunt over each season. Since getting hooked by Bobby, I have always been on the lookout for workable fronds, and keep a supply on hand in the "wood library."

View attachment Palm frond dekes 004 (600 x 399).jpg

I'll be starting on a new idea for a frond decoy today based on an old Joe Wooster wood duck pattern, and thought it would be fun to post pics of frond birds I've done for the next week or so.

Will start with a black that was the first gunning puddler I did from a frond:

View attachment frondrigblack 003 (600 x 399).jpg

Here's the same bird in use, along with some other frond blackduck decoys:

View attachment 120107 040 (600 x 399).jpg
 
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Bob,

are they soft once you get past the outer layter? Like growth rings in cedar/pine? I bet they are extremely lightweight decoys. I assume you val oil them?

Love seeing your work, thanks for posting.

Eric
 
If you must throw those trashy blackducks out I'll be glad to take your trash. Oh... you're saying the fronds are the trash. :-)

Tim
 
Bob-
I enjoy seeing your frond blocks.
I have a huge rig of carved frond gunners that i hunt over. I love the way they are all different and you can play with the varied shapes and sizes. Steve Sanchez here on the site and I are cranking out a fairly large number of them right now for hunting the last two month of our season. I will try and post pics as to the progress.
I have had some paint problems, they are very suseptible to swelling - either from enviroment (heat cold and contraction) or lack of sealing.
Derek
 
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