Victor wooden decoy question...

John Bourbon

John Bourbon

Well-known member
Hello All. I haven't been around much, been doing some lurking, and some decoy restoration for friends. One of my friends came into possession of a half dozen headless, beat up old wooden decoy bodies and some old orphan heads. He asked me if I could make something huntable out of them? I'm knee deep in them now and one of them sparked a question that I can't find the answer to as my Google-foo seems to be lacking.
Specifically does anybody know what date ranges the Victor decoy company made hollow decoys? The one in question has a large hole drilled length wise in from the breast and filled with what I have to assume is a round wooden plug. The plug is a little loose, so just this morning I dremeled out the seam and filled the depression with WEST system G-Flex resin in order to seal it against future leaks.
These deeks were so beat up all collector value was lost long before I ever met them, now I just want to bring them back to life. If I could impose on Dave D to post pics of the progress, I will send him some.


Thanks,
John
 
American Factory Decoys by Fleckenstein has full page VICTOR ad on page 39.

In the ad it shows a diagram of the Victor hollow decoy, with hole and plug. $6.50 per dozen.

The ad is June 1, 1939, and under the diagram of the hollow decoy, the caption reads they have been made for over 15 years.

The Lititz, PA factory continued making wooden decoys until 1942.

Hope this is of some help.

Looking forward to your photo's, as it's always good to get old decoys back in Action where they belong.
 
John - Your very welcome. From the photo the body looks in good shape. Head looks like a Goldeneye, that may or may not be Victor. Whistlers are listed in the 1939 ad, and they were also made by Victor Animal Trap of Mississippi, years later but unsure if they were hollow.

Look very salvageable to me. The fuller body decoy, not the thin body decoy that we see so many of. Please keep us posted on your progress.

Dave - Thanks for the photo. I never tire of seeing old decoys...
 
The Pascagoula decoys don't have significant value. They are crude and simple. I made new heads and painted as Mergansers years ago and they worked okay on the couple of times I used them. Just have fun with them.
Joe
 
Thank you Dave for posting the pic! The head is a Gerald Trembley from here on Champlain, circa 1939. Like I said the body and head were in a box with several other headless bodies, and loose heads.
Last year the same friend gave me a headless Trembley whistler and a orphan Trembley head. Luckily for me, there was a picture of a Trembley whistler in the Book Decoys of Lake Champlain for me to use as a guide to repair/repaint. I painted that bird as a drake and this bird will be a "matching" hen.
Since this pic was taken, I've rasped the lathe marks off the body and filled the big crack in the bottom with WEST system G Flex epoxy. My thinking was that I didn't want water incursion into the hollow portion of the decoy.
Joe is right, these deeks don't have much monetary value, but they are fun to rehab and they will be a neat addition to the small boat rig. And by small boat rig I mean smaller deeks that fit into my Poke Boat better than the big water decoys I usually carve.
More pics to come...
John
 
Thanks Dave! Here we have a pic of the sealing job I did on the plug in the hole in the breast. I dremeled the seam out and filled it with WEST System G Flex epoxy. G Flex has what the WEST people call a great "modulous of elasticity". In other words it has the ability to give a little before losing adhesion. I don't know this for a fact, but I have to believe there is some moisture transfer in a hollow wood decoy, no matter how well you seal and paint it.
So I put 2 coats on, the first one just plain resin/hardner so it would soak into the end grain and 15 minutes later a second coat with sawdust added. After it dried over night I sanded the whole affair to shape.
As you can see the bottom is flat. When all the painting is done it will get a small keel with an external lead weight. A petite lead weight was on one of the other decoys in the box. I'm going to use it as it looks quite old fashioned and should look pretty natural on there.
The head goes on next...


John
 
Certainly an interesting AND efficient of removing excess weight from what would be a solid. Saw some examples in a book on California Waterfowl decoy makers. First time i ever encountered that particular method.
Waiting impatiently for your rehab. Do right by the old fella!
 
Certainly an interesting AND efficient of removing excess weight from what would be a solid. Saw some examples in a book on California Waterfowl decoy makers. First time i ever encountered that particular method.
Waiting impatiently for your rehab. Do right by the old fella!
I assume that George is referring to "Wildfowl Decoys of California" ... by Michael Miller. This is the most complete book on decoys ever written. 679 pages with thousands of photos. Thoroughly researched, not like the first collectors books that used more imagination then research to identify carvers. I highly recommend it.
Joe
Click to expand...
 
Isin't though? Although I can't take credit for it. The head is a circa 1939 Gerald Trombley from the Swanton Vt area.
Now that the head is on, which was attached with short section of 1/2" dowel rod, the bottom has received 2 coats of oil based black and the body has its first coat of oil based, seriously thinned, paint. Getting back to the head, I used paintable silicone house caulking as the adhesive on the dowel and the mating surface of the base of the head and body shelf. I'm fond of its gap filling properties and have yet to have an issue with paint sticking to it through a dozen years of using it. As an insurance to make sure there aren't issues with the head coming off years from now, after the caulk was good and dry, I drilled an I/8" hole through the neck and dowel rod and inserted an 1/8" dowel rod, then filled that hole with Apoxy Sculpt filler. That's what that small round black mark in the lower head is. The body got a similar treatment to keep the dowel from pulling out of it some day.
As I type this, the first coat of paint on the head is drying behind me. Since the wood is old and very dry, I expect I should be able to scuff the head and apply the second coat before bed time.
John Bourbon
 
As stated, the head defines the personality of a Decoy and that "King Diver" is a good one. It's good that it's going back where it belongs.
 
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