Who or what started you carving decoys?

No question it was my Dad. He used to compete at the CNE (Canadian National Exebition) not sure what they call it now?. I saw what he did and fell in love with carving. I can't hold a candle to what my Dad could/can do...but I'm sure having a fun time trying!
 
No doubt about it the infamous Paul Rutgers got me started. While at college, yes college.....I met a guy that asked based on my camo jacket if I duck hunted and when I replied yes a friendship began. Shortly thereafter I got an invite from him to learn how to carve decoys if I wanted and I took him up on it. Our dogs would chase each other around Paul's dad's pole barn while Paul gave me pointers on carving. I don't have alot of time to devote to it but I still put knife to wood and use those skills taught to me by Mr. Rutgers. Thank ya Paul.
 
I am posting this to give testimony to Dave Ludington's dwarves. It was amazing. Being on that hunt, Tim, Jim and I were so impressed that just after 2 weeks, with no direction or help, Dave came back with his first hand carved scaup decoys rigged and ready to float. And, although they were primitive and simple, out of all the great handcarved decoys in the rig, guess what the bluebills went to, yes, the Dwarves.

Dave graciously gave me two of the Dwarves. I have great memories of them, spraypaint and all. My only regret is I didn't hunt them more this past season but, I will fix that this season...

I love these decoys Dave and, best of all, they come with great memories together and, are part of your history... They are not for sale, will not collect dust this season, and, I will always cherish them as I do our friendship... Pat

Meet Lumpy and Dumpy...

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Pat,
Wow....have not seen those in a couple of years! Thanks to your's and Jim's tutelage my more recent blocks have improved exponentially. Thanks again!

Dave
 
I blame Al Gore due to the fact he invented the Internet. Without the Inet I probably would have never looked at a site for info on decoys. I was just looking for info on an old factory bird and saw what people were carving. After ten years of struggling with carving and paint I feel I make a serviceable gunner.

I agree with Rich when he told George that there is a new set of masters that influence the next generation. I know along with their predecessors the new masters influence me greatly.

Truly I would have been missing a large part of my life if I never carved a decoy. So many of my friendships are based off of carving. A lot of people that I talk with frequently are carvers and then rarely do we talk about carving.
 
I was an avid (100-150 days a year) fly rodder for a long time. Still do it but not as much as I use to. Early in my fly fishing ran into a guy that tied his own flies, I didn't know flies were tied by hand or anything, I just bought them at the store, no clue where they came from or how they were made. That started an addiction. Then one day I was on the internet and heard about people building their own rods, had to try it.

I reluctantly began duck hunting off of the advice of an acquaintance and of course it stuck hard. All I knew existed was decoys bought at Bass Pro or Cabela's made from plastic. And I thought, hey, I bet I could make a decoy somehow. I made flies and rods, right?

It took a few years of duck hunting before I finally got the strong urge to follow through. It took a year and my first 8 decoys before I learned there was such a thing as a "pattern." I had been carving either with a plastic decoy in my hand or from memory.

I've only been at it about 4 years now and DANG glad I found all these great resources on the internet.
 
For me I had been hunting for years. Never really even thought about carving. Then one day while sitting in the blind I was kind of day dreaming about my Dads collection of decoys from his brother. Then I was thinking how neat it would be to hunt over my own decoys. A lot like tying flies. I got home and called my Uncle. I never knew my Uncle to well being he's in Jersey and I'm in Florida, but like most carvers and uncles he was very willing to help. He put me in contact with Tom Gamble. At the time Tom was a mailman so a week or so went by, and Tom had given my mail lady a plastic bag with a cut out head and body of a teal with a set of eyes to put in my mailbox. I started getting busy almost immediately with my wife's sharpest kitchen knife. I carved out something that somewhat resembled a duck, and called my Uncle again with a million questions. He suggested I go to the local woodcarving club. That's where I got reconnected to my old dentist Dr. John Blackard of 15 years until he retired. I never knew he was a carver or a duck hunter for that matter. He tells me to come over to his house at 1 , and he will give me some help. So I go by at 1 ,and I can't believe the stuff this man carves is so beautiful that his decoys could almost fly away. It has been 2 years now and almost 50 birds... and if it wasn't for these two men I would have quit after the first try. Now when I'm not doing the family thing all I can do is think about decoys. Thank God for this website. My Uncle Glenn's birthday was this week, and he shared this with me. Jeff


 
I will start by introducing myself . My name is Dan Bonner I live in Dorchester ont. Canada. I was given a pair of old decoys by a good friend of mine back in the early 90s. His father had introduced us to duck hunting I think it was the fall of 1969 .He passed away and my buddy thought I would like a pair of decoys from his fathers rig that we hunted over. Well that started me on the quest to find out who carved them. Well another friend of mine also hunted ducks and used wood decoys .I showed my birds to him and he recognized the style he said look like Ralph Malpage birds and he is still carving look him up in London. I found Ralph he said yep my birds early 60s .I ordered a few decoys from Ralph and told him I would love to learn how to carve decoys. Couple of months later got a call that my birds were ready and if I was still interested in carving he would start me on heads. That's what got me into carving. Ralph learned to carve from Ben Schmidt back in the day.
 
Dan,
Cool story and what a treat to be able to learn from a guy who learned from Ben Schmidt himself. Talk about passing on the tradition! I love the feather stamping. Any chance you could post pics of the tools he uses to stamp the feathers? Curious to know if they are similar to the ones Pat Gregory uses for feather stamping his decoys.
 
Dan, That is for sure an awesome story.

While Rich knows exactly who got me started, not everyone else does. It began with a phone call to Paul Rutgers. At the time I was simply calling him because he was the local Delta rep. As it so happened, I mentioned something to him about being interested in making my own decoys out of cork. Before I knew it I had a Shourds whistler pattern cut out of cedar and waiting for me in Kalamazoo. The first night I made it out to the Rutgers Institute I met some of the guys who would become good friends including David Robinson who is pretty active on this page. That was in the early spring of 2009 and I think I've now carved, painted and rigged a little over 30 decoys. I have two green wings on the bench right now which is why I'm posting past midnight;-) Whenever I get into the wood I easily loose track of time. I think that's what I love the most about it. Thanks Pauly!
 
Rich I will try and get a picture of them up .Thy are not like the ones I saw Pat using thy are more of a punch then a blade. Andrew time sure does fly when your carving and painting. Rich the punch I use is a piece of steal pipe different sizes very crude the end is cut into a u shape then weld is built up on it you can file or grind till you get the shape you want stamp a piece of scrap wood till you like what u see. Here is a pic of what I mean.

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