Hi all. Since the world didn't come to an end with the dawn on Jan 1st, and
the electricity is still available to power up the old bandsaw, I have put
both to good use here in the first 3 weeks of the new year.

So far this month, I have bandsawed out 7 bluebill heads, and 3 of what I
call rig filler bodies. These rig fillers are basically flat decoys I make
from construction grade 2 x 8 lumber. I bandsaw them to shape (using
Grayson Chessor's patterns from his book, Making Decoys the Century Old
Way) and bolt a temporary keel on to the bottom of them so that I can
fasten in a vice and start shaping them with a drawknife.

My motivation for making these rig fillers is to "fill out" my diver rig
with some decoys that look good when you get close, but do not take me a
bunch of time to make them. I can generally saw, shape and smooth a head in
an hour or so, and my friend Frank Kehoe timed me the other day shaping a
body with a drawknife, spokeshave and rasp in 10 minutes flat. And that was
shaped and smoothed well enough to paint. Contrast that to the 8 hours or
so it takes me to saw shape and paint a full size hollow cedar deke, and
you see my attraction for having a few of these rig fillers in my rig.

Anyhow, 6 of these flatties are for a 10 year old hunter in Rutland, 2 are
going to be this year's DU decoys, and who knows, I may make some more for
some other people if they ask.

I think the 2 that I make for my local chapter's auction will be donated as
Greenwing Decoys intended for young/beginning hunters.

A guy in Illionois asked me to carve him a full size standing seagull that
he could put on the bow of his sneak boat. the other day I cut a large
chunk out of a 8 x 8 cedar timber I had in the garage and  commenced to
bandsawing out the body profile. Wouldn't you know it, the blade broke on
the saw. Piss me off. I had to put on my backup blade a 3/8" vs the 1/4
inch I usually use. I was able to finish cutting the body out, but not
before I swore to buy another 1/4" blade a soon as I was done. I did, and
it came in the mail today.

My buddy Frank decided he wanted to build a boat. He sent away for plans to
build a KARA, which is a lay out boat roughly 14 foot long. So we are
building it in his basement. We get together on Mondays and work for a
couple of hours. So far we are almost done the framing and are in sight of
starting the deck/hull. We will have to cut his basement stairs up to get
it out, and I think that particular step holds the most promise for
adventure out of the whole process.

Thats it for me for this month, take care and write when you get a chance.

*************************************************************************************************************************************************

 Jan 2000 Carving Tip

This should probably be called a bandsaw tip. When you  start sawing out
decoys, you have to remember that most Delta 14" saws and their clones are
or have been assembled far from perfect. Even though I have been a Delta
14" owner for 9 years now, I am still amazed at some of the quirky little
ways that these saws are not perfect.

Give you an example of what I mean: When you lower the saw guides to allow
you to cut a 3/4" piece of wood, you usually have to adjust both the
placement of the thrust washer behind the blade, and the placement of the
upper blade guides in relation to the blade. BUT when you  raise the post
holding the thrust washer/blade guides so that you can cut, say a 4" thick
piece of wood, you will have to adjust the placement of the thrust washer
and guide block again. Now here's the thing I only caught on to last year,
when you raise the post, you should also loosen the set screw that holds
each blade guide in place and adjust them side to side.

The reason for all of these adjustments is because Delta, (and most all of
the clones) did not make the post perfectly square to the table, making the
post travel through a diagonal line as in moves vertically. NOW, I adjust
everything every time I cut a different thickness piece of wood.

Want another Delta 14" tip? Keep a 2" machinist's square handy, so that
everytime you adjust something to do with the blade, post, thrust washer,
or blade guides, you can check the squareness of the blade to the table.
You will be amazed how often it out, and how far off it gets.

*************************************************************************************************************************************************
Feb 2000 Decoy Doings

Hi All! Its the end of Feb, so once again I am behind on the decoy doings
column. Oh Well... The 2000 CCNDU rig filler decoys are done. I use yellow
artists tube oil for the eye, and they take forever to dry, but they are
finally dry. I think I am going to switch over to rustoleum yellow mixed
with rustoleum flat white just so I can speed up the process a little. I
will take some pictures in the next couple of days and send them to Don to
post.

The 6 rig fillers I carved for the kid in Rutland Vt are done also. With
any luck, I can mail them out this week. I am almost done the 3 canvasback
rig fillers I started. I have only to put the burnt sienna on the heads of
the drakes and the smoky grey on the back of the hen.

I managed to slice my thumb up bad while carving that seagull. I should
have probably gone and got stiches, but that would have meant listening to
the wife fuss at me, so I just squeezed my thumb for the better part of an
hour and taped it up with tissues and electrical tape. Tim Taylor style....

The KARA boat that Frank and I are building is done. That was a bunch of
fun. We haven't tried to get it out of his basement yet, but when we do I
will be sure to write about it in here.

What's next on the decoy building list? I HAVE to finish that seagull. I
feel like I've strung that out to long. After that I have an OLD
Susquehanna Flats style preening canvasback with a busted head that I have
to fix for a friend in Md. Instead of carving a new head, I have all the
pieces, and am going to piece it back together with WEST system epoxy. He
is getting married in May and I will put that in the box as if that is all
he gets, with the real present underneath. I haven't met his fiance yet,
I'm hoping she has a sence of humour....

After that I'll probably carve a bluebil for a guy in Illonios who wants to
trade me for a decoy of mine. I told him I would like a hen woodie.

Speaking of woodie's, the river out behind the house, The Browns River,
took a little diversion last fall making an island right across from my
property. I have a wood duck box that is going to waste where it is and I
think I am going to put it there....

That's all I can think of for now, see you next month.
 

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   Feb 2000 Carving Tip

This month I'd like to revisit bandsaws for a minute. As you recall from
last month, I was in need of a new blade for the bandsaw. I sent away for a
1/4" 4 TPI skip hook blade. For those of you who haven't delved into saw
blade technology too much, check out The Bandsaw Book by Mark Dugniske.
Tremendous  bandsaw resource. With this skip hook blade, the saw cuts
faster and it seems to make a tighter turn. My guess is that the teeth have
more set in them, than the plain jane 1/4" Delta blade I was using.

OK, back to carving....I'm pretty sure I didn't mention that in these rig
fillers decoys that I hollow out the heads. Since the weight from the head
is concentrated in one end, and I don't use either a wood or lead keel to
balance it out, I decided I needed to hollow out the head to let the deke
float right. So what I do is, I drill the holes that the head attachement
srews go into first. Then directly fore and aft of those holes, I drill as
many 3/8" holes up into the bottom of the head as will fit. I use a brad
point bit so that the bit doesn't "walk" around when I am first starting
the hole. Then I drill as many 5/16" holes as will fit, again with a brad
point bit. After that, if there is any room left I complete the swiss
cheese effect with either a 1/4" or 3/16" bit. the end result is a light,
strong head. When I attached the head with the galvanised deck srews in the
holes I drilled before I commenced to swiss cheese, I always use a little
paintable silicon seal around the perimeter of the bottom of the head. That
way no water can get into the head and water log all that surface area that
the swiss cheese job created.

See you next month.
 

************************************************************************************************March March 2000 Decoy Doings
 

 Hi All. As usual I am running behind on my column here. I got a polite
reminder of that when one reader ( who will remain nameless) wondered if
his computer was on the fritz since he couldn't get the March Decoy Doings
to show? Its nice to know that the subtle art of sarcasm is alive and well!

On to other things....I got the seagull done! Its carved, painted, and
shipped. I have a few more exposures left on that roll of film, and then I
will drop it off and post a seagull picture here. The finished product went
to James Staudacher in Wisconsin. In previous columns I had mentioned "a
guy in Illionois", but that must of been some kind of brain fart. James is
in the final stages of building a scull boat and is/was dying to get it. As
of this writing I don't think it has arrived there yet, but I am pretty
sure he'll like it when it gets there.

Frank and I moved his KARA boat out of his basement. After he took part of
the stair supports our, it went out pretty easy. No dramatics or nothing.
We loaded it on my little utility trailer to take to my house were we could
put the finishing touches on it. By finishing touches, I am referring to
the outboard bracket we put on it. Frank has a 17lb thrust trolling motor
that he wanted to use on it. Since getting the camber on the bottom of the
2x8 we used was more of a challenge than we wanted to accept with hand
tools, we took it to my house so that we could get the bandsaw involved.
The bracket turned out real nice, and we  used epoxy and screws to fasten
it onto the stern. The next chance we get we will put into the water and
see what happens.

When my 7 year old son saw that I was making rig fillers for some other
boy, he said he wanted one too. So I have the body all cut and shaped, now
I just have to get the head cut out and shaped.

Right around the end of March I ordered plans for a Snow Goose duck boat
from the Devlin Designing Boatworks people out on Washington State. I also
ordered the video and  book. I have been reading all the literature in
preperation for a warm weather kick off to boat building season. I will let
you know how it goes ...

Hey, I have a neat thing to tell you all about. A guy named Ron Smith from
Pembroke Pines Fla and I have been coresponding about carving. About 4 or 5
weeks ago he made me an offer I just couldn't refuse. He  told me that he
has enjoyed my help on carving immensly and wanted to thank me for all the
help this column has been in furthering his carving knowledge. He offered
to carve me a deke to donate to the DU chapter that I belong to! Well, I
certanly wasn't going to turn that down! Our annual dinner was April 8th,
and the decoy arrived at my house about a week prior to that. When I opened
the box, there was the prettiest little drake bluewing teal I've seen. I
took it to work to show my officemates, and give it to the state chairman
(who works with me), who put it in the auction at the dinner.

Seeing as how the Auction was in April, and this is March's column, you
will just have to wait a couple of weeks till I can get April's column out
to hear how well recieved it was. (also you have to wait on account of I
don't have the film developed yet.)

Last year on the last day of the Vt duck season I met a gentleman named
Leight Waas at the Lamoille River Fishing Access. He was just pulling his
boat out as I was getting ready to dump my boat it. Being the nosy guy I
am, I snuck a peek at his decoy rig and saw some homemade cork black duck
decoys. One thing led to another and we struck up a conversation, and I
invited him to come over some time to check out the work shop and my decoy
rig. Well, to make a long story short, Leighton visited one day about mid
March. We looked at dekes, and boats, and dogs and all things hunting
related.

I have been on an unusual work schedule for the last 5 weeks, putting in
somewhere between 50 and 70 hours a week. Next week I go back to a sane
schedule and am going to do some serious carving. I am also going to use
that as an excuse as to why I am late with this column....

See ya next month...
 

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  March 2000 Carving Tip

Folks, I am drawing a blank as to what to write about for carving tips.
Somebody please send me a question, or 2.
 

************************************************************************************************ April 2000 Decoy Doings

Hi All. Yes, April is long gone, and I have no good excuses for being so
late. So I will just get right to what I was up to in April. April 8th was
the CCNDU dinner. My rig fillers bought a flattering price and a spent less
money there than I intended to, thereby keeping the peace with the wife.
Kind of a neat story about the dinner for you though. My wife bought a $2
raffle chance on a tub of 6 live lobsters, 3 lbs of clams, mussels, butter,
and good Maine beer. All she had to do was guess the combined live weight
of all 6 lobsters. She came with in .01 of a lb on her guess and we went
home with the lobsters, clams/mussells and the beer, not to mention the
great galvanised tub! Man what a feast we had the next day.

We finally had a chance to put Frank's KARA in the water at Indian Brook
Resovoir in Essex Jct Vt. With the trolling motor it went along just fine.
We took turns running it both under power and using a double ended canoe
paddle. Since this was an extrordinarily warm day for Vt (80 degrees), many
people were at the resovoir, and it seemed that all the males walking by
were either duck hunters ogling the boat or just plain like the idea that
we built it ourselves. It was neat to see that kind of attention.

Last year I bandsawed out a ringneck body that I intended to be a hen to
match the drake I did last summer. After a year of sitting in the basement,
some cracks opened up in the body. Since I was going to leave the body
solid, fixing the cracks was easier than if I had choose to do a hollow
bird. On the port side of the breast, a large chunk of the center of the
log was pulling away from the body. 2 countersunk galvanised deck screws
plus a liberal helping of Titebond II glue pulled it right back into place.
I then put 2 cedar plugs in the countersink holes to cover the screw heads,
and nobody is the wiser that I don't have a "perfect" piece of cedar! I
primed the ringneck with 2 coats of Rustoleum Black and set it aside to
dry.

Frank came over to my house with a bunch of industrial strength shelving
for my basement workshop. Theoretically I was going to "help" him put it
up. In reality, he did 90% of the work! Gotta love that in a
friend....Putting up the shelving allowed me to organise all my power
tools, my carving lumber, and my paints. I now have more room that ever to
make a mess!.

I got on a head carving kick in April. So far I have carved mallard, teal,
and ringneck heads and am building a collection of them on the shelf.

About this time I noticed that my Poke Boat's glass on the bottom of the
stern was almost worn through. From what I can figure, I am abrading it
when I am launching it by sitting my big behind in it with the stern on
shore and "schooching" it into the water. I used my dremel tool and a bunch
of 50 grit to prepare the surface. Late one night after the kids went to
bed, I patched it up with 3 layers of 4 oz glass and WEST system epoxy.
After it dried, I painted it camo to keep the UV rays from degrading the
epoxy.

As you can see I didn't get much decoy carving done in April. May will be
different!
 

**********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

 April 2000 Carving Tip

My request for carving tips in March's column brought an email from Bill
Vanderlaan who asks that I address tailboards in cork decoys, as in when to
install, before cutting the cork or after. Well Bill, that is a good
question. I used to cut the slot in the cork before I cut either the side
or top profile of the bird. Doing so allowed me to handle a nice square
piece of cork on the bandsaw, but I found that I was not getting the
lifelikeness that I desired because I was afraid to cut too close to the
tailboard for fear of messing it up by nicking it with the bandsaw blade.
Nowadays I do something altogether different. Instead to drawing the entire
top pattern with tail, on the cork, I draw what is basicially a tear drop
shaped pattern with a piece of white chalk. I then draw the side profile
onto the cork. Next I use the bandsaw to cut the overhead view, the one
that looks like a teardrop. After that is done, I use my chalk to draw a
line on the pattern that starts about  4 to 5" from the rear of the deke to
the far rear of the bird. When I draw this line, I angle it down at 30 to
45 degrees. I use a coping saw to cut along this line, and then cut a
parrelel line a .25" away. After I have sawed both of these lines, it is a
simple thing to turn the coping saw at the bottom of the cut to connect
both cuts. The reason I angle it down is that to me, the tail down attitude
of a resting bird signals all is well, come on in.

We really can't go any farther in this discussion without talking about
what kind of wood I like to use. Once apon a time I used exterior grade
.25" plywood. After a while I tried .25" white oak, and liked that even
better. Lately I have been using mahogany (mainly because I had some around
the house), and I think I like that best of all. its easier to carve that
oak, and its not quite so porous.

OK, on to fastening the tail in place. I like to carve to dark, low density
cork. since I use the dark stuff, I always use a plywood bottom board.
Doing so allows me to use it as the "backbone" of the bird. I bolt the keel
to it. I run the head bolt up through it. And last but not least, I use it
to stiffen the tail board. After you cut the slot in the cork, do a trail
fit of the tail piece. Make sure it fits well, and goes all the way down
the slot. Then, using LOTS of glue, coat the heck out of the part of the
tail that will contact the cork. Also coat the heck out of the cork too.
Slide the tail in place and using your 12" long 1/8" drill bit ( you do
have one right?), drill up through the bottom board at an angle and into
the tailboard. Use 4" galvanised deck screws to draw the tailboard down and
forward into the slot. This method gives your deke 2 means of fastening the
tail to the cork. I also think I greatly cuts down on that old problem of
what happens when you drop your cork deke tail down on something hard and
the tail breaks off.

When you are finished installing the tail this way, you will have a tail
that is strong, AND looks very anotomically correct proportionaly compared
to the body. You gotta like that....

See you next month.
 

**********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
 

 May's 2000 Decoy Doings

Hi folks. May has come and gone, so it must be time for May's column. I
have been a busy camper in the basement workshop and in that mess that I
call a garage.

First off, I patched up the glass on the bow of the Pigwitch. Where the
"chine" is on the front part of the bow of a jon boat is, had started to
get abraded. I figured I would keep ahead of trouble by applying a couple
of layers of 6 oz cloth saturated in WEST epoxy to the bow. In order to do
this though, I had to strip the paint and sand what wouldn't come off with
stripper. I had fogotten how much I HATED doing that kind of work.
Eventually the stripping was done and the sanding commenced. I used 3
layers  6 oz cloth cut 4" wide on each chine piece. As we have been having
a crappy spring and summer, the coolness of the day caused the epoxy to use
8+ hours to set up. Then it was paint and put on the trailer.

I was looking at my rig filler scaups and started wondering if it would be
possible to do some puddle duck rig fillers. I knew right away that they
would require me to use more than one piece of 2x wood to reach the desired
"tail up" attitude of a puddle duck compared to a diver. Seeing as how I
wanted relatively light weight rig fillers, I hollowed the middle 3rd of
the 2x block and then glued a 1x piece of pine on to it. After it set up, I
got the draw knife out and shaped the back so that the lowest section was
at the point where the head goes and the tallest portion was at the tip of
the tail. In profile this deke looks very racy, like it was crying out for
a head that resembled a fast swimmer. So that's what it got. I painted it
as a Green Wing Teal. It turned out WAY prettier than I thought it would,
so I am going to give it to my 5 yr old daughter, as her first decoy. At
some point I will carve her a hen so that she has a matched set.

My friend Tom from NH stopped by one day when I wasn't home to drop of some
gorgeous pine blocks for me. These blocks are cut offs from the ends of log
cabin timbers. I stuck them in the top of the barn to dry. As a thank you
to him, I carved him a drake scaup rig filler, which I will give to him
when I see him in July.

I finished painting that hen ringneck. I don't often disparage my own work,
but what an ugly paint job. I have a hard time with hens, and this one is
no exception. the body shape is right there, but the subtle shadings of hen
divers screws me up everytime.

My son has been paddling my Poke Boat around the swamp behind my house with
a paddle that can't be more than 2.5 feet long. It looks like a joke
paddle. After a couple of beers, I talked myself into carving him a couple
of paddles, one of which was 6 inches longer than what he has, the other a
foot longer. so I went down to Home Depot and bought myself some 8 foot
long 2x6's. One was for his paddles, one was going to be a replacement for
the ancient oar I use in the Pigwitch.
I traced his baby paddle on to the board and added a inch to the bottom of
the blade and 6" to the handle length. I did the same one for the next
paddle, lenghting it by another 6+ inches. Then I cut them to shape with my
jig saw and rounded them off with a drawknife. I will eventually coat them
with epoxy resin. By having a couple of different paddle lengths around the
house, I can accomodate any size paddler.

After staring at that gorgeous rig filler Teal with the .75" top board, I
wondered what a teal with a 1.0" top board would look like. So I scrounged
around and found me some pieces of 5/4 pine to glue to some scrap 2x
boards. I will shape these dekes just like the other ones.

Me and Frank have been devoting Monday's to building a duck boat. Some time
back I bought plans from Devlin Boat Builders for Sam Devlin's Snow Goose,
a 16' x 6' garvey style boat. So far we have been lofting the smaller
pieces onto 1/4" luan plywood. We've gotten all the smaller pieces done,
and I expect we will be done lofting in 2 weeks. I am using luan to make
templates so that when I spend the big bucks on Occume marine plywood, I
won't waste any trying fit the pieces onto the Occume.

Next month I will finish that balsa mallard hen I started wayyyy back in
the fall of last year. I'll let you know how it turns out.
 

**********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

  May 2000 Carving Tip

This month's carving tips were once again suggested by Bill VanderLan. He
asked how do you get the grey on the mallard drakes back right, and how do
a get the head color on a bull canvasback to where I want it?

I must say as a decoy maker and column writer, Bill is hitting my Achilles
heel with paint questions. I have never considered myself a good painter,
but I do think I make up for it in research and devotion. What do I mean by
that? Basically, I buy lots of books of birds pictures, and I keep trying
the same bird over and over till I get it right. (this month's hen ringneck
not withstanding). I also used to raise ducks (before kids came along), and
I had a chance to study the mallards pretty good.

Mallard back color varies from duck to duck, basically I aim for a medium
to light grey. Seeing as how no 2 of my decoys ever come out the same, I
seem to have accidentally built in a degree of variability in my decoy
coloring. I justify this in my mind with the old "all ducks don't look
exactly alike" line. Head color on bull cans though I approach differently.
I use Rustoleum flat for all my white and black colors and Ronan Japan
paints for all others. To get the Can head, I use burnt sienna with a touch
of raw umber (not much, just enough to make a difference). I than faint all
the feathered parts of the head. While the paint is still wet, I paint on a
thin coat of flat black from the bill to about even with the eye. Thats it.
Nothing fancier than that.

Thanks Bill. Anybody else ot any questions? Please send them in!
 
 

**********************************************************************************************

  Year End 2000 Wrap Up

Hi all. Well, its the end of the year and I am so very far behind that I'm
almost ashamed to show my face around here again. I figure rather than try
and give a blow by blow on what's been going on month by month, I'll just
do a Year End Wrap Up. The main reason I have been so very busy is that I
bit off more than I could chew decoy wise. In the first part of summer the
man that owns Delaware Sporting Galleries in Easton Md and in Delaware
ordered 8 pair of my rig fillers to give away as door prizes at this year's
DU dinners in Delaware. Naturally I was immensely happy at the thought of
getting that many decoys out in front of that many devoted duck hunters. So
I started carving heads, and shaping bodies. As soon as I did that, my kids
started having ideas of their own as to what I ought o be doing instead.
Those of you out in cyber land (who don't have kids) may not believe this,
but a 6 year old and an 8 year old have an amazing amount of "pull" if you
know what I mean. To make a long story short, I missed the deadline to get
them done. The guy who owns the store took them anyhow, only they will be
in next year's dinners instead.

At the same time I started trying to figure out a way to make a respectable
looking rig filler decoy for puddle ducks. So I cut out a sharp looking top
profile of a teal body from a 2x6, and one from a 1x6. I hollowed out the
2x6, and glued both pieces together. My plan was to carve up a nice simple
Green Wing Teal with a nice simple paint job. However, one thing led to
another, and it got a real fancy paint job. So naturaly I had to carve a
hen to go with it. So then my 6 year old daughter sees them and HAS to have
them. Soooo, she got a nice Christmas present(s).

While I was doing that, my buddy Frank Kehoe gave me a 1954 7.5hp Evindrude
that needed a very minimal amount of work to get running. Seeing as how he
wouldn't take any money for it, he got the second pair of fancy painted rig
filler teal.

All told this year I have carved and painted 35 rig filler diver dekes.

My sister Mary has a friend whose boy friend is into old decoys. She asked
me to carve her "an old looking one". So I looked in the book titled Decoys
of Lake Champlain, on page 16 and there is an old time black duck decoy by
George Bacon. I carved her one and made a fancy looking varnished stand
with a brass plaque stating "Lake Champlain Gunning Decoy".

I also carved my boss a rig filler bluebill seeing as how he was nice
enough to give me a 12' long 2x10 that I cut a bunch of rig filler divers
out of. A guy I know in Md who used to take me out hunting quite often has
just recently gotten into carving decoys. He had been asking me for advice
on painting, so I figured I would carve him a drake bluebill that he could
use as a model for his or use to hunt over.

Anyway, that's what I have been up to in the last half of 2000. Next year's
column will be different. I will keep up with it, that's my New Year's
resolution.
 

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  Year End 2000 Carving Tip
 

Without a doubt, this will probably be the dumbest sounding carving tip I
have ever given, but this year's decoy activities have proven its worth to
me. Here it is:
Don't  take on too much at one time. You might wind up looking stupid and
possibly losing credibility with people you don't want to lose credibilty
with.....
 

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