classic duck decoy

[curly maple]

i would like to carve a classic duck decoy but have never tried this type of carving ,mostly relief and just a beginner. where do i get a pattern and also are the two books by tom matus helpful? i have some basswood for my first try but just the other day i cut some 4 inch thick cedar on my sawmill and will let it dry for a couple years i understand this is the traditional wood for old decoys.

curly maple

[William]

Hi Curly Maple,

Tom's book "Antique Style Duck Decoys" is very good (I don't have his other books) he does a very good step-by-step for a wood duck using white cedar and also shows how to hollow the body to prevent cracking. The book includes a pattern, paint guide and many live bird pictures.

Mighty Layout Boys have patterns in the Tips section and many pictures of live birds.

http://www.mightylayoutboys.com/domino/mlb/MLB_resources.nsf

This is just a suggestion, but for your first decoy you may want to try an antique style working decoy like the Gus Wilson style Merganser or if you want something really unusual try the circa 1910 "Snakey Neck Mallard" by the Cains brothers and basswood will be fine for these and you can find many pistures of them in google pictures.

http://www.cainesboysdecoys.com/2694/index.html


The old style decoys have a very simple body, head and paint style and you can beat them up a little to make them look antique. The two decoys in front were my 3rd and 4th decoys, my first two were canvasbacks.

Bill
^v^

[Hugh-P]

Hi Bill, your old style decoys are classic. Very very nice. Someday I'm going to take the time and attempt a pair. Really like your nice clean style. Cheers

[curly maple]

thanks for the info bill and simple is why i want to try them not only for the ease of carving but in there own way i think they are beautiful. bill by the way i enjoy looking at your carvings nice work.

curly maple

[William]

Thank you Hugh, it's really nice for a novice to hear those words coming from a master wildfowl carver. I have so many different things on my carving to-do list I don't know when I'll get to do another but I like the old ones too. Those two birds are still among my favorite carvings mostly because they were among the first, the snakey-neck is 1/3/06 carving #10.

Curly Maple, I think the antiques are beautiful too and they are very popular now, did you see what the Cains boys are getting for their birds? I bet if your last name was Ward you could tack another $500 on the asking price

Bill
^v^

[markken5889]

Hi Curly Maple,

I agree with Bill, on the Tom Matus antique dekes book. It was a major nispiration for me with my carving. There's also a great follow-up article by TM in a back issue of WCI a few years ago. He does adrake woodie in the book, and the hen in the magazine article.

Bill, those are beautiful decoys! I especially like the merg and the oldsquaw!

Mark

[Aaron O'Keefe]

Curly maple,

Both Toms books are excellent! The first is a more realistic approach and the second one is for doing antique style birds. Its really up to you which you want to do. I've done birds in basswood,tupelo,cedar and cork also depends on what kind of decoy you'd like to make! You could always give Willy at the Duck Blind a call he'll get you started in the right direction. The Duck Blind - Wildfowl Video & Waterfowl Photo Reference, & Decoy Carving & Painting Supplies

Good luck!
Aaron

[Aaron O'Keefe]

Also meant to mention that if your going to use your cedar for "working" type decoys and your going to hollow them then you could have your 4" stock split to 2". Temporarily join the 2 halfs together to cut out your pattern and rough carve then split and hollow. Your cedar will dry quicker if it's only 2" thick! Just a thought.

Aaron

[markken5889]

as another FYI, Curly Maple, you can check out Tom Matus' Decoy Carving Forum. There's lots of tips and also a newbie section there.

Mark

[Lonewolfcarver]

Anthony Hillman has some wonderful books on carving classic duck decoys similar to Tom Matus as well.