Decoy Carver's: Gear & Process

[pikestabber]

I've carved decoys since I was a little kid and I started watching my Grandpa do it. I was 7 when I started cutting my fingers open with a flat slab knife on a piece of gnarled cedar, lol. I'm 34 now and have learned a great deal in those years, obviously, but I am always interested in what you folks do to create your masterpieces. I believe you can teach an "old dog new tricks," and I'm always hoping to better my craft. If you guys care to share, how would you fill in the categories below? I left a "notes" section at the end. Tell us how long you've been carving. Tell us why you use "x" instead of "y," or do "a" instead of "b"...anything about your personal process. Thanks in advance!

WOOD: Cedar; some pine

GENERAL OUTLINE TOOL: Roughing knife.

DETAIL TOOL: Detail carving knife; Hobby Knife

SANDING: All hand sanded

LEAD: Lee Melting pot and ladle

FINS: Hammered aluminum, cut with shears

CAVITY FILL: basic wood filler

SCALES: Wood burning pen

PAINT: (type, brand, application): Acrylic, hand painted

FINISH: Spray, clear acrylic

NOTES: I'm a pretty basic carver and I don't really come up with anything too fancy. I more or less carve for myself as I find it rewarding to bring in fish on something I made.

[Dorkfish]

Wood: cedar,pine

GENERAL OUTLINE TOOL: Band saw

DETAIL TOOL: Dremel for fin slots gills gill plates mouth and tail decor

SANDING: Dremel than hand sand or palm sander whatever is handy for the part I'm working on

LEAD: Melting pot that my grandpa used to use

FINS: aluminum specific size I think .025 or .028

CAVITY FILL: 2 part epoxy/bondo

SCALES: Saudering iron with home made scale tip

PAINT: (type, brand, application): Rustoleum base (white) wicked color air brush paint

FINISH: Spray, rustoleum clear coat (glossy)

NOTES: been carving for about 3 years or so. Age 22. Started spearing in 2011ish and started carving shortly afterwards. Found some of my grandpas old home made decoys and tried to replicate some of them. Which looked sort of like a bruel decoy or as I called em dorkfish decoys due to the fluorescent orange face and neon green body which some of you are aware of. And than made some sunfish and sort of stuck with the bright painted decoys and sunfish design

[MJ1657]

Good stuff Pikestabber and Dorkfish. Very helpful.

[Neighbor_guy]

Wood: cedar,pine, some poplar, mostly pine

GENERAL OUTLINE TOOL: Band saw

DETAIL TOOL: Dremel an razor knife

SANDING: Much of my shaping is done with files, so I don't sand much, but when I do it's by hand

LEAD: Hot pot 2

FINS: same as alex, aluminum specific size I think .025 or .028

CAVITY FILL: bondo

SCALES: Saudering iron with home made scale tip

PAINT: (type, brand, application): Rustoleum for most all steps, acrylic airbrush details

FINISH: Spray, rustoleum clear coat (glossy)

NOTES: age 35. This will be my second full season of carving. I got my start as a challenge to myself as a way to battle depression. I needed an artistic outlet and a way to get out of the dark. It worked. I sell some, give away some , and some find a home in my own collection. I truely enjoy it.

[pikestabber]

Thanks, all, for sharing! I see you both use homemade scale tips. Are these hard to make? Anyone care to share in that process?

[jasonmichalski]

Wood: white cedar

GENERAL OUTLINE TOOL: Band saw

DETAIL TOOL: hand forged carving knifes, and colwood detailer wood burner

SANDING: Dremel for sanding the wood filler, hand sand, and 1" belt sander for most on my sanding

LEAD: lee Melting pot and ladle

FINS: what ever I can find, but most of the time its aluminum flashing, basic decoys I screw to the bottom and on more detailed work I burn in the fin slots and try to lead them in place. I use a wire to pin my metal tails in place and epoxy in place.

CAVITY FILL: clear poly to seal before water testing then 2 part epoxy over lead then wood filler topped off with a clear poly to seal it

SCALES: colwood detailer wood burner with homemade scale tips

PAINT: (type, brand, application): base (white) cs coating systems vinyl lure and jig paint and all other colors except, silver and gold I use metallic Rustoleum

FINISH: cs coating systems clear vinyl lure and jig paint

NOTES: been carving for about 5 years ago, I'm up to a few hundred now, I'm 32 and it all start when my grandpa gave my an old spear and an old decoy. I'm hooked now I hardly every use a rod or tip-up on the ice anymore, lol!

[jasonmichalski]

Thanks, all, for sharing! I see you both use homemade scale tips. Are these hard to make? Anyone care to share in that process?

when I started I had two cheap solder irons, I used heavy copper wire and ground a C shape with a dremel tool and one had I threaded end so I would thread it to fit, then when I started using pens in my colwood detailer I used electric dyer heat coil and bent and grind to a sharp C shape, I make my own pens and bought one that takes wire ends and has set screws to hold it in place.

[Dorkfish]

Pike stabber I have 2 one for small .25 scales and the other I think is .5. For the .5 I have a weller 80 watt that came with the bi soldering tip that I drilled out and than ground half of it off. Fairly easy to make. I have some others that I made out of brass but brass takes a very long time to heat up and has no consistency.

Make sure to get the pen one don't waste your time with the one with the trigger. They have a tendency to burn hands lol

[jasonmichalski]

Pike stabber I have 2 one for small .25 scales and the other I think is .5. For the .5 I have a weller 80 watt that came with the bi soldering tip that I drilled out and than ground half of it off. Fairly easy to make. I have some others that I made out of brass but brass takes a very long time to heat up and has no consistency.

Make sure to get the pen one don't waste your time with the one with the trigger. They have a tendency to burn hands lol

this is the trick to get good scales from a cheap iron, weller 80watt is what I started with to. make a dimmer control the regulate the heat out put and it will help a ton I did these

decoys with the cheap iron

[jkranz36]

WOOD: Cedar; basswood

GENERAL OUTLINE TOOL: Bandsaw and roughing knife

DETAIL TOOL: Flextool detail knife and various Flextool gouges

SANDING: Palm sander to get it close and hand sand the details

LEAD: Lee Melting pot with a spout at the bottom that I use for jigs as well

FINS: sheet metal from air ducts cut with tin snips and hammered flat

CAVITY FILL: Bondo topped with 2 part epoxy to seal

MAKING CAVITY/ FIN SLOTS: I use a mill to boar the cavity hole so I can make it exact side to side and then I use a Drexel saw blade in the mill to make the fin slots so they are exactly the same

SCALES: I airbrush them when I do them

PAINT: (type, brand, application): Acrylic, liquitex airbrush paint and rust oleum white base coats

FINISH: System three epoxy brushed on and rotated on a grill rotisserie until it is no longer fluid. Amazing shine and protection, but big learning curve to get it to coat well

NOTES: this is my second year carving and third year spearing. It started as something neat to try and now is kind of an obsession. I have around 20 that I have done so far with a half dozen in the works again.

[pikestabber]

Bump...

I see a few people on the threads now that are hinting at trying their hand at decoy carving, so this is a good place to get some basic info.

Question for Neighbor Guy and Dorkfish, when you talk about a finishing coat with Rustoleum clear coat, is that acrylic, I am guessing?