March workbench

Lets see'em boys! We need to get some more carvers over here. Hopefully PJ will post up a pic of some of the stuff he's working on.

I finally got the 4 birds from this mallard rig finished, sealed and primed. They are ready for paint, but will be spending the next month on a shelf while I continue my carving spree. Plus I gotta drop like $250 in paint, so they'll have to wait until then. Neat character to them so far. I have 2 more I need to carve heads for and finish. One is a swimmer and the other is a top secret pose.

Oh and they're primed in black...like George W recommended.




I got this IWCA style Pintail cutout too. Planning to enter this bird into the open competition at Tuckerton. He'll be a lot of fun to carve and paint.



And then today I got two beautiful cedar boards milled up and joined for a Delaware river style black duck I'm doing. Really excited to start this project.

Delaware river style black duck. Still have to clean the feather edges, hollow and put some eyes on him. First time I've drawn a delaware river pattern from scratch and carved one. Fun bird, I think I may do more.

black is looking good

Thanks Luke. Spent a lot of time cleaning up the feathers with a detail knife. I feel at home with this style and I can't wait to carve more. I'm going to try doing a pair of each species common to this area.

Great looking bird, Davey; nice work!

Westlake starts in seven days and I need to have my dekes done by WED. As of this morning, here's where I am... Obviously, I have a lot of work to do if I hope to send any entries to ODCCA. I told my wife to just send all my meals to my basement shop this weekend!

Dave I like the D-River bird definetly see some Geoff Vine influence there he carves a nice bird I would like his birds more if he used a competition glass eye just think the eyes really add life to the bird!

Thanks Larry. I considered tack eyes, but I'm with you, glass eyes just finish it better.

Now that the show is over, I guess it's safe to post a photo of the four birds I did up in a little over one week for the Westlake waterfowlers' competition. As George Williams reported, "...at least your dekes weren't the first ones out of the pool!" I guess that's a good start for my first gunning decoy singles cometition!

I have been fortunate enough to have been getting lessons from renowned carver Paul Dobrosky, I explained to Paul that I was looking to carves some Canvasbacks for the rig and he told me he give me some tricks to the trade. Well he's given me more than some tricks he's shown me the whole trade!! Words can't descibe Paul how appreciative I am Paul thanks again! Looking forward on the setting eyes lesson tomorrow!

The 1st decoy Paul carved as a lesson the 2nd decoy I carved except for the bill as I needed another lesson and was too afraid to screw it up, the next one will be all me! 3 lessons and my carving has improved dramatically IMO


Paul's decoy from the 2nd lesson



The decoy I carved except for the bill which was done by Paul

Thats great Larry. Paul makes real nice birds, you've got a good instructor!

The Conservation Club at the middle school where my wife teaches wanted a wood duck for their created wetland. They "floated" the decoy on Tuesday to recognize the first day of spring.

that looks right at home, Ed.

Cork gunners; GW-style