Chesapeake Decoy Carving Shack: learn to carve the old Hand Chopped Chesapeake way.

Learning to carve decoys will give you increased appreciation and understanding of the skill that went into the decoys of old and more of a feel for what is required to make a well designed, functional, and/or decorative decoy today.  It's my hope that by learning to carve, more collectors will become familiar with various aspects of decoy construction. form, wood and last but not at all least, paint. 

The methods described here are the same methods used by the old master carvers on the bay.  Wood Blocks were first chopped by ax or hatchet, then a drawknife was used to give a more refined shape to the decoy.  More exact shape was then given by a spoke shave followed by a rasp type tool.

After the basic shape of the decoy was obtained the final finer details would be produced by classic wood working tools including knives, chisels and files followed by sandpaper or a sanding medium of some type.  My intention in this description is to follow the old ways and methods as closely as possible in modern times.  No power equipment of any kind was used in the manufacture of these decoy examples.  The first decoy block was sawed by hand by a Swedish hand saw from a 10 foot beam.

I also used few measuring tools except a ruler and pencil to measure off the length of the blocks obtained from the 10 foot beam and define the basic shape of body and head of decoy. All work was done by eye and drawing with no patterns.  You can also make a pattern from the outlines from an old decoy by tracing the outline on to paper or cardboard or by free hand drawing by observing a decoy sitting in front of you on a table.  I have extensive woodworking experience so possibly tend to gloss over the importance of the right proportions needed to complete this decoy project.  If you feel you need more assistance refer to a book like the one listed below.

Here the basic wood block of Hemlock fir has had the basic shape defined then cut by hand saw. I simply drew in carpenters pencil the desired shape I wanted to make.  In this case a hump backed design, with a flat back and tail.  Wood with cracks are not desired for decoys but since I was given the wood by a local lumberyard as a "write off" who was I to argue ! This decoy will be a very old Folk Art design where a few cracks add character. Any number of old Susquehanna decoys were made with cracks and long nails were inserted to stabilize the the cracks and with putty applied the cracks were not visible.  When you purchase lumber as a general rule chose straight grain, knotless, split free wood stock !

Here classic hand chopping has reveled the basic form of the decoy.  Your hatchet should be razor sharp !  Have a wood block or stump to keep the hatched from striking the ground as you chop.  In old times professional woodsman could make many projects from just an ax and sheath knife.  It just takes practice and remember to keep SAFE at all times !  Make sure to keep your feet out of the way !

This is a simple set up of a regular shop vise to hold the decoy block for shaping with the drawknife.  Again, the drawknife needs to be very sharp so that it cuts and not tears the wood fibers.  A smaller drawknife than this one will work fine.  You can draw the knife toward you which is the most common practice or it can also be pushed away from the carver, but has less control.

After drawing the basic head shape it's fairly simple to cut the outlines of the decoy head. This head is cut from common 2x4 Fir lumber available anywhere ! I am partial to Basswood for a lot of my carving as it cuts easy and you spend a lot less time sharpening tools.  Plus it is split and knot free.  I did not use a pattern, but if it makes it easier for you, use one !  The stages up to this point require some effort and to keep cool I find it more appealing to do outside, and it's also much easier to control, clean up and dispose of wood cuttings and shaving.   You can put the piece of lumber in a vise or stand on it with one foot.  With both hands on the saw, short fast work can be made and before you know it, you have a decoy head ready to be finished !  To make the final curved cuts on the bill and chin...a small thin blade copeing saw works well.

This is the end result  for the decoy body so far with more shaping with a smaller drawknife, spoke shave and rasp tool.  I leave the tail section fat so that I can put the decoy in the vise to be worked on, later the tail will be shaved down to the proper proportions.  Note pencil lines on forward tail section.  I will relieve the decoy body of the wood in this area to slim down the aft tail section.

 I have been working on 3 decoys at the same time and this is another body than the one above it, made of split and knot free Basswood.  It has more finishing from the result of the tools displayed with the decoy body.  Tools of the trade include from left to right: Common Stanley wood chisel, Veritas spoke shave with turn of the 20th century low 20% cutting angle.  The only one made to my knowledge with the low angle.  The small curved flexible draw knife is a Flexcut and is just about my favorite tool.  It is beyond razor sharp right out of the box and cuts wood like butter.  Stanley Sure-form rasp on far right and is better and faster and cleaner cutting than any regular wood rasp and has inexpensive disposable blades.  Trial and practice with these tools is the key and self explanatory and the process is simple enough that you should be able to produce a workable decoy first try.  In the photo I should have put the Drawknife ahead of the spoke shave as that is the normal sequence of events for shaping the decoy.  But the Flexcut drawknife is such a great tool that I find myself using it a lot in place of the spoke shave and Sure-form.

Price of these tools is as follows:

Chisel - 8.00   Spoke shave - 57.00 (higher angle ones sell for a third of the price)   Drawknife - 37.00   Sure-form - 12.00

Before you learn to carve, you should first master sharpening the tools which is an art in itself, but like anything else, learnable with a little study.  You probably will spend at least a few hundred dollars to get started and finish your decoy, if frugal, maybe less, but the little things add up fast !

Time to go inside the Old Decoy Shack with the project. The art of carving at this stage has many methods that can be employed.  The left box contains wood carving tools and the right box files along with a piece of sandpaper.  From this stage on I will recommend a very good book written by Bill Veasey of Elkton. Maryland called Waterfowl carving (blue ribbon techniques) as there is simply too much information available to portray any one method here.  The major work of the project has been completed at this point and if you can get to this stage, the rest is not that hard but will involve more artistic skill, it really just depends on how far you wish to go with the artistic aspects of the decoy.  For a Gunning decoy all this one would need is a simple paint job.  Try some decoy restoration on a few of your old beat up decoys and this will give you a giant leg up in learning the secrets of the old carvers and the mysteries of decoy construction, which at bottom are not that secret, but very reveling and will put you light years ahead of some collectors who think they "know it all" !

This photo shows the decoy to this point and again you could paint it at this stage or go on with more ornate and fancy carving and finishing if desired.  Painting can be as simple as Upper-bay decoys or as elaborate as a Ward or modern decorative, it's all up to you. At times you will struggle with angles, curves and unsharp tools that test your will, but then all of a sudden things snap together and it works...weeee. have a beer ! The sequence of the carving tutorial above is to show that common tools and common materials can be used to make a great decoy. The main thing is to have fun, get you out from in front of that dam TV and enjoy !