Fall 2009

HOME RUN!

You hit the nail on the head with the Summer 2009 issue. The feature on the young guns was awesome. I've been hauling kid’s stuff to Ohio for a number of years and telling as many carvers as I can to do the same.

While some people argue about the lack of time, and lack of interest in working with kids, I think the tide is definitely starting to turn. Even if you can bring just one kid into the fold and pique their interest, you have made a difference, and helped to give the grand tradition of the carved bird a fighting chance to continue.

I wished I would have been able to send some stuff to the young guns and kick myself for allowing my bunch of kids to miss out. We are currently working on stuff for the St. Clair flats show, the Ward Challenge, and our perennial favorite, the ODCCA “Party by da pool.”

Brian Ballard
Hopkins, Michigan

YOUNG GUN

It was a great pleasure to flip through the pages of my favorite magazine and see not only my decoy, but my little brother’s and my friend’s (“Young Guns,” Summer 2009). It is been my unsurpassed pleasure to get Wildfowl Carving Magazine four times each year. Your magazine is a long-lasting investment, which I view as a stock that doesn’t depreciate. It is an investment in myself, and the hope that my skills appreciate over time. Just as I, a young carver, invest in your magazine, it is up to my surrounding carving world to invest in me and others with similar interests. Competitions, the Internet, and wildfowl carving articles help turn the large carving family into a tight-knit community, in which we can all appreciate. As Mother Theresa once said, you must build a community brick by brick to ensure lasting enthusiasm and appreciation for what was there before. You magazine has, over the years, helped solidify this concept. The collection of decoys in the magazine also showed me that the aspect of giving to others as they have given to you will continue as the eldest of the youth carvers are about to pass the torch along and share our knowledge with the aspiring artists who will face the challenges and bumpy paths we did when we were their ages.

I want to thank you for your willingness to open up to new ideas, new articles, and new uncharted features.

Spencer Tinkham
Norfolk, Virginia

MORE HABITAT

I would like every issue to contain one article on habitat. I like to carve birds and have no idea how to display them and habitat would make the carvings more presentable.

James Hooey

Kelowna, British Columbia

Corrections: In Del Herbert’s Got Cork (Summer 2009), Step 8 should say to drill the hole 1 ½ inches deep, not ½ inch.

Summer 2009

IN THE HABITAT

Thanks to Tom Park and WILDFOWL CARVING MAGAZINE for sharing the secrets of making an exploded cattail (Spring 2009). Here’s hoping you can providemore articles on creating habitat.

Dan Holman

Innsbrook, Missouri

Editor’s reply: We hope to keep the habitat articles coming. If any readers have specific habitats that they would like us to address, drop us a line and let us know. To see some of Dan Holman’s work, check out Reader Showcase on page 6 in this issue. If I had a chance to choose any article for WILDFOWL CARVING MAGAZINE, it would be a how-to article on making balsam fir branches. I have little idea how to go about doing this. My second choice would be an article about making spruce or hemlock branches. I find all the habitat articles very informative, and I hope to see one on balsam branches.

Sean Brenner

Charlotte, North Carolina

Editor’s reply: We did run a two-parter by Glenn Ladenberger in the Spring and Summer 2005 issues about how to make a white pine branch, but that’s as close as we’ve come. We’d love to do a balsam branch at some point, so here’s hoping we can get it covered in a future issue.

WHERE’S THE PATTERN?

I haven’t seen anything in print in the last two issues about the lack of a pattern for Geoffrey Vine’s “New Jersey Diver” in the Fall 2008 and Spring 2009 issues so I decided to write for an explanation. The author says, “I will use only hand tools, working from efficient patterns with minimal detail.” Under the picture labeled “Pattern Alignment” he says, “Think about construction joints when you lay out the pattern.” Why is there no pattern provided for this project when, as far as I know, every other project comes with a very detailed pattern?

Dorhman F. Bugbee

Charlestown, New Hampshire

Geoff Vine replies: My patterns are part of the success of my decoys, when both selling and competing. However, I would be happy to send a pattern to an individual when asked. I just don’t want to publish a pattern to the general public, not knowing where or when it might be used. If you’d like a scan of the pattern, you can email me at Geoff@GVineDecoys.com.

NOVICE CARVERS

Regarding the editorial in Competition 2008 and its reference to the gentleman that said you should include only Masters and Open pictures in that publication, I am a novice carver who will be attending my firstWardWorld Championship in Ocean City. If I won a class ribbon I would hope my bird would make the magazine. However, I did not see any novice pictures in the issue so I assumed you listened to that person.

Frank Felice

North Bay, Ontario

Editor’s reply: Thanks for writing, but we must say that you did not look closely enough at Competition 2008. We did include a few Novice carvings. You’ll find them on pages 39, 49, 55, and 56. Not a lot of them, to be sure, but we did include some. In fact, see the next letter!

ANOTHER NOVICE HEARD FROM

I have just received Competition 2008. I was curious about its mysterious arrival until I discovered my own labor of love on page 56. I was thrilled to pieces! My heart nearly popped! Thank you so much for acknowledging this novice! Inspiration to “pick up the tools” and get serious came after seeing everyone’s work at the Brant Festival, and from my women carving friends. Having this memento from you inspires me further. Thank you again.

Barbara Purin

St. Albert, Alberta

Corrections: We provided the wrong photo credit for the cover photograph of Tom Park’s yellow-headed blackbird for the Spring 2009 issue. The photographer was Richard Gwizdak. In the Ward World Championship section of Competition 2008, we incorrectly noted that ToddWohlt was the first person to win two World divisions. In 1972 John Scheeler won in Decorative Life-sizeWildfowl and Decorative Decoy Pairs, and in 2001 Pat Godin won in the Decorative Miniature Wildfowl and the World Shootin’ Rig categories.

Winter 2009

WOODPECKER DECOYS

Tim Gallagher and I are two of the individuals who confirmed the ivory-billed woodpecker’s existence in eastern Arkansas on February 27, 2004. I have seen ivory-bills six times. My last positive encounter was on January 22, 2005, when I saw two birds flying together through the swamp.

I first became acquainted with your magazine with the Winter 2009 issue, which had the second part of a two-part article by Jeff Rechin on how to carve and paint an ivory-billed woodpecker. The article was superb and will be very useful to me in my ivory-bill research.

I have been carving my own ivorybill decoys since the summer of 2004. That July I began using ivory-bill decoys in my efforts to obtain better documentation of the birds. My decoys are life size, 20.5 inches from tip of bill to tip of tail. For reference I used study skins from the American Museum of Natural History in New York, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Anniston Museum of Natural History in Anniston, Alabama. My first decoy was quite stylized, but I attempted to make the decoys more life like with each successive carving.

I place the decoys on the trunks of trees about 13 to 15 feet above water level. I also place video cameras around the decoys to record any possible encounters. On September 4, 2004, the video captured what appears to be an ivory-billed woodpecker flying past the decoy. I also had a visual encounter with the bird about 20 minutes after the video capture.

Since carving my first three decoys I have made another two. However, these later decoys are animated. Working with a local technical high school class, I added a computer chip that works with a servo motor and battery pack, permitting the heads of the decoys to turn randomly from left to right. I call my new decoy design “Robo-pecker.”

I’ve seen ivory-billed woodpeckers; I know they exist. I will continue my work in the swamp, and will endeavor to obtain better documentation of the birds’ existence. Thanks to your magazine, I will be producing more life like decoys. Maybe they will do the trick

Bobby R. Harrison, Associate Professor of Photography

Oakwood University

Huntsville, Alabama

WET WOOD

I enjoyed the article by Frank Werner on sealing wood (“Vapor Barriers,” Winter 2009). I have a follow-up question on the same basic subject. I have a piece of butternut 12" x 12" x 24". I would like to use it to do a carving. The wood is still wet, i.e in the 50% range. How can I dry it without getting cracking on the ends? One of the suggestions I have heard is to build a tent over saw horses with plastic and put the wood and a dehumidifier under it. I am still concerned that this might dry too fast and might crack the wood. Any suggestions? I have looked all over for dry wood of this size to no avail.

Jim Erhardt

Corpus Christi, Texas

Frank Werner replies: I’m assuming that your piece of butternut does not contain the center heart. If it does, you can either wait for it to split, or cut it into two pieces excluding the heart shake. And if it does contain the heart, you could go ahead and measure and mark it on all four sides so that if it does split you’ll still have one intact dimensional line from which to measure shrinkage.

Here’s what I said in the “Home Drying” article I wrote for WILDFOWL CARVING’s Spring 1996 issue. “If you have less than a half dozen pieces to dry, you can use plastic bags instead of a drying chamber. After sealing the end grain faces you can start by measuring and marking a line on them across the grain and weighing them. Take them out of their bags for about an hour a day and weigh and measure them again. Once they start showing some shrinkage, you should reduce their exposure time to about 10 minutes a day. Later, when they hardly shrink anymore, you can increase the exposure time to an hour or two a day. When they’ve stopped losing weight they’re done. While unbagging wood once a day is maximum exposure, there’s no harm in leaving your wood bagged for a couple of days, or a week.”

PATTERN PENDING?

I would like to carve a life-size, white phase gyrfalcon but I do not have a pattern. Could any of your magazine readers assist me? I would reimburse any costs. You can contact me at: 3103 County Road 7, Picton, Ontario, K0K 2T0

Vince Lebano

Picton, Ontario

HABITAT FORMING

Jerry Simchuk’s “Branching Out” (Fall 2009) was an excellent article. It couldn’t have been timed better because I’ve wanted to construct a branch on which to set a dove carving. My problem is that I don’t know anything about welding, brazing, or torches. Is it possible to create a branch using a simple propane torch, or will I have to invest in something more sophisticated?

Dave Connolly

Centreville, Maryland

Jerry Simchuk replies: It is possible to use a propane torch to do some of what was outlined in the article. However, the flame is larger and won’t give you as much control or refined surface area to work with. In particular, working with smaller diameter metals, you will have difficulty using the large flame/propane torch. The propane will work with the lower percentage of silver content without any problem, but you will need a lot of silver solder to get the job done due to the lack of control of heat and surface area. If you are planning on doing more than one or two welding projects I’d recommend investing in something a little better. A cost- effective start would be to purchase a butane torch system.

I just carved a black-capped chickadee but I have always troubles with my habitats. I have some questions about the construction. (1) Can I use regular solder instead of silver? (2) From which company you buy the products you used in this habitat?

Frits Klaassen

Gainesville, Florida

Jerry Simchuk replies: Yes, you can use regular solder, but be careful when grinding and blending the metals for the leaf or leg because the lead solder may break. Also, lead is oily and will require additional care of the metal before you apply your primer. In particular you would use an acid base material to clean the surface. A safer cleaner would be vinegar, used overnight. I get my materials from a number of sources. I purchase a lot of the brass from a local hobby shop. You can also get it from a number of carving suppliers. As for brazing rod, I go to my local welding supplier. You may have a welding shop in your area. That’s also where I get my torches and gas. You can also purchase some of the lower end items, such as the butane torches, from some carving suppliers. (The editor adds: Contact our advertisers!)

SWAN TESTIMONY

I would like to thank you for the well-written article “Carve a Swan Decoy” by Frank Werner, which appeared in your Spring 2007 issue. Mr. Warner’s carving spurred me to duplicate the swan for the pond in front of my house. My swan is identical to Mr. Werner’s, except its head is turned to one side. Also, for lack of a suitable log I had to use a construction method employed by model ship makers, called Bread and Butter. This is a method of using horizontal cross sections (lifts) that are glued up. One advantage is that the outside and inside are cut to shape with a saw before glue up. So hollowing out is a simply a matter of cleaning up the cavity, which means fewer wood chips and less dust. The decoy has resided in the pond this spring and summer, where it has attracted the attention of all whom pass—including a snapping turtle and a blue heron.

Edward Kuhner

Valatie, New York

WHITER WHITES

You recently had several responses to a question about painting in black. I found them all very useful and effective. However I seem to have more difficulty dealing with whites. If I am dealing with a sizable area, I have problems getting good texture and depth. Highlights do not show up as I would like. I wonder if your experts might be able to help me with this problem.

Jerry Sanders,

Cumming, Georgia

Editor’s Reply: Readers? Any of you have any tips to offer?

Fall 2008

S CURVES

I just read with great interest Eric Kaiser’s “Burn, Burn, Burn!”(Summer 2008), which had some excellent tips. However, I was rather surprised with tip #8 where Eric describes the curve which appears as a shallow C. I have always tried to replicate a shallow S curve. Maybe you can shed some light on this point.

Reg Lewis

Kingston, Ontario

Eric Kaiser responds: Certainly the S curve is a great way to create added interest and flow and I should have mentioned it. It is difficult to pull off with enough consistency so as to keep your burning tight, but you can accomplish it with practice. In a survey of (duck) mounts in my collection, I observe that when the barbules form an S shape, it is probably not innately structural, but a product of friction and movement and more likely to happen on the larger feathers (i.e. longer barbules). It is therefore most logical to spend the extra effort on larger feathers that see a good deal of repositioning. Good use of this burning pattern would be on the posterior flank feathers and the higher numbered tertials. Also note that the trialing edges of the lower number (wider) primaries commonly show this S, though it is very subtle. For a wonderful review of more advanced texturing combined with burning, including the S pattern, check in with the great one, Jett Brunet, in “Texturing a Black Duck” in Wildfowl Carving Magazine’s Spring 2001 issue.

BRAVO!

The Summer 2008 issue of Wildfowl Carving was one of the best I’ve seen in quite a while! The how-tos are great, but I really enjoyed the article on the carvings from the Worlds. Excellent! I was fortunate enough to judge Pat Godin’s and Tom Christie’s entries this year and I appreciate the work done by these two great artists.

I’d like to offer a couple of suggestions for future, recurring articles. Years ago, there were pieces on “Masterpiece” works, either authored by the carver or another writer who interviewed the carver. There were some exceptional pieces by Larry Barth, Barton Walter, and others. I think that the piece by David Inglefield would be a candidate for such an article and certainly Pat Godin’s bufflehead pair, too. As you know, Pat does an excellent job of documenting his work. At one time, the magazine also ran profiles on carvers that were always informative. I have always enjoyed seeing what others are doing and learning more about them personally.

Jamie Welsh

Simpsonville, South Carolina

Editor’s Reply: The old “Masterpiece Gallery” feature has been retooled as “Showcase,” and we hope to feature some excellent carvers in future issues.

LEAD FEET

Being a machinist, I have made my own molds to cast lead bird feet for many years. I have made small, medium, and large generic bird feet, plus special molds for downy and red-head woodpeckers, sandpipers, woodcock, and more. Having lead feet available makes it faster and easier to make and duplicate carved birds. In just a few days you can cast hundreds of sets of feet. The principal is the same as that we used to cast lead soldiers when I was a kid. I was wondering if anyone sold molds to cast lead bird feet or if an article could be printed on how to make lead molds.

I was also wondering if you have ever done an article on how to make lead molds for casting bird feet. It would be a big help to many small-bird carvers. (I know it’s important to observe safety precautions when casting lead to avoid fumes and to keep from being burned by hot lead or hot molds.) Does anyone sell molds to cast lead bird feet?

John Zelt

St. Mary’s Pennsylvania

Editor’s Reply: Readers? Does anyone out there cast bird feet? We’d love to hear from you.

Summer 2008

Last Bird

I’m writing on behalf of the family of Don Kline, a good friend and fellow carver. Don and I carved together in my home for more than 30 years. We entered many carving contests and won our fair share of competitions. It was always a lot of fun, although we were always nervous as the judges scrutinized our work. Don and I took several carving seminars together and honed our skills. Sometimes we were called “The Twins” because we always traveled together. A year ago last November, Don succumbed to lung cancer and died. I have lost a great friend and buddy and the world has lost a fine carver.

This is a picture of Don’s last duck. He was making it for his sister-in-law, but passed away before he could finish the vermiculation on one side. He wife said Don wanted me to complete it for him. It will be a labor of love.

William L. Dodd
Mt. Airy, Maryland

THAT’S NO CARDINAL

First, let me thank you all for such a great product line, between Competition and Wildfowl Carving Magazine. I rarely see mistakes in these publications, but one jumped out at me, loudly, in Competition 2007. On page 15, you have a picture captioned as a “Female Cardinal by Keith Blum.” It’s a truly great carving . . . but it is not a female cardinal. It is a Pyrrhuloxia, otherwise known as a “False Cardinal” or sometimes a “Desert Cardinal.”

Again, it's a great carving, and I’d love to see more pictures of it. I’ve wanted to do one of those for some time.

Tim Schafer
Corona, Arizona

The Righting Moment

The examples in Frank Werner’s “On the Level” (Spring 2008) do not address the true principles of stability for a floating object.

The stability of a floating object is a function of the relative positions of the body’s center of gravity and its center of buoyancy. The center of gravity is the center of mass of the body, and is the point at which all forces of gravity can be considered to act. The center of buoyancy is the geometric center of the submerged portion of the body. The force of gravity acts vertically downward through the center of gravity, while the force of buoyancy acts vertically upward through the center of buoyancy. The two forces are equal but opposite in direction. They are equal to the weight of the body. For a body at rest, the center of buoyancy is located directly below the center of gravity so that the two forces act along the same line and balance each other out.

In the case of Square timber B, rotating it in a clockwise direction will cause the center of buoyancy to shift to the right. The center of gravity does not move. Now the two forces are acting along parallel lines instead of along the same line. The distance between the two lines is called the righting arm. Since the forces of buoyancy and gravity are equal and act along parallel lines, but in opposite directions, a righting moment is developed which returns the body to where the two forces balance out. The righting moment is equal to the righting arm times the weight of the body.

In the case of round timber A, the shape of the submerged portion of the body does not change when it is rotated. Therefore, the center of buoyancy does not move and is always below the center of gravity. No righting moment is developed to return it to its original position.

In the case of the round bottom decoy A, tilting it causes the center of buoyancy to move only a small amount so that the resulting righting moment is small. With flat bottom decoy B, tilting it causes a large movement of the center of buoyancy, and a much larger righting moment is developed.

In the case of removing weight from the decoy and adding weight to the keel, the center of gravity is shifted downward. This will result in a longer righting arm when the decoy is tilted and thus develop a larger righting moment.

These are exactly the same principles that apply to the stability of a ship.

Jim Moore
Dagsboro, Delaware

Frank Werner replies: Stability of a floating object, as applicable to a decoy in use, is a measure of how well the decoy maintains a horizontal on-the-water attitude while subject to wave action perpendicular to its front-to-rear axis. The “righting moment,” as Mr. Moore explains, occurs when the centers of gravity and the centers of buoyancy do not share the same vertical axis. This static righting moment is at its maximum when a decoy is held floating on its side, as in a decoy contest tank, and at zero when the decoy is floating at equilibrium. Having addressed the use of test weights in order to determine an appropriate righting moment for the decoy in the illustrated examples in the article, I felt that any further discussion of righting moment was unnecessary. To any reader who wanted a more comprehensive treatment of this subject, I offer a sincere apology.

The example of rolling a square and a rounded timber in water was offered as an easy-to-replicate demonstration of the damping properties of square vs round objects set into rotation while floating. Dynamic resistance to rolling movement is as important a measure of stability as is buoyancy-derived hydrostatic righting force, especially for those of us who make and use our own decoys.

Dynamic resistance to rolling movement in water is a function of the shape of the submerged portion of the object in question. Fluid mechanics in open systems aside, resistance, or what I’ll call “damping,” is a function of how much water has to be moved in order for the object to assume a new position. The effect of damping is zero when the object is at rest, and increases in some proportion to the velocity of movement of the object.

Resistance to movement in water, other than that resulting from righting moment, is a function of shape, mass, and inertia. Although I lack the means to test the relation of damping effects to velocity, the result of the overall damping effect is probably a function of rotational velocity squared.

The decoy above is sitting level and at equilibrium. The dashed lines show what this decoy might look like, were it made with a flat bottom, hard chines and a keel. A wave front, shown in blue, has yet to arrive. As it surely will, sometimes during the decoy’s use, the center of buoyancy will shift to the left, initiating a clockwise rotational movement while lifting the decoy. Being somewhat round, it offers little resistance to rolling.