The Dollar Duck, Part One

PART ONE: CARVING

Back in 2006, I started a little project in which I carved a decoy and sent it to hunters all over the United States. Those guys and gals posted about their hunts with the decoy on a duck-hunting forum. Soon, the decoy became so popular that I decided to keep it out there, traveling and being hunted over in every state of the nation; all over Canada; and in Mexico, Iceland, and even down under in Australia.

The decoy’s popularity and readership inspired copycats that were mainly hunted locally in their home states or by specific smaller groups. One of those decoys was a contemporary reproduction of a historical little ruddy duck carved by fellow traditional carver Joe Racine. Joe wanted the decoy to get hunted over from the famous curtain blinds in Ocracoke, North Carolina, and my old high-school hunting buddy, Ken, and I happened to be heading to the area for several days of hunting and photographing waterfowl in the Outer Banks’ Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge. A few texts and several days later, I had in hand Joe’s neat little brown duck rigged for a hunt in the salt.

Our first stop was at the refuge office to obtain our special permit to get onto the refuge from the manager, who I knew from work back at home. This allowed us to get onto the back sides of the impoundments where others couldn’t go. Our permit cost was the free use of our photos for educational purposes in any of the refuges’ publications.

Hitting the refuge early the next morning, we were met with frigid temperatures and driving winds. Ken and I split up, and I decided to tuck down into some shoreline grasses at the back corner of a cut that was out of the wind. I was pretty comfortable in my thick waders and heavy hunting coat, so I sat down on the bank with my legs in the water. Ken decided to stick close to the truck. In just a bit, several small, round blobs drifted my way: ruddies. Their heads tucked under their wings, they quickly made their way down the cut. As they reached the back corner where I was, I began snapping away. At times, they were so close my camera and long lens couldn’t focus on them. The only time they lifted their heads was for a quick scratch to remove the ice forming on them from the waves. They knew I was there; they looked at me often and didn’t show any concern—until my phone rang.

It was Ken; we had received a call from our guide. The island’s ferries were shutting down; the cold and blowing wind were forming too much ice on the ships for them to make safe passage from Hatteras to Ocracoke. We had to head out fast; we drove off the island and made our way to a ferry further south on the mainland that wasn’t getting wind from the same direction. Thankfully, our luck held out long enough to make it to the new ferry. The ride was rough and wet, but not so bad that the crashing waves made ice form on the decks.

Ruddy duck hens at Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge.

The next morning, in the pitch black of the early hour, our guide met us at our motel and took us to his boat. Neptune himself got his kidney stones jarred loose on the jaunt out to the blind. As the crack of dawn awoke, the decoys surrounding the sunken box in which we took refuge began to appear. We pulled out what little gear we could fit in our box and loaded our guns. I pulled Joe’s small, brown decoy from the bucket that would be my seat for the next eight hours and tossed it not too far from the blind. As it would be that day, we had a couple of redheads fly through early, but once the sun got up a bit, we saw nothing but buffies skirting the far edges of the decoys. We initially elected not to shoot them, since we could kill those by the dozens back at home. If we were paying for a guided hunt, we wanted to save our shots for the redheads and pintails we hoped to see.

As the sun moved from one corner of the blind over to the other side, we decided we needed to change our strategy. Those buffies were looking pretty desirable by that point in the day, but they stayed just out of range, and we had no bufflehead decoys in the rig surrounding the blind to pull them in closer. Then, it hit me that our lone ruddy duck could easily pass as a buffy hen. Needing a leg break from that crate of a blind, I crawled out, retrieved the little brown decoy, and placed it right smack in the middle of the slot all by itself out at about 35 yards.

Ken said, “Ya know, that bird is going to get blasted if your scheme works.” Yep… buffies fly about eight inches over the water and crash in when they commit. And commit they did. Just about every bird skirting the main rig saw that lone brown bird with a white cheek sitting all lonesome by itself and flew right to it. At that distance, the shot pattern was opened up pretty good, and that wooden block took the peppering like a champ. Who would have guessed that a single little decoy could save a hunt as it did? And thankfully, Joe wasn’t too upset with the addition of a few shot holes (or 12) in his traveling decoy.

This is the contemporary reproduction Keith had Joe Racine carve for him after his hunt with Joe’s first traveling bird.

Joe’s decoy was a reproduction of an old popular ruddy decoy from the lower Back Bay area of Virginia during the market-gunning days. Market hunters could get a dollar for every 12 ruddies they sold to get shipped up north to the fancy restaurants and clubs of the day. Canvasbacks were, of course, kings back then, but ruddies were considered excellent table fare, were well populated along the Atlantic Flyway, and decoyed nicely to a well-placed rig. Just about every decoy maker back then offered ruddy ducks as an option along with their canvasbacks, bluebills, and black ducks. The zippy little duck offered an excellent opportunity for carvers to inject their own style into their carving, making this species one of the most popular to collect.

In the view of many, including myself, Lee Dudley made one of the most attractive ruddy decoys back during the market-gunning days. However, John Williams Jr. (1858-1937) and his 18-year-younger hunting and carving buddy, Ivey Stevens (1876-1947), carved some extremely stylish ruddy decoys in the lower Back Bay region of Virginia. Those fat-cheeked, thick-necked, wide-billed blocks were made to be sturdy and survive the rigors of the time. Williams ran several sinkbox gunning batteries back then and recruited the help of his four daughters to guide and tend those boxes. They often shot ruddy ducks to sell to the Northern markets from the family’s point blinds located on Cedar Island. They learned that they had to space out the ruddy rigs along the outer edge of the rest of the diver blocks, since ruddy ducks like to fly the outer edge of a spread.

Most all of the well-known carvers made their blocks out of white cedar or juniper that grew out in the local marshes. Those were solid, so many of them cracked and checked through time. The heads had sturdy bills, and the necks were thick to withstand the banging around that battery birds took. These were simply nailed on to make head replacement quick and easy if a head broke off. Many of the decoys that still exist have broken bills from slapping into the side of tending skiffs as they were pulled back in at the end of a long push pole. The carving was somewhat primitive, often showing knife marks, drawknife lines, and rasp grooves. The paint was very simple block painting, and the eyes didn’t exist or were simply stamped on each side of the head.

Our project block will take on these characteristics with a few twists here and there. The pattern will be size accurate with looks from both Ivey’s and William’s ruddies combined. Both carvers’ ruddy decoys measured approximately 10 inches long, 5 inches wide, 3½ inches deep, and around 6 inches tall to the top of the head. Since they really didn’t use patterns back then, the actual size of the decoy depended on the size of the wood stock they had available. This project bird will be carved out of white cedar from the area, but I’ll hollow out the block to lighten the load some and help prevent the block from cracking. Both the bill and the neck will be reinforced with a hardwood dowel to help prevent those areas from failing as they often did back in the day.

The head pattern for this project was actually influenced by the Illinois River teal decoy I did a couple of years back. (See “The Illinois River School” in the Winter and Spring 2021 issues of WCM.) That head, with its fat, rounded cheeks, looked more like a folksy ruddy head than a teal head (to me) but was true to the Robert Elliston-styled teal pattern. I usually carve multiple heads for each project, so I had a spare head to put on a ruddy body I carved just to see if it worked… and it looked great. For this project, I’ll use that pattern but carve it more like Ivey or John would have back in their time.

This ruddy hen, an ash urn for one of Keith’s dogs, has a spare Elliston teal head he carved for the Illinois River demonstration.

Materials & Tools

• Preferred carving wood for a block measuring 10″ x 5″ x 3-1/2″ (I use 2″ x 6″ x 2′ white cedar, which I cut into two pieces that are just over 10 inches long. That will leave just enough wood for the head, if you turn the pattern slightly to match the wood grain with the direction of the bill. Trim the head stock down to 1-3/4 inches thick.)
• 3/8″ hardwood dowel about 4″ long
• Bamboo chopstick
• Drill bits measuring 7/32″ (or one size up from your bamboo chopstick) and 3/8″
• 5-minute epoxy
• Titebond III
• 4 small bar clamps
• Band saw
• Electric drill with 1″ Forstner bit
• Preferred carving knives, draw knife, spoke shave, and wood rasps
• 120-grit sandpaper or scrapes

1. I draw my pattern on old file folders. Once cut out, the templates make tracing the pattern on the head stock much easier. Make sure the wood grain runs in the same direction as the bill.

2. I then cut out the head on the band saw. This was initially scrap from the body cuts, so I needed to trim the head down from 2 to 1-3/4 inches thick. I do this by setting up the fence on the saw and then ripping 1/4 inch off the head.

3. I trim the main board down to two 10-inch-long boards. I then draw a center line down both sides of both boards running lengthwise. I draw the top pattern on both sides of each board.

4. Looking at the grain of the boards and noting any flaws, I decide which board faces will be on the inside and which will be the top and bottom of the decoy. Placing them together on their side, I trace the side pattern onto the two blocks.

5. Opening up the two halves, I trace the approximate area I want to hollow out, then transfer those lines over to the side pattern and decide about how deeply I want to hollow the block. These are just reference lines, so when I hollow with the Forstner bit, I won’t drill in too deep. I only need to remove a bit of wood to break the grain tension.

6. On the drill press, I remove wood from the area I drew on both inside halves using the Forstner bit. If needed, you can wrap a piece of painter’s tape around the shaft of the bit to use as a reference to let you know how far down to drill.

7. Using Titebond III, I apply a thick coat of glue on both inside halves and let that soak in for about 15 minutes. Then, I apply another liberal bead of glue around both halves and place the two pieces together.

8. Using the four bar clamps, I clamp the two pieces together and adjust them to ensure the side that will be placed down on the band-saw table (the side without the pattern drawn on) will be flat. Let this block dry for 24 hours—go carve the head.

9. On the head, start by drawing a center line all the way around. You can measure this or just use your finger as a guide as you slide the pencil around the head.

10. I use a piece of bamboo chopstick to reinforce the bill. Using a drill bit one size larger than the stick (about 1/4 inch), I carefully drill a hole, centered, all the way inside the bill and into the head about half an inch. Look at the bit both from the top and the side to ensure you don’t drill out of the bill. Drill slowly; if you drill out of the bill, that’s okay… Just place a piece of tape over the area to hold in the glue later on.

11. Using a 3/8-inch bit, measure on the side of the head from the bottom. I suggest using a piece of painter’s tape around the bit as a depth reference to keep from running the bit all the way through the top of the head and into your hand. Now, drill up from the center line on the bottom to the tape on your bit. You can wallow out the hole to ensure the 3/8-inch dowel slides in easily with room for the glue.

12. Get that four-inch-long piece of hardwood dowel ready, then mix two quarter-sized pools of 5-minute epoxy. I use a thin painter’s knife to mix the epoxy and get it inserted into the hole. Once the glue is inside, rub some over the dowel and then insert it into the hole. Twist as you plunge it in. You want some of the glue to get forced out. Wipe off the excess.

13. Repeat step 12 for the bill and insert the bamboo chopstick. You can use a pair of pruning shears to shorten the inserts so they only protrude a bit.

14. Once the epoxy has dried for about 30 minutes, you can trim off all the excess rods using your band saw.

15. On the bottom of the head, I draw in my carving guide lines. Basically, the corners of the neck will be rounded off, and I set the bill width in about a quarter inch from each side.

16. On the top of the head, I use the same bill-width measurement to draw in the bill width along the bill and on over the top of the head. I then draw in the crown of the head. This is to your personal preference.

17. Again, using my finger and pencil as a measuring tool, I decide on the high point of the cheek. It needs to be near the center of the cheek and about in line with the lower edge of the bill.

18. Using a larger rough-out knife, I round out the corners on the bottom of the neck. This makes holding the head as you carve much more comfortable. Carve the back corners toward the back and the front corners toward the front. This keeps the bottom grain from splitting out. If a piece does split off, glue it back in place using superglue.

19. Set in the bill width by making plunge cuts to form a V. Carve a little in the back, then switch and carve into those cuts to form a deep V. Repeat on the other side.

20. I continue to carve in and set the bill width using paring strokes with my rough-out knife. Don’t get too aggressive with your cuts to keep from chipping off too much on the underside of the bill. You can run over some on the top of the bill, but keep that bottom bill width true. Repeat on the other side.

21. Once the bill width is carved in, I begin rounding out the top of the head on both sides. I work from the high point of the cheek to the crown of the head. Work from the center of the head forward or from center to back to prevent the wood from splitting off too much at a time.

22. Work on down the back of the neck and round it on over to the center line.

23. Once both sides are roughed out, I begin hollowing out the neck. One side of the neck will want to carve down, and the other will want to carve up. This area can be tricky, making even the sharpest knife want to splinter the wood. Not to worry, as a rasp will clean this up quickly.

24. If you are having trouble getting the rough-out knife to cut for you, knowing it is razor sharp, try switching to the thinner blade with a slightly different sweep to it. Flat, beveled knives work far better than a steeper grind, and a polished blade will often cut better, since it has less molecular resistance.

25. Very few knives will carve under the chin without the blade chattering. Use a round wood rasp instead to round out the neck to the center line. Then, shape the rest of the neck with your knife.

26. In some areas of the head, the wood acts like it is a rock. Again, use a thinner sweep blade and make your cuts smaller. Once the head is roughed out, use this knife to also refine the shape.

27. With the back of the head and neck shaped up, start carving forward to bring the brim of the bill to our lines. I work slowly when carving forward because this wood can easily split forward. If you sense it is starting to split, stop and carve from the bill tip back into your cuts. The bill will angle from these lines down to the lower edge of the bill.

28. This shot demonstrates several things. First, note how fine my wood chips are at this point. I don’t want to chip any chunks out of the bill, so my cuts are very intentional. I work to get this angle from the top of the bill to the bottom edge the same on both sides. Both can be rounded some or flat, like I’m working toward—but make them the same. Also note the angle of the curves on both sides of the head. Make these shapes symmetrical. Much of this can be refined at the end with a fine rasp.

29. Looking down on the head, note the nice, rounded curve along the edge of the cheek—no flat spots. Make sure both sides look symmetrical.

30. Draw in new guide lines on the underside of the bill, giving you about 3/8 inch on each side of the center line. These reach forward to about the middle of the bill. Carefully slice in several cuts from that midpoint to the back of the bill. Then, cut straight into the bill edge to chip that wood off. Shape up to remove wood along the side of the bill.

31. Draw in some guide lines to round out the front of the bill. Use your knife to shape out the end of the bill, working from both sides.

32. Once the knife work has shaped things up, look at the head from front, back, top, and bottom to try and get the sides and shapes symmetrical. On the bill, note that the cuts that shaped the round end of the bill are pretty much straight up and down.

33. Use a sanding block to do the final shaping of the end of the bill. This will prevent you from removing too much wood with your knife. I’ll do the final rasp shaping and sanding once the head is on the body.

34. With the body block dry, I remove the clamps and check to ensure the side of the block that will rest on the table during the side sawing is 90 degrees to the top or bottom of the block that will also rest on the table. My blade is 90 degrees to the table, so hopefully all my cuts will run at 90 degrees. Since this is a working decoy, don’t fret if the angles are off some.

35. When cutting in the top profile, I make four cuts and leave at least two inches of uncut wood near the middle of the body. This uncut wood will support the body when making the side profile cuts.

36. Flipping the block to the flat side, I cut in all of the side-profile lines.

37. Setting the block back on its bottom, I carefully make a short cut in to barely meet the side of the body so that I can peel that piece off the block. This is also done on the other side.

38. I redraw the side lines that were not completely cut out. Then, I complete the cuts on each side.

39. With the body cut out, I draw in a center line all the way around the block and draw a waterline around the sides of the body. This is set about 1-1/4 inch up from the bottom of the bird. It just happens that a 3M sanding block is about the right size, so I set my pencil on the block, then rotated the body so the pencil drew in the line. A piece of scrap wood will also work for this.

40. I draw in two lines 3/4 inch from each side of the center line on the bottom. When rounding out the bottom, I will cut from those lines up to the waterline along the sides. This will leave a 1-1/2-inch-wide flat area running along the bottom of the decoy.

41. Place the head centered on the body block where you like it and trace around it. This line will be used to establish the head shelf—do not carve into this area.

42. Using my straight edge, I draw from the back corners of the head shelf back to the center line at about the high point of the back. Once carving, I will round down from these two lines, leaving the area inside the lines flat.

43. Using my drawknife and New Jersey carving bench, I begin rounding the bottom of the block, working from the center to the front, carving forward to keep the wood from splitting out, and from the center to the tail, pushing to the back. I round from the waterline into the keel line.

44. Working into the tail area, I try to stay out of the tail completely with the drawknife. Cuts into the wood you want to preserve will weaken the tail. I will finish out the tail later with a carving knife or gouge.

45. Round out the back of the decoy basically the same way: from mid body to the back and mid body forward. Again, I stay out of the tail and the neck-shelf area.

46. When I get the body mostly round, I look at it from both the front and back to ensure the lines and curves are fair or symmetrical. I take note of the high or raised areas and will work those out using a spokeshave.

47. In boat building, “fair” refers to the process of shaping or smoothing a hull, frame, or surface so that its curves and lines flow smoothly and consistently in all directions—without humps, bumps, dips, or sags. Switching to my spokeshave, I work to make both the top and bottom of the decoy fair.

48. Once I get the body to where I like it, I mix two quarter-sized portions of 5-minute epoxy and spread it over the bottom of the neck on the head. I then position the head in place and align the center lines in the front and back. I hold the head in place until the glue sets.

49. It takes a good 30 minutes before 5-minute epoxy has any strength, so I use this time to carve in the tail. I round out the rump on both the top and bottom.

50. I then trim the tail thickness down to about one-quarter inch. This is pretty quick if you use a flat gouge. Here, you can also see where my drawknife got into the tail. Luckily, I have enough undamaged wood to do what I want.

51. This image shows where I carved out all the flat areas in the rump/tail that are difficult to reach with a spokeshave.

52. With the tail thinned down, I will finish this area out and get rid of the flat areas along the waterline/chine using a dragon rasp. I’ll also use the rasp to remove any band-saw-blade marks.

53. I move back to the front of the decoy and carve in the neck and shape up the breast. I use a rough-out knife, gouge, and fishtail skew chisel to round out this area and carve in a nice, flowing transition from the neck into the breast.

54. I use my thin blade in many areas of the neck where I can press the blade down and flex it to make finer cuts. In this shot, you can see how I am shaping the neck into the body where I will not need any body filler.

55. With the knife work mostly complete, I switch to rasping the entire decoy with a fine dragon rasp. If everything looks fair once the rasp work is done, I will use a combination of a flat, metal scrape blade and sandpaper to get the fuzzies off the bird.

56. Under and around the neck, I use a sanding bow with a strip of 80-grit sanding belt attached. This bow was made from a piece of scrap. I use a thumbtack to hold the strip of belt in place.

57. Finishing touches. With the head sanded, I draw in the V at the top of the bill and carve it in using a small, fine-detail knife. Make two slices straight in to form the V, then carefully slice along the V to chip out the notch.

58. The last carving detail is to round out the tail to your preference. I’m just going to round out the corners a bit to keep the shape mostly flat. Once I get the general shape carved with a knife, I will refine it with a sanding block.

59. Ready to Paint

In the next issue, I will paint both a hen and a drake ruddy using traditional gunning-decoy patterns. The drake will have very basic block painting that John Williams would have done with his ruddy decoys. With the hen, I will explore using a method called “ragging” to get the variegated mottling both sexes show in their winter plumage. I will finish them off by doing a few contemporary antique tricks to help make them look 100 years old.