The Turtleback Harlequin, Part One

In my past demonstrations, we’ve visited the Bar-negat, New Jersey, region and made our way a bit farther south to the Delaware River. My next plan was to visit Cecil County at the very upper end of Chesapeake Bay, where the canvasbacks are kings. However, our editor asked for a harlequin this go-round, so I thought, “Why not do an up-per-Chesapeake-looking harli?” Surely, harlequin ducks were historically seen in the region, as I have photographed them in Cambridge, Maryland, and even as far south as Manteo, North Carolina. So, my inspiration came from the “turtleback” canvas-back decoys of the early 1900s that were made by a handful of carvers in Cecil County, Maryland.

I started this project by contacting Gerard “Rod” Wittstadt, author of Cecil County Decoys, a book covering the history of the county, including its founders, gun clubs, and decoy carvers. One of his decoys influenced my harlequin pattern.

Rod’s research notes that five prominent Cecil County carvers helped develop the turtleback de-coy style in the late 1800s and early 1900s. W. Scott Jackson, W. Will Heverin, John B. Graham, George Washington Barnes, and Carroll Cleveland Algard all grew up and lived in Cecil County during that period and knew each other—and their styles were influenced by what the others were doing. This gang included an undertaker, cabinetmakers, watermen/fishermen, and even a baseball pro. One was said to be an outlaw hunter throughout the market gunning days. The history Rod lays out in his book is certainly detailed and interesting, and I encourage everyone to look it up at cecilcountydecoys.com.

Up in Barnegat, the sneak boat was the hunter’s craft. Down in the Delaware River, it was the scull boat. In the Chesapeake Bay region, the gunners used sink boxes with huge batteries of decoys numbering 350 blocks. A box consisted of what was basically a coffin surrounded by a large, square platform that would lie flat on the water. Wooden wings could be extended to help stabilize the contraption and knock down the waves breaking over the works. Cast iron decoys were placed on the platform and wings to help lower the craft down to water level. The decoys were spread around the single- or double-gunning boxes to form a huge raft of birds.

A mother boat was used to haul everything out into the bay early in the morning. In tow were several smaller rowboat tenders who helped set out the decoys and deliver the hunter to his box. The tenders would also retrieve any downed birds. The hunter would lay flat in the box with only his head exposed to spot incoming flocks. Most gunners could only take about an hour of this cramped, wet style of fowling before a tender would come in and swap in the next hunter. This method of hunting was so productive, and the birds were so numerous, that it was frequented by several presidents and congressmen. President Grover Cleveland often hunted the area—so much so that he had his own rig of decoys over which he hunted.

The decoys from this area were mainly canvas-backs, bluebills, redheads, ruddy ducks, black ducks, and some teal. They were carved out of white pine or white cedar, depending on what was available, and they were typically made of solid wood—not hollowed out. The tails—sometimes called paddle tails, as they were cut in where they met the body—were usually flat and in line with the defined chine. The blocks had raised neck shelves where the heads were attached.

Carvers used two smaller nails to secure the head and ran a longer nail down through the head and neck to help keep the wood from splitting out. These decoys usually had either no eyes or painted, stamped-in eyes. Glass eyes or even tack eyes were mainly seen in more decorative decoys. The bot-toms of the decoys were rounded like a ship’s hull, with flat, center keel lines. Sand-cast lead ballast weights were attached to that flattened area using nails. A leather line tie attached with nails was used in earlier birds but was later replaced by a steel ring and fence staple.

What attracted me to this region’s decoys were the humpbacked canvasbacks many called “turtle-backs.” George Washington Barnes made some ear-ly in his carving career that caught my eye. Collectors call these blocks his “Model-1,” and each has an appealing hump with fairly sharp chines running down the sides from the blunt, rounded front of the decoy right into the tail. Making this harlequin pattern, I wanted to capture the side profile of the turtleback and include the hard chine leading into the appropriate, somewhat pointed tail of a harlequin duck.

Chesapeake blocks tend to be fairly rounded from the top view to help stabilize the decoy in rough conditions. To make the pattern more ap-propriate for the species, I needed to narrow and shorten it up from what would have been if we were doing a canvasback. For head stock, we will use 13/4″-thick white pine or white cedar, and for the body, we will use the same wood in a block measuring 12″ x 6″ x 4″.

MATERIALS

• Pencil
• Solid block of white pine or white cedar measuring 12″ x 6″ x 4″
• Head stock of white pine or white cedar measuring 3″ x 1-3/4″ x 5″
• Band saw
• Selection of carving knives: 2″ rough-out sweep, 1-3/4″ general carver, and 3/4″ detail recommended
• Drawknife and hatchet (optional)
• Spokeshave
• New Jersey carving bench
• 3/8″ x 5″ hardwood dowel
• 3/8″ drill bit and power drill
• Five-minute epoxy
• Titebond III
• Superglue
• Flexible ruler
• Fine wood rasp
• 120-grit sandpaper
• Eye-set tool

1. I start by carving the head. I lay the pattern over some clean cedar or white pine that is approximately 1-3/4″ thick. The head can always be trimmed down once it is cut out using the band saw. Make sure the grain of the wood is running straight down the bill.

2. Before cutting out the head, I drill a 3/8″ hole centered in the neck joint. This will help a bunch while cutting out the head since the saw can’t make a turn that sharp. It also makes the area cleaner for later carving with your knife.

3. The head is now ready to be cut with the saw. I usually cut out a couple of heads and use the nicest of the bunch on the decoy.

4. Using my pencil, I draw a line all the way around the head at the center. I use my fingers holding the pencil as a guide as I slide them along the edge of the head. I also mark the bill sides by measuring out half of the bill width from each side of the center line. The bill needs to be about 3/4″ wide. On the bottom of the neck, I draw in and round off the neck in an egg shape.

5. I continue the sidelines for the bill on top of the head. This will be the width of the top of the head as well. I then draw in a thin V on top of the bill and freehand the head crown shape.

6. Using a 1-3/4″ upsweep knife, I start my carving on the bottom of the neck, rounding out the corners. For the back two corners, cut toward the back, or the wood will split. Carve forward on the front two corners. Removing these corners first prevents them from digging into your hand when you start carving up on the head.

7. Draw a line all the way across the back of the bill where it would meet the head; there should be a saw line here. Now, using your knife, start cutting in V cuts until you reach the sides of the bill to set in the bill width.

8. Carving from both the bottom and top, carve in the bill width on both sides of the head.

9. Referencing the high point of the cheek on the pattern—and again using my fingers on the pencil as a guide—I mark the point on each side of the head. From this point, the head will be rounded forward, backward, up, and down.

10. I start rounding out the top of the head. From about the center of the head carving forward, the wood will actually carve. If I get too far back from the center of the head, the wood will want to split from the knife moving through the grain. I use this to my advantage to remove most of the bulk wood quickly.

11. When rounding out the back of the head, carve from the middle of the head to the back to prevent splitting the wood. If the wood is difficult to cut straight back, try slicing down or up towards the back. One side will want to carve up and the other will want to carve down, depending on the wood grain.

12. With both sides of the head rounded out, I draw in where the neck crease will be on both sides.

13. Slicing down to the line and then up to the line from the base of the neck, I carve in the neck crease. Note that I do not cut away any wood at the high spot I marked on the cheek. I also leave some uncarved wood at the base of the neck. This will be carved out once the head is glued onto the body.

14. I now finish rounding out the back of the head to the center line. This side of the head wants to carve down and the other side wants to carve up because of the lay of the wood grain.

15. Once both sides of the head have been rounded and are somewhat symmetrical, I slightly hollow out this area to help define the crown of the head.

16. Turning to the front of the head, I start removing the wood from the side, carving into the drawn-in crown line and down into the bill. When carving the bill, angle the cuts so you do not get into the bottom bill width that should already be carved in from the earlier step.

17. This is what we are shooting for on this side. Note the angle of the bill from the front. Once this side is roughed out to this point, do the same with the other side. Then, work on both sides to make them look symmetrical.

18. I now make thin slices around the eye channels to hollow them out some, checking back with the pattern to see where the eye will be located. I want this area to be flat once I place the eye in there. This side will want to carve slicing up. The other side will want to slice down.

19. As I finish up carving the head, I feel around it, running my finger and thumb on both sides. You can feel where things aren’t symmetrical and go back to make adjustments.

20. Draw in the side bill margins on both sides. Looking down from the top of the head, you can see if one line is curved farther forward than the other and make adjustments.

21. Looking at these lines from the front, I like them to appear fairly straight. If they look like they are arching outward, I can carve out the curved area where the line is. I then draw the line back in and look again. I want both sides to look symmetrical.

22. I now round out the front of the bill with my knife. Once both sides are close to the same, I can use a sanding block to get them symmetrical.

23. Many of the Upper-Chesapeake carvers carved in the lower mandible on the bill. Here, I draw in a line that will be used to carve in the mandible.

24. Switching knives to a straight-edged detail blade, I cut in only about 1/16″ at the back of the lower mandible.

25. I now cut in about 1/16″ along the line separating the two mandibles.

26. Slicing in/up from the bottom of the bill again about 1/16″ from the edge of the bill, this chip will pop out, defining the upper and lower mandibles.

27. Draw in a V at the top of the bill, and then, still using the small detail knife, cut straight in with a stop cut over the V about 1/8″ deep. Next, slice into your V-shaped stop cuts to chip out this area.

28. With the side bill margins already drawn in, using the detail knife, slice straight in along your lines as a stop cut running about 1/16″ deep. Then, slice along the surface of the cheek into this stop cut to define the bill.

29. With all the carving on the head done—except right where the neck will meet the body—I use a fine Dragon rasp to take out most of the knife marks and smooth everything out. I then use 120-grit sandpaper to further smooth out the head.

30. Most of the Upper-Chesapeake decoys had no eyes or simply painted-in eyes. Only the fancier birds that were somewhat decorative used tack eyes or glass eyes back in the day. I’ll shoot for something in between. I use a ruler to measure the distance from the base of the bill to the top of the bill. This measurement on most species will translate close to where the location of the eye needs to be on the side of the head. Here, my measurement was 1″.

31. Now, I measure 1″ back and slightly up from the top corner of the bill and mark my position. Do the same on the other side. Another option is to place the pattern over the head as it rests on a flat surface and mark in the eye. Looking back at my other articles, I show another technique using straight pins to set the eye position.

32. I’ve shown you other eye tools I’ve made using part of a broomstick handle and a 9 mm cartridge. Here is another version that makes a wider channel for the eye. I found a piece of metal tubing that was around 9 mm in diameter but with much thicker walls. I cut a small section of this tubing around 4″ long and glued it into a round wooden ball I got off the internet. The ball already had a hole drilled in it, and the hole was the perfect diameter for the tubing to slide down into. I put some epoxy into the hole and inserted the tubing. Once it was dry, I used a small Dremel cutting disc to cut four slight indentations into the edge of the tubing to slightly serrate it.

33. Placing this tool over the marked eye location, I press in to make light indentations into the wood. I can then look to ensure the tool is centered over the mark. If it looks good, I place the tool back in position. This time, while pressing much harder, I twist the tool back and forth, cutting in the channel.

34. This is the finished eye ring, about 1/8″ deep. Repeat on the other side.

35. Time to drill in a hole for a neck dowel. All the old Upper-Chesapeake blocks used a long nail driven down through the top of the head to secure it. This still allowed the head to split in the neck, however. I like using a 3/8″ hardwood dowel instead. This strengthens the neck tremendously and helps prevent any neck cracking. Here, I use a 3/8″ boring bit and place it along the side of the head to see about how far up into the head I can drill. I’ll take a marker and make a small spot on the side of the bit at this point so I know where to stop drilling the hole.

36. I work the bit around in the hole to widen it so that the dowel will fit in without being too tight. I then coat the inside of the hole with Titebond III and press in the dowel, wiping away any excess glue. Five-minute epoxy can also be used here. Once the glue has cured, cut off the excess dowel and sand the bottom of the head flat.

37. Draw a center line down the middle of the top and bottom of the body block. Now, transfer the pattern to the top of the block.

38. Flip the block to one side and transfer the side pattern onto it. Make sure the front of both patterns is placed on the same end of the block.

39. Cut out the top profile with your band saw. Leave about 2-1/2″ of uncut wood in the center of the block on both sides. This wood will support the block when you cut in the side profile.

40. Flip the block onto its side and cut out the entire side profile.

41. Flip the block again so the top is visible. Redraw the sidelines that were removed when the side profile was cut out in the center of the block. Now, finish cutting out the top profile.

42. Using your pencil and flexible ruler, redraw your center line on the top and bottom of the block. Center your finished head in position and draw a line on each side of the head, about 1/8″ wider than the head.

43. I mark a line 3/4″ from either side of the center line along the flat section of the bottom. I will round the bottom from the side chine line to this line.

44. Placing a flat block against the front of the decoy, I make a mark 3″ back from the front of the decoy and 1″ up from the bottom. The block helps you make the measurement.

45. Using the flexible ruler, I draw in the chine line from the center of the tail thickness to the front side mark. I then freehand the front chine line from the mark up into the breast of the decoy.

46. Placing the head in position, we get a good idea where we are headed. It is starting to look like a decoy.

47. I move outside to my New Jersey-style carving bench. Using my small carving hatchet, I begin rounding out the block. I chop out the bulk wood along both the top and bottom corners. I work from the middle of the decoy toward the front on each side of the decoy—top and bottom. I then flip the decoy around and work from the middle to the back. Use small chops to keep from splitting out too much wood.

48. This is about as far as I take it using the hatchet. I am basically just trying to quickly remove the bulk wood along the corners of the top and bottom sections of the block. I try to stay out of the tail area as well as the neck area, where we drew in the sidelines of the head. If you are uncomfortable using a hatchet, simply use your drawknife for this process.

49. With the drawknife, I refine the rounding along the sides of the decoy. I work into the neck line, round up from the side chine line to the center line on top of the block, and stay out of the area on which the head will sit. Work on both sides of the decoy to keep the carving somewhat symmetrical.

50. On both sides of the head/neck shelf, you will have to carve back toward the tail to keep the wood from splitting out. As you round out the shoulder areas of the back, carve toward the neck shelf, but stop before getting into the neck, or it will split out. If it does split, use superglue to get into the split and press things back together. Continue to carve.

51. Once the front half of the decoy is fairly rounded out, flip it around and work on rounding out the back half of the block. You will carve from the middle of the bird toward the back. If you used a hatchet, work on initially removing the hatchet marks, then refine the shape of the block.

52. This view is looking straight down the center line from the front of the decoy toward the back. My goal is to round out both sides from the center line out to the side chine lines. No flat areas. Try and keep the curves symmetrical.

53. Moving to the bottom of the decoy, I round out just the front—initially removing the corners—but will continue working toward rounding from the chine line into the center line.

54. In the middle section of the bottom, I somewhat round from the line we drew into the side chine line. I say “somewhat” because I want the bottom profile to look like a flattened V shape—much like a boat bottom. I keep the very center of the bottom flat and uncut to attach a lead keel weight later on.

55. I round the back end of the bottom from the bottom center line to the side chine line. Stay out of the tail; we need to keep all of the tail thickness for strength.

56. Switching tools to a spokeshave, I further refine the shape of the block. A spokeshave allows for a much more refined and precise method of removing wood.

57. Looking down the back, sides, and bottom of the block, I work toward fairing the curves where they are smooth, much like a ship’s hull.

58. Feel the block for any nonsymmetrical areas or curves, and using the spokeshave, work on the areas that don’t have the same look and feel.

59. Mix up a small amount of five-minute epoxy. I use a small palette knife to mix and spread the epoxy along the middle area of the bottom of the head’s neck. I don’t spread it along the sides of the neck because I want the neck seam to show some once the bird is finished.

60. Position the head onto the block, ensuring the center line of the head matches the center line on the decoy. Press into place and hold until the epoxy sets up some. Let the glue cure for a few hours before working further on the decoy so the epoxy reaches its maximum strength.

61. I use a large upsweep carving knife to shape the tail, rounding out where the back and rump flow into the tail. I also thin the tail some to remove any drawknife or spokeshave marks.

62. Using the same knife, I begin shaping the breast, rounding out the front of the decoy. I work on carving out all the flat areas.

63. Using a smaller, 1-3/4″ sweep with a narrower profile, I work on shaping the neck into the body. I want a pleasing, smooth transition from the neck into the body with no sharp angles. The back of the neck will be rounded into the body and back.

64. Here, I carve from under the chin into the chest—again working in a nice, flowing transition. I’ll also do this along the sides of the neck from the head into the body.

65. With the right side of the head and body carved in, you can see the transition I am working toward, compared to the uncarved left side.

66. With the head carved into the body on both sides, it is once again time to look and check everything for symmetry and fairness.

67. With all the knife work done, I use a fine Dragon rasp on the entire body. I use a fine, round rasp up under the bill in the neck crease. Once I have the tool marks filed down, I give the entire decoy a good sanding using 120-grit sandpaper.

68. The next part of this demo will cover adding the finishing details and painting the decoy using a traditional Upper-Chesapeake painting method. I ended up carving three of these birds. The first decoy was painted using Parker decoy paints and sent to Alaska to join a harlequin hunt. In part two, I’ll use acrylics to paint the second block but will reference the comparable Parker colors. I will also go through the entire process of molding and pouring a lead ballast weight using the sand-casting method used a century ago. In part three, I will detail the painting method of wet-into-wet feather blending used by many of the Chesapeake-area decoy makers, finishing up with a harlequin hen.

 

This article is part of a 3-part series.

Read Part 2 of The Turtleback Harlequin here