November, 1920 
FOREST AND STREAM 
599 
shows how far each piece is set back 
from the front of the bottom piece, and 
the centre lines will help you build 
straight. Start, of course, by gluing 
and screwing No. 4 to No. 5, then add 3 
to 4, then 2 to 3, then 1 to 2. Counter- 
sink the screws % inch; not more, or 
you will “meet” them with your chisel 
in the exterior modelling. Use from 4 
to 8 screws to each joint, drawing the 
vicinity of each screwhole tight with the 
hand clamp before inserting the screw. 
Your bodies are now ready to go on the 
rack to dry. 
N OW for the heads. Outline the 
whole set on both sides of the 2x4, 
using your small square freely to 
keep them opposite. Then bore a bunch 
of holes of various sizes to facilitate the 
vertical profiling, and go to work with 
a wide chisel, a woodrasp, and a rat-tail 
file, and work your profiles complete, ex- 
cept for just enough wood to hold the 
set together. Then bore %-inch holes 
for your neck-dowels before sawing the 
heads apart. Next comes the modelling 
of the individual heads. Advice is use- 
less here. It is simply a case of a sharp 
knife, a tame duck for a model, and the 
will to succeed. Leave the cheeks the 
full thickness of the 2x4 and make your 
bill a full inch wide. 
Your bodies are now dry and ready 
for modelling. The requisites are a good 
vise, a wide, sharp chisel, and two rasps, 
one coarse and one fine. Here also a live 
model would be a great help. Tilt your 
tails at various angles, to give still fur- 
ther variety of posture to your flock. 
With practice, a body can be modelled 
out and sand-papered in an hour. Leave 
a little extra wood around the neck joint 
for remodelling after the heads are on. 
Now bore your dowel holes through 
the bodies. Use the head, which has 
been already bored, as a guide to keep 
your bit vertical. Glue up your dowels 
(first sand-papering both tips to insure 
against sticking) , also glue up your neck 
joint, put on the heads tight, not for- 
getting to give each head a slightly dif- 
ferent angle. Put away to dry. 
N OW comes the finish. Trim off the 
protruding dowels, and trim the 
neck joint so that the descending 
curves flow smoothly from the head to 
the body. Countersink a small screw 
eye at the front of each bottom board 
for tying on the strings and weights. 
Carve your initials on each bottom board, 
or, still better, do this before the bot- 
toms are put on. Presto; your decoys 
are complete, except for painting and 
glass eyes, but these seem little, little 
bits of jobs as you wade out of your chip 
pile to carry a sample of your new flock 
to be inspected by your wife. 
If you have wrought carefully and 
thoughtfully, you now have a set of stool 
that any sportsman, especially yourself, 
should be proud of. And surely those 
big mallards next fall will appreciate 
the fact that your decoys are no common 
hand-me-down blocks, but real ducks 
whose society they should enjoy. 
DUFFLE CABINET FOR CAMP 
OR DEN 
By F. E. BRIMMER 
A BOUT any camp or den there are 
many articles that might better be 
placed conveniently in some kind of 
a shelter purposely made for their ac- 
commodation. Generally, at camp the 
fishing tackle is kept in one box, the am- 
munition for the target rifle in another 
place, the hiking shoes in a corner, the 
camera and supplies on a shelf, and so 
on. This causes endless confusion when 
you are in a hurry for some article that 
seems nowhere to be found. It also clut- 
ters up the camp, and the same is true of 
the den. To make this difficulty disap- 
pear there is nothing better than a duffle 
chest or cabinet of some kind. A cabinet 
is much better than a chest because you 
will want to hang some of your clothes 
up, and this cannot be done in a chest, 
where each article will have to be laid 
in place, but with the cabinet you may 
piace hooks conveniently inside the struc- 
ture and so have a first-rate place to hang 
your hiking suit, tennis clothing, and 
other articles of wearing apparel. 
Of course, you may build a duffle cabi- 
net of any size that seems to be best suit- 
ed for the purpose you intend to use it. 
A good size is one that is three feet wide 
at the top, five feet high, and sixteen 
inches deep. For this purpose you should 
buy some pine lumber, not the hard pine, 
but the northern pine that is soft and 
easily worked up. For the purpose you 
will need to get boards that are sixteen 
inches in width. If it is impossible to get 
boards quite so wide then take them four- 
teen inches or even twelve. The width 
of the boards will determine the depth 
of the cabinet and the sixteen inch 
should be used. Since the soft pine tree 
grows to a large size it ought not to be 
hard to get lumber sixteen inches wide 
from the mill or dealer. You will need 
only thirty feet of lumber of this width 
and if possible get boards of ten foot 
lengths. Three ten foot boards will make 
a first-class duffle cabinet. Of course 
the back of the structure may be made 
from old lumber of almost any kind. 
Boxes may be torn down for making the 
back of the cabinet. In case you desire 
to make a very nice looking job, one that 
will stand a good varnish stain when 
completed, then use oak lumber. How- 
ever, this is rather expensive. If the 
cabinet is for utility only, then you may 
be able to build it from old boxes that 
you can get at the store. The lumber 
should be at least half an inch thick, 
about three-fourths being best, and the 
inch lumber none too thick. 
A T No. 1, on the illustration is shown 
a front view of a duffle cabinet. 
The top, K, is thirty-six inches 
long by sixteen inches wide. The side 
pieces, two in number, and shown best 
on No. 4. at H, are each sixty inches 
long by sixteen inches wide. The two 
front boards, N-N, are each sixty inches 
long by six inches wide. As soon as 
these parts have been carefully sawed, 
being sure to use a square to mark out 
the boards before sawing, you may be- 
gin to nail the cabinet together. Use 
medium size finishing nails for this pur- 
pose and set them with a nail set. Be- 
gin by nailing the two side pieces, H, to 
(continued on page 610) 
