Forest and Stream 
Vol. LXXXIII. October 24, 1914 / No. 17 
Making Duck Decoys 
A Pleasant and Useful Pastime for Winter Evenings 
There is not only great fun in the designing 
and making of duck decoys, but profit can be 
derived if the decoys are sold. I know of many 
boys who are getting quite a little revenue be¬ 
sides having pleasure and pastime from model¬ 
ing and manufacturing decoy ducks from wood. 
Decoy ducks are used almost everywhere for 
wildfowl shooting, and the best opportunities are 
in the localities of summer resorts. Some of 
the mistakes that one finds in decoy duck mak¬ 
ing can be readily avoided. I have before me 
some decoys of wood, very well made and fin¬ 
ished and looking the image of ducks. I try 
these and find that they sink so low in the water 
that they appear quite different from the real 
fowl. The live duck sits well up on the water. 
Most types of decoys sink too low. 
You will need to make patterns for three kinds 
of ducks, namely: Bluebills, canvasbacks and 
redheads. I use cedar. Get a post or two of 
cedar from a lumber establishment and select 
the stock yourself. It should be free from flaws, 
solid, well seasoned and even grained. A post 
about eight to twelve inches at the butt will do. 
Saw this post into blocks about fifteen inches in 
length. Then with hatdhet chop down two sides 
of the 'block until the latter is about seven inches 
thick. Then chop on the other two sides until 
the block is about fifteen inches thick that way, 
making it 7 x 15 inches. I have seen people 
using decoys with these blocks in an unfinished 
state as in Fig. 1. Of course a very defective 
model resulted. To give the decoy the appear¬ 
ance of a duck a head piece was made and shaped 
with the neck attached as shown. The colors 
were applied in an inartistic manner. 
Fig. 2 illustrates another odd form of decoy 
which I saw. It has a neck-piece affair at b 
that can be tilted- The neck is balanced by using 
a piece of metal b which lever is fitted with a 
pin to the body of the duck as shown-. The 
weighted end a is calculated to counterbalance 
evenly. There is a spiral spring fixed on the pin 
shaft of the lever and attached to the duck’s 
neck and lever flange so that the neck wabbles 
and bobs quite oddly. 
GETTING THE BLOCKS SHAPED. 
Figs. 3 and 4 show the blocks in the rough. 
The larger sizes are selected and cut down to 
the shape exhibited in form 5. This trimming 
down is done without much difficulty. You can 
hold the block by hand or adjust it in a vise. 
Fig. 6 is a side view while the former is a flat 
surface view. The proportions are indicated in 
inches on each. 
CONSTRUCTION OF THE HEAD. 
The next piece of work involves the modeling 
of the head for the decoy. Cedar may be used, 
but pine is preferred. You can use your jack¬ 
knife to good advantage in shaping the head. If 
you have a piece of wood that is free from flaws, 
and cuts readily, you can carve a very accept¬ 
able head. Patience is required. However, an 
hour or two is usually sufficient time for cutting 
out the desired model of the head. Fig. 7 is 
a model of one of the heads, showing the pin 
and shoulder portion at c. There is a hole bored 
in the body piece of the decoy duck at proper 
position for inserting the pin. You can get a 
good effect for eyes by purchasing silver or other 
metal plated tacks from furniture stores. 
THE KEEL. 
Lead keels are preferable. These can be pur¬ 
chased at sporting goods store or at hardware 
store. Twelve ounces makes a fairly weighted 
keel. There should be holes bored at either 
end so that screws or nails can be inserted 
through to grip the wood. 
GOUGING OUT. 
The process of making the duck’s body hollow 
is effected by sawing straight the portion selected 
for the body. Then secure either side in a vise 
and begin to gouge out with round pointed 
gouging chisel. It will not require long to re¬ 
move' surplus. The same is done to the other 
half. 
ASSEMBLING. 
The parts are now ready for assembling. The 
edges of the body where sawed can be closed 
together and made watertight by using some 
red lead and thin strips of rubber. The parts 
are drawn together with screws inserted at an 
angle along the binding edges. The red lead and 
the rubber sheeting or packing make the body 
tight. These materials may be obtained at any 
plumber’s. The duck decoy when put together is 
like the model in Fig. 9. The keel is at d, and 
this keel furnishes means for the anchor connec¬ 
tion by using a fishing line cord. Anchors 
should weigh about sixteen to eighteen ounces- 
Usually a piece of stone is used, but it is better 
to have anchors. Neat little anchors can be 
made by using metal balls with rings attached. 
The final work is that of painting. You can 
purchase a few pounds of paint ready mixed and 
ready for use at any paint goods store. I 
usually run over the whole form first with a 
coat of white lead and after this dries paint the 
bills black, or other desired color, the breasts 
black, between tail and breast white, upper part 
of head brown, lower neck black. Redheads, of 
course, require red on the heads. The redhead 
bills are blue colored. I varnish over the whole 
and then the decoy is ready for service. I can 
make them at very low cost, if I make a dozen 
at one time. It is an interesting work. Just 
place a dozen or so of the ducks on a little 
waterway in your front yard and see how many 
people stop to see these decoys floating about. 
If you put up a sign, “Duck Decoys Made to 
Order” you will get plenty of profitable business 
for spare hours. 
According to the latest available figures, Penn¬ 
sylvania stands fifth in the production of wood 
pulp and is second to West Virginia in the 
amount of slabs and other sawmill waste used 
for pulp; Maine stands third. 
