It's Snowing

It's Saturday, had thought that streams would be at a fishable level and that I might forgo the wood work to do some fishing on this Easter weekend-but the green spring grass is covered in snow, temp in the 30's and the forecast is for rain, rain, rain.  Perhaps when I was younger I would "gear up" and go out anyway, but age and a wife who is supervising my recovery and rehab from the hip is discouraging this type of activity in this type of weather.  Besides we have to go watch the grand kids do the "dye the egg" thing!  Good friend of mine is fishing at a place called Rockwell Springs Trout Club in Ohio-check it out on the web, very interesting post.  I changed my Facebook profile picture to opening day at Bennett Springs in Missouri, where fisherman stand shoulder to shoulder to catch 5 trout; say what you want, but it was at Bennett Springs where I spent a week doing nothing but fly fishing that I learned how to do this stuff.

The bears are out of hibernation and feeding at the bird feeders for those people who either want to keep feeding the birds or just want to see bears tear up their feeders.  I read an article that some bears out west are not hibernating but are feeding on kills from wolves over the winter months.  Another change in behaviors.  Listening to a person speak about the preservation of forests, restoring forests and the Easter celebration of rebirth.  They spoke of the importance of maintaining a healthy woodlands by intelligent plan of harvesting.

Found a new pattern for a bench that includes a vise that I plan to build this summer.  Not one that can set in the living room but one that I can use the tools with and not take up much space.  Something to build once good weather gets here.  Pictures to follow (I hope).  I plan to build a bench similar to the ones in the picture except tall enough for me to sit, then attach the vise sold by Woodcraft.  Creating a stable base for using the plane and draw knife will speed the process.

Looking forward to spring, getting outside to carve and getting knee deep in some trout water.  Thanks for reading and remember to measure twice and cut once.  Peace this Easter season.

Goose Hunting

Saw a Facebook post today about the Brookfield Relays coming up this week and a flood of memories came back, many names, both of coaches and athletes, the hamburger steak meals between the preliminaries and the finals.  How much fun we had as coaches who had some really gifted athletes who worked hard and had some success; the track was probably the worse track in the area but no one complained because we ran a great meet, thanks to all the great volunteers.  I know this has nothing to do with wood and words, although we did throw the discus off two sheets of plywood in the middle of the football field-I have no idea how we kept from killing someone.

But Brookfield had some great hunting-goose season started in mid October; had to call off football practice so wouldn't have to punish players for skipping to go hunt!  This was a great experience especially to a novice hunter;  I did get better after several years to the point that I started to serve as an unofficial guide to new hunters.  We hired a new science guy, young, considered himself an outdoors guy, and even had a chocolate lab pup!  He was single so my wife and I provided some home cooking, and some TV watching but he wanted to go goose hunting.  Thanksgiving vacation was upon us and he was not going home so we set up a trip to a local field that I had been hunting and bagging some geese.

Now the limit at the time was one goose per day and two geese in your possession; this was a Federal standard since these birds migrated-fines were high and punishment meant losing your gun and privileges.  I am sure that the time limit for prosecution of crimes has long passed so I hope that I can safely tell this story.

We had decided to hunt Wednesday morning since it was a half day of school without much pressure in the classroom.  He knew the bag limits and was a good waterfowl hunter but had never killed a goose, so to say he was excited was an under statement.  We got to the blind early in darkness without our dogs as we would be shooting in a corn field plus storing the dogs at school was usually not a good idea.  The geese were flying hard from the south as there was a good north wind plus over cast, great weather for hunting.  But the geese were ignoring the decoy spread in front of our blind and landing on a large pond or small lake north of our blind probably 800 yards away and coming over us too high to shoot.  But I knew what to do-I told him to go to the fence line and hide in the weeds while I went up the ditch to the pond, came in to the geese from the north side, they would fly south over him and he could get his goose.  A simply brilliant plan, what could possibility go wrong?

As I was crawling up the ditch, geese were flooding into the pond, I estimated there was at least 500+ birds on the water, wall to wall.  The biggest danger when flushing this big of flock was to only shoot one bird, if they were too close together with a shot gun you could bring down several birds and since I was out in the open and could be seen from the road I only wanted one goose!  I also was enough of a hot dog that I wanted to shoot a bird with a band so I could research where it had been, how old it was and the like.  So up over the dam I came busting into the geese-now if you have ever been around geese they are quite noisy especially when they are startled-the noise was deafening, I surveyed the geese, picked one out (with a band) and with one shot dropped it into the middle of the lake/pond!  Geese were flying and heard my hunter friend shooting-bam bam bam-(he had an automatic) then I heard bam, bam, bam, then another bam, bam. I am thinking: I know this guy can shoot but maybe he is so excited that he can't hit anything! The thought crossed my mind, do I need to shoot one for him, but quickly dismissed the thought because I didn't want to get caught killing a second bird.

 I threw clods of dirt at the floating bird until it finally got close enough for me to pick it up; I headed back to check in with my friend in hopes that he had killed a bird and not shot himself!  I climbed the fence and saw him sitting on the ground with a goose at his feet; I told him good job but then he stood up and started talking.  He said that he had gotten so excited, he had never been so close to so many geese and he just started shooting, reloaded, shot some more, reloaded and that he had two geese out in the corn field, two geese down in the ditch and two more in the fence row plus the goose at his feet for a total of 7 geese killed.  Visions of federal penitentiary in Leavenworth Kansas, came to my mind as I asked him what the hell were you thinking?  His response of I don't know-there were just geese every where and they were flying and making noise and my gun just kept going off!!!!  He said that he knew he needed to stop but he just couldn't!!!  Great-to get back to town hunters had to pass through check points whether the conservation agents would check your car/truck for geese.

We went back to town, checked the geese, took them to the butcher shop to be dressed-Thanksgiving dinner!  But we still had all these birds out in the field and i didn't really want them to be wasted but how to get them to town?  Then it dawned on me-I taught driver education and could pass through the check points without question, so first period we drove out and moved the birds closer to the road, put a couple in the trunk, returned to town, dropped them off in my garage, second period, back to the field and stop by the garage to drop the birds off.  School was out at noon, I went home, dressed the birds, and made some phone calls for distribution of the birds to people that I knew was short on food at this time of year.  So what was a bad situation, although still bad, at least some good came of the hunting trip.

I had great students in driver education classes, most of them were hunters or dated hunters so the trips with the geese stayed secret.  The story of the trip did slip out and the science teacher, outdoor guy with the chocolate lab lived to hunt another day-we goose hunted the Friday after Thanksgiving but that is another story.  He was a great teacher and a good friend.

Loons and Their Magic

The first time I heard the call of the loons the hair on the back of my neck stood up-it was night, no moon, I was walking back from fishing a brook filled with trout.  I knew immediately that a "creature of the night" was coming to get me-remember all those movies we watched as a kid, when more was left to the imagination than in films today?  In New Hampshire there is a creature of the night called a Fisher Cat-a weasel on steroids that kills small dogs, cats, rodents so my fears were founded!  As I ran through the trees to get back to the cabin I smashed into the oldest daughter who with a laugh asked me why I was running-I explained "the creature" that was after me.  With an even broader laugh she explained the loons, their calls and their magic at night.

So ever since that time I have wanted to carve a loon but for some reason, never took the time to start, but now at the request of a good friend from the mid west I am carving a loon (1/2 size).  I am trying to use all hand tools rather than the grinder (with a cord) or the sander (with a cord).  I did not have a big block of wood so chose to glue 6 1/2" pieces of pine after roughing out the pattern on each piece.  From there came the draw knife and plane to rough out a general shape.  The head is separate and has 3 pieces of wood glued after again cutting out a general shape.  I used my scroll saw to cut each piece but in the real world I would use a band saw to cut out the form.

I marked the eyes on the head using a punch so that I wouldn't lose the placement.  The eyes are a sinister red and will be glass eyes that I purchase from a dealer.  With the initial cut I need to find the center line so there is balance to the decoy as I remove wood.  I try to keep redrawing the lines as I move through the carving.  Loons are a different bird to carve as much of their body rides low in the water and is unseen in the final work.

Chisels are used to carve the feather bunches and to improve the placement of the head.  Loons are black and white with striping, spots and checkering on their backs.  Painting is still a ways off as I need to bring the head into detail and improve the side feather pattern, then extensive sanding will take place.  The head will include better bill definition and the neck will blend into the body with one smooth line.

Loons are cool because they return to the same nesting place year after year; they can live up to 30 years; the produce 2-3 eggs and are protective of their chicks even providing them rides on the adults backs.  It takes 25+ days for the eggs to hatch and as soon as the chicks hatch they go into the water; at 11 weeks they can fly.  Adult birds leave the lake and travel to lakes in northern Maine or Southern Canada, congregate for several weeks before flying to the Atlantic Ocean for the winter.  Young loons leave the nesting lake and fly to the ocean for 2-3 years before finding a mate then finding a lake to start the life cycle again.

Loons need clean water and places free of human population (boats); reports say the population is "stable" but each year many loons die from contact with boats, fishing line, plastic soda holders and from their natural predators.  Chicks are vulnerable especially from large fish.  Loons are native to the North America and Canada so those of you in the mid west need to travel to watch and hear the wonderful birds.

Thanks again for visiting and remember when cutting to measure twice and cut once!  Peace.

The Benz Decoy Company-Jefferson City, Missouri

THE BENZ DECOY

COMPANY

When Harry Benz began his decoy company, decoy production was nothing new to Jefferson City, Missouri. Starting in the early 1920s, the J.M. Hayes Wood Products Company manufactured many different wood products including duck decoys. A failed business venture in 1922 eventually forced the company to declare bankruptcy in 1925. The Gundlefinger Wood Products Company purchased some of the machinery and some of the inventory and began to produce a variety of decoys. By 1928, The Gundlefinger Wood Products fell upon financial problems.

Harry Benz’s decoy production began with the purchase of The Gundlefinger Wood Products Company in 1929 after the company declared bankruptcy. By a collective bid of $6,000, Harry Benz bought the machinery and stock of the insolvent company.

The Jefferson City resident was already operating a host of other businesses when he took over The Gundlefinger Company. He owned a new and used furniture store, a taxi service and garage as well as used a car and rent-a-Ford business. Harry Benz was now assuming the business of decoy production on the eve of the Great Depression. Producing decoys from the basement of his rent-a- Ford business, Harry continued the tradition of decoy manufacturing in Jefferson City.

Benz decoys were produced in mallards, black ducks, bluebills, pintails, whistler, widgeon, canvasback, redhead, teal species as well as geese.  Two wooden models were offered – Grand Prix and Superior.  Grand Prix were made of light weight wood and were larger than life size.  The Superior grade was slightly smaller in size. Both models were produced on duplicating lathes, sanded semi-smooth and finished with hand painting.

The Benz Decoy Company survived the great depression, but the pressure of World

War II and the increased marketing of lower cost paper mache and plastic decoys proved too great for Benz.  The end of the war in 1945 also brought about the closing of decoy operations for the Benz Company as well as bringing an end to over two decades of decoy production in Jefferson City, Missouri.

	Benz Mallard Drake Jefferson City, Missouri • Circa 1930s This nice example is in virtually mint condition, having never been used. This is the last one I have that came from a rig found several years ago. He has never been rigged and shows just the slightest amount of box wear. The small various tan marks/spots on him are traces of the original newspaper he was wrapped in after he was painted. Wonderful dry and crisp original paint that features Benz’s typical comb painting on his back and tail. Great crisp example from the last of the Jefferson City factories. Item #207008

	Gundelfinger Black Duck Jefferson City, Missouri • Circa mid 1920s If you looking for a hard species of Gundlefinger decoys this might be your bird. Believe it or not, I have seen more teal than black ducks by Gundelfinger. Overall, this bird in nice original condition with even gunning wear. The nail that is now visible in his neck is original and was used by the company to secure their heads. The neckfiller is cracked all the way around and the left side of the bird has two small paint scrapes as well as a tight age crack under his eye. Thick original comb paint. The original company ink stamp is still visible on the bottom. Item #207020

Gundelfinger Canvasback Hen Jefferson City, Missouri • Circa late 1924-1929 Rare special order oversized sold canvasback hen. This decoy measures just over 16 inches long and 8 inches tall. The paint is 100% original with a few paint "pops" to the top of the head and neck and some rubbing to the breast. Structurally she is in excellent shape with "No" cracks or splits. She features her original deep red eyes and nice comb paint on her back. A similar example can be seen in Ken Trayers" North American Factory Decoy book. I have only seen three or four of this style and all have come out of the Wisconsin area. Rare Gundelfinger decoy!

Item #207007

$650.00

So here you have the history of Decoying in Jefferson City, Missouri; The final carver was put out of business by modern technology but as you can see the decoys are still in demand. Enjoy the descriptions of these decoys that are for sale from collectors-I know that the next time I see a decoy setting in an antique shop out here I am going to pay more attention to the decoy.  So far the ones I have looked at have been in bad shape or cleaned up and repainted.  A word of caution, if you decide to buy an old decoy DO NOT repaint or repair anything because as soon as you do anything like that you have just lost money.

The next post I plan to talk about my Loon Decoy, have some pictures and maybe even give some really interesting (not) information on how I am doing this with hand tools only.  PIctures should give you some idea of progress.  Hope you enjoy.  Thanks for stopping by.

Remember to measure twice and cut once.  Peace

Missouri Decoy Factories

There are numerous decoy factories and carvers in the midwest.  But how nice it would be to know where the factories existed in Jefferson City-is it possible that anyone thought to keep that record?  Sounds like a search for another time.  We hear so much about valuable decoys from the east coast, it is nice to find decoy factories in Missouri; as those of you in the mid west search those antique shops would you keep an eye out for these decoys? Who knows you might find a bargain and become one of those "pickers". This may bore some of you, but I believe that history is important plus if you are looking to become a collector here is an expensive but a good place to start.  If you have relatives or friends near fly ways or rivers start checking the garages and barns for decoys-I once saw a stack of decoys behind a garage in Iowa. When I talked with the elderly woman in the house, she said that her husband had hunted over them for years but wasn't interested in selling any until she talked with her son; she also thought I was crazy for wanting to buy any of them.  Her son called me with a price at $300 per decoy-thanks but no thanks.  I found a place in Maine that was run by an elderly man who priced most of his decoys at $25-$50-he had hunted over most of them-I did not have my check book and it was before debit cards; I returned the next summer but the man had died, his children had remodeled the shop (cleaned it up) and had the decoys listed at $300-$1000-again, thanks but no thanks.  But I am going to keep looking for that bargain!  Check out the pictures and descriptions below-someone found these so keep looking.

Hays Wood Products Co. Mallard DrakeJefferson City, Missouri • Circa early 1920sThe Hays company began producing decoys in the early 1920s. Hays was the first of three companies that produced decoys over a span of two decades in Jefferson City. This mallard drake in excellent dry original paint. There is a tight age crack that runs the length on the bottom and an inch up the tail and breast. Most of this is covered by the old strip weight applied to the bottom. The head is securely attached. The neck filler is cracked, but present, all the way around. This crack has run up into the head just slightly but is tight and not that noticeable. The small tan smudges are actually news print still stuck to the bird from when it was originally painted. Judging from the amount of wear, or actually lack of it, I would say he has not had much use.
Item #207013 I$785.00 Benz Pintail Drake Drake pintail by Benz Wood Products Co., Jefferson City, MO., in excellent O.P. and cond. with some in-use wear, glass eyes, nice scratch painting on back, this decoy is from my personal collection, ca. 1930's. Carver : Benz Decoy Company 450   Benz Widgeon Drake RARE Drake Widgeon by Benz Wood Products Co., Jefferson City, MO. Grand Prix Model, near mint original paint and condition. This decoy was weighted, but never used in the field. It has nice scratch painting on the back and glass eyes, ca.1930's. THIS IS ONE OF THREE KNOWN BENZ WIDGEON DECOYS IN COLLECTIONS: A TRUE INVESTMENT GRADE DECOY. Carver : Benz Decoy Factory 1725.00   Gundelfinger Pintail Drake Gundelfinger pintail drake (no.237), hard to find, excellent paint. Carver : Gundelfinger Decoy Factory 300   Gundelfinger Superior Canvasback Drake Gundelfinger No. 227 (Superior canvasback drake)in fine original condition. The comb paint is exquisite. The large flat ballast weight is marked "NIXON" Carver : Gundelfinger Wood Products 250   Gundelfinger Redhead Superior Pair Pair of Gundelfinger redheads, Superior Models. Drake all original, with wonderful deep comb-painting and fine original paint. The hen may have some minimal hunter repaint; it still has its ballast weight. Both decoys are worn, and provide a great example of the Jefferson City decoys. Each decoy is 14.5 x 4.75 x 6.75 (L x W x H) inches in dimension. Carver : Gundelfinger Decoy Company 435.00     Gundelfinger Superior Model Mallard Pair, Original Paint Great pair of Gundelfinger Superior Model (Gundelfinger catalog #205, 206) solid decoys. These are classic examples of the Gundelfinger decoy line of decoys. The drake has some areas where the paint has been rubbed off, but the hen is remarkably pristine. The drake is 16 x 5.25 x 6 (L x W x H) inches. The hen has the same dimensions. Some of the top layers of the heavy impasto flaked off the hen's chest flaked off before comb-paint application: she looks great anyway. Some comb paint has flaked completely off the back of the head. Carver : Gundelfinger Decoy Company 400.00     Gundelfinger Grand Prix Mallard Pair Pair of Gundelfinger Grand Prix Model (Gundelfinger catalog #5,6) hollow decoys. These have carving around the bill root. Each bird is 17 x 5.5 x 7 (L x W x H) inches. The drake has some areas where the paint has been rubbed off, but the hen's back is still exceptional despite worn paint on the head. Both decoys have their original strip weights. Carver : Gubndelfinger Decoy Company 431.25   Thanks for checking out the site, remember to measure twice and cut once.  Peace to you all.	I