I've been making my own on and off since 2003. I started burlapping my own herters a few years before that, and then moved on to making decoys out of blue construction foam and burlapping it, and then on to both dark and light cork. By far the easiest is construction foam and burlap, they are also pretty light. If your set on cork, then black cork is easiest to carve, but messier and it will suck up a ton of spar varnish to seal. I've used commercial heads and carved my own, I don't like carving heads much so generally buy them now. I haven't done much in the last couple years due to kids etc, but I pick them up here and there, and I always have a few in various stages of repair or build, but I am far from an excellent carver. It's a fun way to waste time , and they kill birds well enough. It's a fun hobby, but the decoys are bloody heavy, so keep this in mind if you run a small boat or are a shore hunter! I often find myself leaving my carved divers at home due to the weight, and taking just my foamer mallards and plastic diver decoys. If it where me I'd start with blue construction foam carved to shape, covered in burlap and tile mastic, with some Autumn wings heads! Good luck whatever way you end up going!
Last edited by diverduck; December 29th, 2014 at 05:11 PM.
Anyone carve or mold their own duck decoys?
Originally Posted by Buzz Killington
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