Carving Miniature Duck Decoys

Rating:
Summary: Carving Miniature Duck Decoys
Review: The book is a large sized book primarily designed to give minimal instructions for carving decoys of common ducks. This is NOT a "how to whittle" book by any means. The writer assumes that you know how to use a carving knife already. The pages are of rather heavy paper that can be cut out or the staples removed so that you can use them to make your own patterns to carve the birds. Which is fairly standard for many books of this type. I used a photocopyer to copy the patterns so that I did not destroy the book ( I have a phobia about destroying books! Too many readings of Ferenheit 451 as a child I guess) I started by carving a Mallard and a wood duck. The Mallard took only a few hours of whittling with my X-Acto to get to reasonable completion level. The scale is about right for hand sized carving. A pocket knife or X-acto is perfect. The only place the book "fails" for me is in the design of the coloration of the birds. I know little about wild birds and would like some bettter guidance in this respect, though he has included two paces of color plates of completed carvings and suggests that the reader research the birds in other books. Not a bad idea at that. If you are interested in carving, this is a pretty good way to start in with miniature decoys. For the more mercinary of you, in my travels last week, I saw a slightly larger decoy in a store priced at $125. Where's my carving knife?

Rating:
Summary: Carving Miniature Duck Decoys
Review: The book is a large sized book primarily designed to give minimal instructions for carving decoys of common ducks. This is NOT a "how to whittle" book by any means. The writer assumes that you know how to use a carving knife already. The pages are of rather heavy paper that can be cut out or the staples removed so that you can use them to make your own patterns to carve the birds. Which is fairly standard for many books of this type. I used a photocopyer to copy the patterns so that I did not destroy the book ( I have a phobia about destroying books! Too many readings of Ferenheit 451 as a child I guess) I started by carving a Mallard and a wood duck. The Mallard took only a few hours of whittling with my X-Acto to get to reasonable completion level. The scale is about right for hand sized carving. A pocket knife or X-acto is perfect. The only place the book "fails" for me is in the design of the coloration of the birds. I know little about wild birds and would like some bettter guidance in this respect, though he has included two paces of color plates of completed carvings and suggests that the reader research the birds in other books. Not a bad idea at that. If you are interested in carving, this is a pretty good way to start in with miniature decoys. For the more mercinary of you, in my travels last week, I saw a slightly larger decoy in a store priced at $125. Where's my carving knife?

Rating:
Summary: Good book if you've carved a duck before.
Review: This book is a good book only if you've carved a duck before because it does not tell you what kind of knife to use, also it does not tell you to draw the basic front and back of the duck on the botton as guide lines. If you want to start carving buy the book "How to carve wood". It tells you how to carve a antique duck very clear. It also tells you what tools you need, and even how to sharpen them. After you purchase the book how to carve wood, then buy this book carving miniature duck decoys for patterns, and better techniues. Even though carving minauture duck decoys has good techniques it does not explain basic info. Buy the standard B bo-t handcrafted knife from woodcraft.com that is the best knife for basic carving. I hope this review helped.