Carver Bill Roberts

This isn't store bought lumber. It's basswood from Bill's own property, sawn with a one man sawmill. It's stacked with large air spaces to dry, which can take over a year.

When it's dry Bill saws it up into different sizes depending on what he has in mind for it. Not everything ends up as a decoy when there's shelving and crates to be made.

The barn isn't completely dedicated to decoy carving. It started out as storage for the Christmas tree business, and then a workshop for those years of trapping. The stretching forms still hang from the rafters. There are stone polishing machines from the jewelry making days, an empty doghouse whos owner is long gone, and cans filled with treasures that only Bill knows the value of. An old tube radio used to bring in the Tiger ball games. There are bicycles, and muskrat traps, and things with no names, and everything is right where it should be, just like when he put it there.

This isn't done by machine! Not only is it hard work, but it has to be done while finding that shape in your minds eye. If you think it's easy, try it sometime, and then you'll appreciate the artistry hidden in Bill's decoys.

Since all of Bill's carvings are true decoys, they have to be carved with the fish in mind, and they have to swim. Their shape isn't random. They each have a proper balance and curve for acting like a real fish in the water.

Dried wood floats. So every "real" decoy has a belly full of lead perfectly postioned to make the decoy swim properly. The metal fins are cut, drilled and attached.

It doesn't matter what size the decoy is, they all go through the same process. We tend to think that big is more, but carving the little one is a whole lot harder.

The detail of the carving is determined by the species of the fish. Trout don't have scales like a walleye, or a pike. Etching the scales is a time consuming and tedius process. You can see also the lines carved into the tail. Actually the carving isn't done on this decoy. The fins are only there temporarily for the picture. When Bill is finished, every detail will be there, and then it will be primed like the two pictures above.

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