·       Hank carves with Northern White Cedar.  Cedar is the choice wood for working decoys.  It is resistant to decay and water exposure.  A pleasure to carve and shape for gunners.  He starts with square blocks for the head and the body.  The body starts as a 4in x 8in block of wood and is cut in two dimensions on the band saw.  The head is cut the same way out of a smaller block of cedar. 

·        After the head is carved with knives and gouges, Hank shapes the head down to a finished size and sand smooth.  The body is mounted on his carving stand and is shaped with a drawknife and a wood spokeshave.  The body is sanded smooth. 

·        There are two areas that Hank spends a lot of time on, one is the head carving/eye area and the other is the fitting of the head onto the body.  The transition of the neck area adds a lot of style and attitude to the rig.

·        After all carving and sanding Hank brands the bottom of the bird with  HHGarvey and Plum Island.  Each location that Hank hunts the decoy is also recorded on the bottom of the bird.  This identification came in handy at the end of one season when Hank lost a decoy in ice and it was returned by another hunter a few days later.

·        This brings up the discussion of how Hank plans and carves a rig.  He spends a lot of time before he ever carves; collecting information and reference material on his subject.  It is very important to study the bird he plans to carve as much as possible.  He will spend a lot of time in the field with binoculars and a camera.  The time spent up front is very important and allows him time to study a group of birds together, how they interact with each other.  The interaction they are having is the same thing he wants to do with the rig that he is going to carve.  He thinks a rig of decoys that all have different attitudes is a better rig and will pull in more birds because all the birds do not look the same in nature.

·        After the birds are carved the decoys are sealed on the bottom with spar varnish to show the wood.  There are many techniques to paint the decoys.  He uses oils more now than acrylics but uses both.  He likes the patina that a oil bird has after a few seasons of use on the water.

·        After all painting is done then the bird can have a keel of black walnut or a tear drop shaped lead weight and leather tab like many Conn. birds where he grew up.   He prefers the tear drop weight these days, the bird is lighter in weight and does not take as much room in decoy bags.  The bird is now ready to hunt over.