I'm not super great at paint either so don't feel bad. In fact these are my first not black and white birds. I've finished coots, a couple bufflehead and a ringneck so this is definitely a learning experience in the paint department for me.
You can buy blanks from
www.theduckblind.com . I'm sure there are more places to find blanks. I'd recommend buying a blank unless you know someone who knows how to properly lay out the patterns and cut them out and have them show you how to do it properly than doing the trial by error thing (which is how I started, which produced some ....ummmm....interesting results).
I've not used a knife to carve much. And what i've used have been xacto knives (yeah yeah yeah they aren't great knives but when they were sharp they were very easy to use, though some of them weren't very sturdy). For the bodies I use a heavy duty rasp to shape it. It's slower but easier to get the body symetrical and looking like a duck body than a lopsided block of wood. Steve uses a Stanley Surform rasp that you can get at walmart or homedepot and probably lowes. I used for a long while a plain ole dremel for shaping the heads. I tend to keep to the sanding wheels, though I do have some of the more aggressive tools. I was digging through my dad's garage one day and found an old Craftsman Flex shaft Rotary Tool. I asked him where he got it and he didn't realize that he still had it, so it became my new carving tool. So I use a "cheap" flex shaft rotary tool for most of my head work.
Steve has a foredom and a bunch of tools that really eat away the wood and cork quickly (as well as legs, shorts, shirts, fingers and anything else that gets in its way). I've used it a little bit but I have smaller hands and the tool is pretty big so it's awkward for me. I'm sure there are smaller versions but until my current tool dies, I'm not going to upgrade.
If you have an aircompressor and tool that you can put different sanding drums/wheels on then that would work too. That's actually how I started. My dad has an aircompressor and I'd just use the various sanders for shaping everything. So there are lots of different ways to go about it...
I really suggest getting together with someone who actually knows how to carve and use their tools and see if it's something you're actually interested in pursuing or if after a block or two, you're done and happy and moving on to something else. In Jacksonville there is a carving club with world class carvers that were happy to share techniques, time and info on carving pretty much anything. I haven't looked yet to see if there is a club here in Tallahassee or not.
But, if you want to start and try by yourself a book that is a really really really good source and easy to follow is Making Decoys the Century Old Way by Grayson Chesser. Order a blank set from Willy at The Duck Blind and you can get started with as few tools as a rasp and an xcacto knife with a couple different shaped blades. If you're interested in the book, I think I might have a second copy of the book that you could borrow or buy. I can check on that if you're interested.
Danibeth
And to plant someone at work to meet micci_man too....devious guy that Barry is
