Hunched over a piece of wood, Hank Sprouse whittles away in his basement workshop in Stratford, Connecticut. What looks like a simple carving now, will eventually become a realistic-looking cedar ...

The average songbird has anywhere from 2,000 to 4,000 feathers. A swan can have up to 25,000. But if Bill Rice had to think about that, he'd hang up his band saw, rasp and hook knife and go back to ...