An Ugly Fix or Not

Eric Patterson

Eric Patterson

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Staff member
Last fall after I completed the giant hambone tribute batch of calls I had folks ask me to make them one. One of the things I set out to do was capture the look of the original hambone. I'd like to stick with that school of thought but it has posed a problem. Finding 4" thick turning stock of osage orange is proving impossible. Unless I cut it and dry it myself, which would take years to do, I can't source chunks needed to turn a solid call.

What I can do is laminate two or more pieces together to achieve the needed thickness. I think the only way to do this and make it presentable is to use thinner differing species of wood in between the osage to create sporty stripes. But this isn't anything like the way Amaden made hambones so it really turns them into a bad knock-off in my mind. Maybe I'm over thinking it.

Thoughts?

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Dave

That was one of my first thoughts but I'm really having a hard time getting excited about making them in anything other than what Amaden did. I just can't get motivated to turn pine, cherry, cedar, etc., calls. The one thing that I did think of was making my own micarta and turning them from it. I've been buying old worn out hunting clothes, the tan waxed cloth stuff like Duxbak, Drybak, Redhead, Sears, etc. , and thought about cutting it into strips and soaking with epoxy and pressing in a mold to make turning blanks. This sounds more interesting to me. A departure from the original but motivated by it none-the-less.
 
Eric Patterson said:
Dave

That was one of my first thoughts but I'm really having a hard time getting excited about making them in anything other than what Amaden did. I just can't get motivated to turn pine, cherry, cedar, etc., calls. The one thing that I did think of was making my own micarta and turning them from it. I've been buying old worn out hunting clothes, the tan waxed cloth stuff like Duxbak, Drybak, Redhead, Sears, etc. , and thought about cutting it into strips and soaking with epoxy and pressing in a mold to make turning blanks. This sounds more interesting to me. A departure from the original but motivated by it none-the-less.
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My dad did his own micarta when he was making knife handles. It looked messy as all get out but he sure made some cool handles. Good luck in this adventure. Ill be watching and ready to see some pics of you turning another giant.
 
William

To keep the mess down I'll make a wood box and place similar sized epoxy soaked strips in the box. When it is full I'll press a lid into the stack of curing strips with a hydraulic H press to flatten the crap out of the curing strips. After it cures I'll simply bandsaw away the wood box and be left with the turning blank. This process helps keep the mess contained.
 
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Eric Patterson said:
William

To keep the mess down I'll make a wood box and placed similar sized epoxy soaked strips in the box. When it is full I'll press a lid into the stack of curing strips with a hydraulic H press to flatten the crap out of the curing strips. After it cures I'll simply bandsaw away the wood box and be left with the turning blank. This process helps keep the mess contained.
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Youre probably much more equipt to do it the right way than my dad was. I dont think he thinks through all the way lol. he just goes for it. I remember when he sent me pics and I was thinking.... that looks like a damn mess that I wouldnt want to play around with. Then again, he sees my shop and all the dust and disarray. You would have a heart attack if you walked through my shop and saw my organized mess. As long as you get to the final product, I guess thats all that matters.
 
Eric Patterson said:
The one thing that I did think of was making my own micarta and turning them from it. I've been buying old worn out hunting clothes, the tan waxed cloth stuff like Duxbak, Drybak, Redhead, Sears, etc. , and thought about cutting it into strips and soaking with epoxy and pressing in a mold to make turning blanks
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What is your plan to eliminate the wax? Epoxy and wax seems like trouble. Maybe epoxy and the cremated remains of a favorite retriever?
RM
 
There is actually little wax left on these and some of the articles might not actually ever had any wax. But VMP Naphtha is good at removing wax and I intend to scrub the cloth with it.
 
HenryHawthorne said:
Yep, 4" gets tougher - what you really need to find is an old fence being removed and get a lifetime stock. I'll send out a few feelers and see if I get lucky.
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Thanks. It's even tougher than that because you want crack free and osage loves to crack when drying. I have enough osage to last several lifetimes of call making assuming standard sized calls. It's easy to get 2" blanks and work around cracks. 4" isn't so easy. I used up all the 4" stock I had on the first batch of giant calls.
 
Yes, it moves a LOT when drying, as I found out the hard way. You don't see a lot of hedge burl, so when an opportunity came up I bought a nice chunk, and anchor-sealed it and put it on a shelf to let it dry slowly. Looked up a couple months later and it was twisted and cracked beyond all recognition.

For whatever reason, I didn't trash it - and it stayed in my wood stash through a couple moves, and after 10 years or so had someone cast then stabilize it so I could try to salvage some of it. Actually turned out pretty well.

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I would make up one laminate blank with a black filler (glue line), thin black paper based micarta maybe and turn a barrel to see how I liked the combo. With all that 2-inch hedge I would find a way to use it. Instead of trying to hide the glue joint just flaunt it! That trick was taught to me by an old knifemaker.
 
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