Anyone made any duck calls lately?
- Thread starter FD Roe
- Start date
HenryHawthorne
Member
Beauties, as always!
The last four I made, along with some dog whistles I was playing with..
The first 2, a pair of ebony calls... Malaysian Blackwood and Black and White Ebony
The last 2 a pair of cedar calls, Alaskan Yellow Cedar burl and Pacific Red Cedar burl.
HenryHawthorne
Member
Thanks Fred! Glad to see yours, too! Was just thinking the other day that I miss seeing all the calls being made on THO.
That's some gorgeous work from both of you.
Henry, did you make the box? Tell me more.
My call making has been on hiatus for over a decade. My plans this year are to resume call making. In fact, the project on my bench this very moment is an XY table for my lathe that will allow me to follow a template pattern. I want more consistency in my call shapes than I get by freehand. I want to make a batch and them all be the same size/shape within a few mils. When I finish fabricating it I'll post some pictures.
Henry, did you make the box? Tell me more.
My call making has been on hiatus for over a decade. My plans this year are to resume call making. In fact, the project on my bench this very moment is an XY table for my lathe that will allow me to follow a template pattern. I want more consistency in my call shapes than I get by freehand. I want to make a batch and them all be the same size/shape within a few mils. When I finish fabricating it I'll post some pictures.
HenryHawthorne
Member
The box was a result of wanting to continue learning/doing more flatwork and needing a little box for the supplies I use for finishing calls - specifically fine tuning toneboards and metal reeds. It's a bit "fancy" for that purpose, but gave me an opportunity to take a nice chunk of cocobola I had and to go through the process of dimensioning it into sizes needed. It was a fun little project - the miters didn't end up perfect but I learned a lot along the way, and got the box I needed.
As to consistency in shape, do enough of them and you'll find it comes more and more naturally. I have a couple 2 or 3 shapes I like and they generally end up very close... though I like the ability to tweak and take what a particular piece of wood gives me.
The shape of the calls above are my interpretation of shapes Rip Fanning and Iverson used in their calls... I'm drawn to the simplicity, as I am to shapes of most old callmakers.
I tend to pick up any piece of wood and see if I can find a duck call in there somewhere. I was a member of the knifemakers guild for 23 years, so I am familiar with all kinds of materials that are not usually seen in duck calls and i bring some of those experiences to my calls. The micarta bands and colored spacers are from knifemaking. Just a little something different!
Fred
Fred