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Quarantine calls

Creamer

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Once I get more materials, I may make one with the holes on the bottom all random just to see if @Jackalope gets twitchy. lol

It probably would make you uneasy to know that I don't template the holes, I'm eye-balling them.
 
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Jackalope

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I’m married, have been for a long time. Your critique reminds me of crap I hear from my wife. I like to hunt and fish. It’s because of her that I do it every chance I get. I’d bet 100 bucks you’ve become a hunter that has to wear matching camouflage, top, bottom and hat. 😁

HA.. I probably have the rattiest mismatched bargan cave camo collection of everyone. Well not you I bet.. :ROFLMAO: But visual symmetry of workmanship is something I have an obsession with.
20200430_135756.jpg20200430_135744.jpg20200430_135722.jpg

And shut up Dave. Yours are wrong.
 

Jamie

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And now you do. :LOL:

Believe me, I have thought long and hard about how possible it is for me to glue up a flared turning block to match my new bow. Not sure it's in my skill set.

if you have a bandsaw and some patience, you can do it. will be a fair amount of work for just one call, but once you have a pattern and jigs, you can reproduce it pretty easily. would be a very cool project. might be easier to just make an osage bow to match a call, though. ;)
 
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Creamer

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if you have a bandsaw and some patience, you can do it. will be a fair amount of work for just one call, but once you have a pattern and jigs, you can reproduce it pretty easily. would be a very cool project. might be easier to just make an osage bow, though. ;)

You might be right. No band saw.
 

Creamer

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I found an ebay seller who had a decent buy on white oak turning blanks. 10"x2"x2". A bit thick for what I need, but the deal was too good to pass up, so I'm wasting a little wood. I am waiting on more call bands before making a grunt tube from this stuff, but I had a spare open reed predator set of components, so I cranked this one out. Looks and sounds pretty good.

 

Creamer

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My bands arrived yesterday from DucksUSA. I ordered several, and the dude was nice enough to throw in a few extras for free in different colors.



This call (the bottom portion) fought me a little, but I got it done last night and put stain on it before calling it a night. I'll have it finished up in a day or two.





The call band on this one is "anodized brown aluminum." Should look good with the stained white oak.

 

Creamer

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I got a little (maybe a lot) more ornate on this call. Also white oak with my favorite "red chestnut" stain. I'm not sure on the green band (it's loose in the pic), but I kinda like it. This one is going to be a slightly different design, inhale/exhale dual reed but buck reed on both. A reed style I tried that is new to me sounds good but it's really loud, definitely higher volume. My plan is the loud reed on exhale, the softer reed on inhale. Use the louder exhale on a deer farther away or in windy conditions or the softer reed for closer deer or on calmer days.

 

Jamie

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nice score! Mulberry isn't good for much, but it should make some nice looking calls. the osage that's too small for you is still good fire wood. :)
 

Creamer

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Soooo...how much cash do I need to bring to Strouds for an Osage grunt?

Probably $0. I'll see what I can do if I can find any osage...

nice score! Mulberry isn't good for much, but it should make some nice looking calls. the osage that's too small for you is still good fire wood. :)

I culled some of the really small stuff. The mulberry has really cool looking grain, I just need it to dry out. Since I am kiln-less, I'm sure it will take longer than I want it to take.
 
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Jamie

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for drying your wood, I would urge you to reduce it to a slightly larger size than the blanks you need. remove all the bark and sapwood as soon as possible. Bark's job is to hold in moisture. having no bark or sapwood also allows moisture to escape on every square inch of your wood, greatly reducing checking, which could screw up your turning blanks pretty easily. once you have it reduced, let is sit indoors where the temperature is stable and not a ton of air moving for a few weeks. you can stick it in hot car or in the attic to speed up the drying process after that, once it has lost most of the moisture and is stable.
 
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Creamer

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for drying your wood, I would urge you to reduce it to a slightly larger size than the blanks you need. remove all the bark and sapwood as soon as possible. Bark's job is to hold in moisture. having no bark or sapwood also allows moisture to escape on every square inch of your wood, greatly reducing checking, which could screw up your turning blanks pretty easily. once you have it reduced, let is sit indoors where the temperature is stable and not a ton of air moving for a few weeks. you can stick it in hot car or in the attic to speed up the drying process after that, once it has lost most of the moisture and is stable.

I took two pieces of mulberry and followed your advice. Stripped the bark off on the lathe, left it as a larger blank size than I'd ever need, and stowed it in the attic. We'll see how she does.