making a custom call

[GonHuntin]

Bobcat mentioned to me that some may have the impression that these calls were all made in one day......after re-reading some of my posts, I can see how that may have happened......so, I just want to clarify.....the six calls pictured above were all turned in one day......that doesn't include the time it takes to do all the other operations necessary to produce a finished call!

I didn't mention the time it takes to select the wood (I drive 3 hours, one way, to buy the wood I use), cut it into blanks (cut for best figure and smallest waste in each), drill the initial hole (and TRY to get it straight )....then I get to have fun turning the wood and hope I don't make a mistake .....next comes sanding and sanding and sanding.....then it goes back on the drill press for the final internal operations and HOPE & PRAY I don't break it! (this step is the most critical and takes the most time) Nothing like ruining an almost finished call! Somewhere in there the finish is applied....Then comes the installation of the sleeve.....tuning and installing the reed (may be in and out of the call a dozen or more times) and presto, a finished call.....provided I didn't make splinters out of it along the way! Now you know why I don't have much hair left and why I don't make many calls! It is something I have to want to do.....if I try to force it, everything goes to....well, you know..... that is also the reason I don't make calls to spec......been there, done that.....and it isn't fun!

[Krustyklimber]

GH,

I am sorry I didn't mean to diminish the amount of work that goes into a fine custom call.

And the fact that there is slight variances to your calls (read: a soul) I can see your guided by the artst inside, not a robot.
That alone is worth a lot to me, that is where I believe a custom call gets it's special magic from... energy, even creative energy, cannot be destroyed, it can only change forms.

I too understand the lengths we can go to to select the wood, much of the wood I use, I cut from the tree myself.
It's obvious to me you have much better taste in woods then I do, lol.

I also understand "inspiration"... it can be extremely frustrating work, and you do have to want it, bad.

I have a lot more control over blowouts, with the tooling moving and the call holding still, but I do know how upsetting it is to lose a call after so much of you has been poured into it... making the toneboard it the last step for me, and the hardest, most critical part of making open reed calls. It is crushing to blow it.

And the amount of "frinkling" a closed reed can take, so that it doesn't sound like a cheap party horn is staggering.
My hat is off to you guys, that can do it without making them unreliable, getting the "buzz rattle", or the squeaky start... I have thrown away more JC reeds then I like to think about.

Again I am sorry if I made it look like you weren't putting an amount of time, skill, and effort into making a call worth every penny you might get for them... if those were waterfowl calls you'd be getting in excess of $100 each, and couldn't make em fast enough.

Krusty

[GonHuntin]

Krusty

No problem, my post certainly wasn't directed at you!

In some ways, I would love to be making waterfowl calls, that is where the money is! Folks, he isn't stretching the truth one bit, a custom duck call will fetch $100 in a New York minute! Problem is, I don't have any interest in duck calls.....if it doesn't interest me..... well.....it isn't something I'm going to spend time doing.....I'd rather be hunting!

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy seeing ducks and geese pitch into a well set spread of decoys.....and I've killed my share......but I'd rather out-smart one old mangy coyote, than a hundred ducks and geese!

I have made lots of different designs of predator calls over the years and each one I make is different.......I guess the basic shape of my calls has evolved because it produces the best sound for me, I like the way it fits the hand and it just looks "right" to me....hard to explain it any other way!