Some duck calls

[jjjaworski]

A few of the dozen duck calls I made this weekend for a friend. Seven were out of acrylic and the rest out of wood scraps I had kicking around. Just a friction finish on the woood stuff.

I had one reed section as a sample that I used for the photos.

Cocobolo, mesquite and acrylics.

 

[William Menard]

i just posted one of alligator jawbone i made a day ago, yours are really cool, especially the amber colored one.

 

[jimm1]

Beautiful stuff right here.

 

[jjjaworski]

i just posted one of alligator jawbone i made a day ago, yours are really cool, especially the amber colored one.

I saw the one you made from alligator jawbone. I have yet to use one of those type of blanks on a pen or other project. I bet drilling the hole was a lot of fun. It turned out nice and I do like the effect the jawbone gives to projects.

 

[William Menard]

@jj, drilling was a piece of cake, its the turning that actually is a challenge. Until the blank is rounded it is really hard and you get chip outs, I have started cutting the corners off the blanks and use my belt sander to round off the edges before I start turning.

 

[steamshovel]

Those are very nice calls. My son in law and grandson want me to make them a duck call. They may be talking to the wrong guy. Is there any place you can buy the components to make a duck call with lots of instructions. Now if I can make one almost as nice as those you made I would be a hero.

Preston

 

[jjjaworski]

Preston,

You can find lots of turning info on-line if you do a google search of making duck calls.

I found some profile shapes on the Craft USA website. That helps.

They can be turned between some shop made cones or on a shop made pinchuck. The tooling isn't that difficult to make. Lots of ideas for that on-line as well.

The reed sections can be purchased which saves the work of making them yourself.

I ground a piece of drill rod at an angle to make the cove cutting tool for the lanyard.

Jim

 

[southernclay]

I use a 5/8" pin chuck I got from Rick Herrell

Drill material with 5/8" drill, mount on pin chuck and shape it, having a notch for the lanyard is a great tip and I looked at a call I have for the shape.

For reed's I use the single reed from here and it sounds good

Duck Call Parts - Parts for building your own Duck Call


I've made a few, fun project and nice to break up the pen making cycle



BTW, Jim, nice calls! You had some good shop time to knock out a dozen!

 

[jjjaworski]

Warren,

I made some steel pin chucks at work. Rick Herrell is certainly the go to guy for custom items like that. His work looks very well done and solid.

The wood ones were so much easier than the acrylic ones. Since I am just making the bodies for someone else I can't contribute much as to reeds and reed holders. I just know the stuff is out there and doing some research or asking questions in forums like this will save a lot of headaches.

They are a nice change from pens and so much easier. Not a lot of measuring with making them.

Jim

 

[southernclay]

I haven't done any acrylic other than pens yet but I could see it being more challenging, costly too.

Pretty wood is hard to beat, I could stare at the cocobolo call for a while. What friction finish did you use?

 

[jjjaworski]

Warren,

I used the shellawax products for a finish. I used the EEE first to improve the finish and then the shellawax friction finish. It is a no brainer and pops the wood color.

I agree with you on the cocobolo. It is a great wood for calls because of it being naturally oily. I got a lot of it here at a great price sometime back from an IAP member cleaning his shop.

JIm

 

[jzerger]

Echo calls sells the innards in one piece if you don't want to make your own reeds.