Finished up a few over the weekend....

[david k.]

I was able to finish up a few calls over the weekend....3 walnut and 2 Mahogany. I have 3 cherry and 3 more Mahogany I'm going to try to get done this week. All these are slate over glass but I'm going to try again to do a couple with crystal surfaces...I had issues last year with crystal surfaces, some of them cracked on their own just sitting on my desk and / or the first time we tried to condition the surface...I'm going to try it again this year though...maybe I needed to use adhesive with a little more flexibility??

I got a little 'over zealous' with the glue on one of the walnut calls....I'll have to sand that off carefully....won't be an issue.

 

[ROVERBOY]

They look good. I'm ve not made any in a few years.

 

[ROVERBOY]

Have you ever done a glass surfaced pot call? I made one for a friend several years ago. It was purple heart with glass over acrylic. Sounded pretty good and loud too.

 

[TnKen]

Generally the cracks are caused by the wood drying and shrinking. I make sure I add a little more gap between the glass and wood, and have eliminated cracks.

 

[Split Brow]

Nice looking!

 

[david k.]

Have you ever done a glass surfaced pot call? I made one for a friend several years ago. It was purple heart with glass over acrylic. Sounded pretty good and loud too.

I have. I made 6 of them last year but a few of them had issues with the crystal cracking…one cracked while it was sitting on my desk, the others when we were trying to condition them. 3 are still in service and never cracked. Very well could've been just not enough space between wood and glass and expansion was the issue??

Cherry with crystal over cherry
Mahogany with crystal over purpleheart
Walnut with crystal over maple

 

[Layne]

Looks good David, nice job.
I sent you a PM.

 

[Hevishot 13]

Those glass calls look awesome. I really like the quality wood sound boards. How do they sound? I wouldn't mind hunting with one and giving you feed back. Some guys on gobbler nation do what they call "travel calls". The call maker sends the call to a hunter to hunt with for a week or so. That hunter provides feed back then mails the call to the next hunter, so on and so forth. May be an idea for you to gain feed back on your calls.

 

[david k.]

Those glass calls look awesome. I really like the quality wood sound boards. How do they sound? I wouldn't mind hunting with one and giving you feed back. Some guys on gobbler nation do what they call "travel calls". The call maker sends the call to a hunter to hunt with for a week or so. That hunter provides feed back then mails the call to the next hunter, so on and so forth. May be an idea for you to gain feed back on your calls.

Thank you! That's a great idea and I appreciate the offer but my son and I really just make these for fun. We aren't selling them, just making them to give away to friends, that way there are no hard feelings if they sound like crap!! Haha.

We each kept one of the crystal calls that cracked but gave away all the others which is the plan for all the slate / glass calls I'm finishing up as well.

We're certainly not experts but the crystal calls sounded pretty good to us....even the ones that cracked which was surprising! We actually shot 2 birds here in TN and then he killed one and called one in for a friend back home in MT using them last year.

My son is on the left....he loaned his buddy his shotgun and called in this beauty for him...this was his friends first ever turkey hunt....he's hooked and one of the calls is going to him!