I make custom turkey calls, and here's one I just finished that I'm proud of. It is from a chunk of curly claro walnut that I bought green a couple months ago and DNA soaked (my first DNA attempt was a batch of claro call blanks and it worked great). I wish I had a thousand pieces of claro walnut, because I think I could sell every last one...I currently have a waiting list for claro walnut calls.
The call was sanded to 2000 grit and finished with two coats of waterlox. The 2nd coat was buffed out with 0000 steel wool after drying to knock down the gloss and give the hand-rubbed oil look like a nice gun stock. I then rubbed on a coat of paste wax.
It is a slate call with a glass soundboard. For those that don't know, you're looking at the bottom of the call. The striker is held sort of like a pencil and rubbed on the slate top surface to make turkey sounds. A non-hunter friend of mine was in the shop the other night and was blowing as hard as he could into the holes thinking that's how to use it. I of course let him try that for a minute before letting him off the hook.
This one's not getting sold. It is getting entered into a big callmaking competition as a "working" (non-decorative) call. It sounds awesome and they do judge them on craftsmanship as well, so I hope it does well.
Critiques welcome!
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glad I'm not a turkey
Originally Posted by Aaron Wingert
