what would be the best striker for a copper pot call? i prefer a straight tip if possible.
I don't want to confuse the issue, but with that said, I've found quite a bit of variation in copper surfaces which results in what works on one call may not work on another. As a general rule, I carry both soft and hard woods for working copper. I like walnut, red cedar, mulberry and cherry as soft woods and Brazilian cherry, osage orange, yellowheart, chinaberry, hickory, purpleheart, paduk, black locust, maple, persimmon, pink ivory, bocote, bubinga, verawood, Brazilian walnut, mtn. laurel, boxwood, rosewood, black & white ebony, ironwood, marblewood as a hard wood striker. The important thing about copper is to keep all skin oils off the call, condition it frequently, and wipe it w/ a soft cotton cloth. Because it's a soft
call surface,relative to other surfaces, you need to condition your striker more frequently for it to run properly.
Brazilian Cherry !!!! OOOOH OOOOH I don't go into the woods w/o a Brazilian Cherry striker.
My copper calls like a cedar striker. Use light pressure and allow the striker to do the work instead of trying to force it to do the work. (Hope that makes sense) I know on my first few copper calls I conditioned them with coarse sandpaper, as I wasn't getting the sound I wanted. I was trying to MAKE them work rather than allow them to work. I use from a green scotchbrite to 320 grit paper now and get much better results. I also like canarywood on copper.