New to the call making scene

[William]

Hello my name is Allen and I am from Ethelsville, AL. I recently joined up here and have been browsing and searching for every little piece of info I can find and looking at all the tutorials online on call making.

I work as a lumber grader at a hardwood lumber mill and I started bringing home a lot of scrap poplar and playing around with it, I have made about 5 calls that did not make much of a sound at all or it just was not right, so with some more research I completed a call this afternoon that I finally got some sound out of.

I am going to insert some pictures and a video so hopefully I can get some of you guys to give me some feedback and advice.

This call is poplar with a cherry lid.
http://youtu.be/MPE1nsHKZWc



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[TRKYHTR]

That will kill turkeys. I would get you an electrician knife. It has a blunt end. You can use it to tune your box by scraping the insides of your rails and it makes it alot cleaner. I like how you made it all out of one piece of wood. Take some fine sandpaper to those rails a little and you'll probably make it sound even better. Congrats on your new hobby. Your doing great.

Joe

[William]

Hey, thanks Joe next time I am in town I will pick up a electrician knife and give it a shot. I am headed out to sand the call with some finer sandpaper and ill update later. Thanks again.

[William]

Hey Joe, after lightly sanding the rails with some finer sandpaper the call plays much smother.

[J Lacey]

I think you did a good job. I've built a lot of poplar boxes and they can be hit or miss. One thing that helped me was to print off several sheets I found on line that illustrated the recommended grain orientation both for lid blanks as well as body blanks. You may be interested in those. Another thing that helps me is that I have three box calls from three of the top makers and can compare to those. I even steal the lid off my SS box if Im having trouble. It will tell the tale every time. Keep after it.......and good luck


Jeff

Shag Hill Custom Box Calls   

[William]

Thanks Jeff, I did find some images on grain direction for the box and paddle. And how to check the box and paddle with a cotton ball to make sure they are going opposite from each other.

Here are the images are these what you are referring to?
http://woodbarter.com/threads/turkey-box-call-tutorial-how-i-make-a-box-call.11032/



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[TRKYHTR]

Hey Joe, after lightly sanding the rails with some finer sandpaper the call plays much smother.

Glad it worked out for you.

Joe

[J Lacey]

I hadn't seen that one but it's good info for you......

[William]

After playing around with the call some more this is how it sounds.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRzRd2ToUoQ