Some Christmas orders...
Cocobolo with one of Ron's band. Set this one up with a single reed and it is a screamer. The other is stabilized spalted yellow birch burl I got from reelseatblanks.com. The first insert I made for this call was made entirely of the stabilized burl. The birch was very soft stuff and even though it was stabilized the idea of a cork notch made from it scared me too much. It just looked like it was going to pop off any second. I lucked out and had just enough stabilized burl left to squeeze the visible part of an insert out of for a 2nd try, so the insert is sleeved with black acrylic and has an acrylic toneboard. The birch one is a double reed. Both have CA finishes and the recipeint's name is written on both. His mom is getting them for him for Christmas and she is so excited she can barely contain herself.
This one is osage of course. It had a pretty big knot in the barrel that I filled with CA before even trying to turn it. It was very solid on the edges, which was all that was left by the time I turned it round. As big as the knot is on the outside, there was only a pinhole of it on the inside of the barrel. The customer loved it....Said that piece of wood would be trash to a big name callmaker and that seeing the potential in a piece of wood like that really sets the custom callmakers apart. I think a lot of us can relate to using "throw away" wood!
I'm just glad to have my "gotta have it by Christmas" orders done in time. Deadlines stress me out, especially since I get so little time in the shop since becoming a dad. Still have several orders to get done, but nothing anybody's freaking out over.
