A new trick for an old dog

[Bob from Eames Custom Calls]

I started a couple of calls for a friend Friday night, and was pleasantly surprised to not make any major mistakes. As I hit the finishing end, I started thinking about which finish was right for the parts I had turned, I got to thinking that the only finish that made much sense on these was a CA.
 
 Now I'll be the first to admit that I'm not the CA guru, having screwed up way more than I had success with (even after watching KC's great video). So I pondered all night, and finally got a little sleep. The next morning I got up and realized that it was Turn-a-thon day (yet another one I missed....), so I got online and looked up KC's CA video again, figuring it couldn't hurt to brush up over a cup of coffee before I started.

 After watching the video for the third time, it dawned on me what my big mistake was. I had always worked my way through the grits like I was taught, starting at 320 and working up to 2000. The biggest problem I had always had with CA was sanding through, and screwing it up bad enough that I had to start over. I finally noticed on Aaron's video that he was starting at 1500 and working up through the grits to 2000.

 I ran out to the shop (which would have been a great youtube video because of the ice and snow...) and started working the finish in on the first barrel. I layed on the Medium CA and after 20 or so coats, I whipped out the wet/dry and started in with a chunk of 1500. In quite literally 20 minutes (from starting to lay on the CA to finished polishing) I had one of the most beautiful CA finishes I have ever seen. Thinking mabey the stars had aligned and I just got lucky, I started finishing the insert for the first call, and like clockwork, 20 minutes went by and another great finish came on. It took me less than 2 hours to finish both calls, and I'm in awe with how easy it was.

 So the moral of this story is simply this:

 If you think you have learned all you can from something, look again. There's always skills that we want to learn, and many of us don't pick things up the first time (even when there's a great video on the subject at your fingertips). We never stop the learning process, although sometimes we tend to think that we know enough to stop looking.

 Thanks to KC again for the best CA finishing video I've seen!

 Bob

[birddog1]

At 55yrs I rarely pick thing up the first time 2nd or 3rd

[Aaron at Wingerts Woodworks]

Bob that is awesome!  To be honest I'm pretty humbled to think that I was able to help you get even better in one aspect of callmaking.  Man I'm glad that you found it so easy after having a tough time with it in the past.  And a good moral to the story, because if any of us ever think we don't have anything to learn...That's a darn shame.  Yesterday I learned to make deer grunt calls...Hands on....From Paul (Aprilheadhunter), Truly Custom Calls) and Jon (Highlooker)....I felt like it was my first day on the lathe and that alone was a fun feeling, let alone ending up with a successful call that I owe entirely to those guys.

Sometimes starting at 1200 is good too, especially for a quick smoothing of the applied CA before really working it over with 1500 and 2000. 

[Bob from Eames Custom Calls]

Thanks Aaron, I'll look into getting a few different grits and working them in. I still can't believe that I spent all that time struggling while the info was right there!

 Thanks again Bud

 Bob

[bojiducker]

Yeah, I used to start wet sanding at 600, now I start at 1000 then 1500 and finish with 2000, then polish.  Saved a lot of time and frustration.
Still getting better with the finish all the time.  Just take some getting the hang of, with practice of course.