A gentleman asked me to make him a wood howler -
Now every call maker worth his wood chips knows that a wood howler is nothing more than an open reed call body on steroids with a howler tone board in it. Nothing special in that. And for that fact, it just would not do for this project. I had to come up with something else.
After much thought and a couple of beers, I had a brainstorm. Or Fart you decide.
I grabbed a 2 x 2 x 4 inch block of maple, drilled it a bit off center and then sat down with the Foredom and a couple of Kutzall Bits. I figured what was the worst that could happen?
When the big old Kutzal jumped off the end of the blank and hit my finger, that was bad,
But it wasn't the worst that could happen. When it jumped off the second time, and got the same finger again, I figured I was getting close though.
When it jumped off the third time, I was READY! Got that finger out of the way quick and thought to myself "ha - missed me sucker" to which the Foredom and Kutzal of Death just snickered as it made a bee line right for the fleece pull over I was wearing. It proceeded to wrap it self up in the fleece at 18000 rpm and then jump up and smack me in the head and break the shaft of the Foredom.
A cup of coffee, a few bad words and a visit to the Foredom web site to order a couple more shafts and I was ready to try again. This time with the Dremmel and a Smaller Kutzal of Death bit. I got a band aide for the finger too. And a couple spares just in case :iroll:
A day later, I had something that I thought held some promise.
It's 5 3/4" long with the tone board. I figure I will shorten it up about 3/4 of an inch on the next one.
I think it holds some promies and if he likes the style I will dig up some nice wood this weekend and get started on it. If not, back to the drawing board.
AL @ THO
