This is from the guy I purchased them from.
I also visited with Mr. Zirkle a number of times, Great visits and a visit to his log cabin in the back yard was nice also. He moved it there from somewhere out in the country and rebuilt it there put in period things and a number of old guns and showed it to anyone that ask, then someone broke in and stole a lot of items especially the guns and left just a couple or three. The Cabin was on display during the Centennial celebration that Parkin had that year.
The big pin oak in the back yard came from an acorn that he planted from his favorite deck hunting spot.
He went on to say how he got started making calls. In the 30's no money and he found a call laying in the street without a reed, he looked at the call and figured he could make one, Don't remember what he did to make enough to go to Sears and buy a lathe but he did, and found some metal shim stock in a hardware store there in Parkin and started making calls. He turned all the barrels on a wood mandrel between centers and the inserts the same way. He then sawed the back for the wedge used a drawing knife to cut the board flat hand drilled the channel hole, whittled a wedge for the tone board, tapered the barrel some to get a tight fit. The shim stock was wide enough he could split it and make 2 reeds. He told me that this was the shim stock he originally bought and had been using on for all those years. He did give me a short piece of it and I think I still have it.
He made 3 different barrels, one plain, one that he outlined as a checker pattern but no checkering and another laminated with a number of different colored pieces. He always stamped his name and date on the barrels.
Hope you find these little tidbits interesting, from a part of duck call making.
