Inlayed Curly Maple

[HuntnCarve]

A friend gave me a stick of Curly Maple 2-1/4" x 3-1/4" x 5 foot long the other day.  So I figured I would try and turn a couple calls out of it as a test.  I did these two, and a couple of predator calls. Then tried my hand at inlaying some silver solder bands.  Turned out pretty well.  The Maple has some beautiful figure all the way around.  Thanks for looking!

HuntnCarve
Dave

[David @ Mad Duck Game Calls]

They're both beauty's!

[Wane]

  Nice calls, I like Curly Maple.

[James Strickland]

Dang, man... that makes me want to try the inlay solder thing again.  Very nice.  Love that curly maple.

[Lon @ First Flight Game Calls]

Good lookers! Didja do anything special to keep the sanded solder off the white of the maple?

   Lon

[HuntnCarve]

Lon,

The solder dust on the Maple will cause it to "grey" up I found.  I tried to vacuum the dust off immediately during sanding.  I also found the black Wet/Dry sand paper seemed to contribute to the problem, particularly in the finer grits.  So I steered away from using that paper.  Next I tried keeping the area of the sand paper confined to just the soldered part. - Meaning I did not draw the sand paper across the entire call, which would spread the fine solder particles.  I finally wiped it down with mineral spirits and a followed up with a dry paper towel.  Once the black stopped wiping off, I called it ready for finish.  I used "Tru Oil" on these and it seemed to work real well.

HuntnCarve
Dave