dang carbon

[Rick Howard]

I have been after making a carbon striker.... I found some 7.5mm carbon fiber rod and have been working myeslf silly trying to get this stuff to run...  I have tried shaping the tip 20 different ways.... hole in the tip... no hole in the tip.  Different lengths. blah blah blah.  I have been through the gambit.  All I get is screeeeeetch (sometimes with a little rasp) and then it quits running and I have to condition the surface again. 

Arrow shafts I hate...  The skinny little carbon shaft and or tipped I hate.  but they all run.  Screetchy but they keep running.

Anyone else have this issue? I assume there is different types of carbon... Maybe I got the wrong stuff? 

The rod is solid 7.5mm.  I am using the plastic topper from brookeside.  It is my desire to make a call that will run well in damp conditions.  I have the pot running nice.  I just cant get the striker part figured out.   

[VECtor Calls]

Need a heavy head. Not gonna get it with that plastic head. If you are serious about findig a waterproof combo, I would suggest acrylic, but its not going to be cheap or easy.

If they would ever get going on the dymalux, it may be a good 'waterproof' head.  Dymondwood worked great for it.

[Rick Howard]

I added weight to the head but I will try again.  The reason for the plastic topper was not cost or even for ease of use.  It was to eliminated wood.  I want to be able to play thing thing in the bathtub :)

This may sound crazy but I think the carbon is wearing fast and the dust fills the condintiong making the surface slick and unplayable.  Maybe the reverse and the carbon is so hard that it's wearing the conditioning right off the glass.

 are you talking about the clear Acrylic Rod?  I have a bunch of that.  I have not used much as my first attempts with it sounded mushy.  I will have to revisit. 

I have some aluminum Rod that I have been messing with also. 

I've been working on some corian tipped stuff too. 

[Rick Howard]

Just dawned on me... you meant acrylic for the topper. 

[VECtor Calls]

I didn't realize you were trying to play on glass. I missed that part.

I would suggest a ceramic calling surface.

When you play carbon on ceramic, you will know where you are playing, because it leaves black 'scratches', most of which will come off with an alcohol pad wipe down.

I always feel like a glass surface is a fight I don't want to mess with.

[Rick Howard]

Thank you!

 a customer stopped by today.  He picked up the pot and the aluminum striker and liked it.. So.... I started messing with it a bit more and.... I like the aluminum better.  He liked it so much... He brought that pot and that striker home with him too lol.  I swirled the striker in a bucket of water and put a few drops on the surface too and it worked nicely.  I ditched the plastic toppers and made my own though.  Even adding weight to those plastic pop tops was not really working out. 

 I will wait for the ceramic to work on carbon again though. 

[VECtor Calls]

Good stuff. Not always about what sounds good to our ears, huh. :)

[Rick Howard]

Yes sir.  Exactly why I make a sound file for each call that goes over the interwebs.  Prefer to have the fella at my shop though so they can play it first hand.  I can walk 20 feet away and play it for them.  I pull. Out the iPad and record them playing it 20 feet away and let them hear it. 

[VECtor Calls]

I personally think turkey call sound files are horrible, and don't do calls justice as all. Gotta have great recording equipment and great replay equipment to get the true sound out.

[Rick Howard]

I operate under the theory that something is better than nothing.  A fella that lives 1000  miles away does not have the opportunity to hear the caller in person prior to purchase.  So if he gets to hear something he gets a piece of mind that the call does what you claim.

 I have done pretty good recordings with my ipad.  If I do not stand close the ipad it does not distort the micraphone and the recording has some clarity.

I agree that recording is not what it is cracked up to be though.  This is not news to you but,  A call sounds different in front of your face than it does 20 feet away.  Also, it sounds different when someone else runs it as everyone is a little different.  It would take much longer than 1.5 minutes to get through playing a turkey call like you would in the woods also.  But I cram a few sounds into a short period of time so that a person has that piece of mind.

In all I do think it give some accuracy.  A fella has some idea of how the caller sounds via the recording.  Maybe not an exact knowledge but a better idea than if he hears nothing.     

[VECtor Calls]

BMeuchel has been sharing some audio files with me as he is trying to find his way to hus purrfect pot. He had six callers made up the other night, and it only sounded like two. He said he could very well tell the difference in each one, but by the time it was recorded and I was listening to it on my end, apparently our recording/listening devices were flattening everything out. We had some great plans, but it ended up with a conclusion of......'sounds like a turkey'.

[Rick Howard]

Exactly.  I think generalization is all you can get.

 I can hear the call roll over. I can hear the pitch and rasp but only to small degrees.   I think that is all a fella is looking for before they purchase a call.  They want some assurance that the call is not a dud.  They know it may be a little different when they get it though.

Here is something that we have not chatted about...  Feel and sound are very related.  If you cant feel it... you wont hear it the same.  Likewise.  If you cant hear it than it wont feel the same.  That may sound crazy but I can assure you it is a real thing. 

[VECtor Calls]

Here is something that we have not chatted about...  Feel and sound are very related.  If you cant feel it... you wont hear it the same.  Likewise.  If you cant hear it than it wont feel the same.  That may sound crazy but I can assure you it is a real thing. 

Our ear drums are the most sensitive feeling mechanism in our bodies. They feel vibrations in the air. When a sound is extemely loud, our bodies can feel it in the air too. When part of the sound is projected on to our skin (in our fingers and hands, catching some of the waves out of the call), we can feel it then to.  This change in sound is noted when our hands are holding the pot (and striker) more and less. The more we hold it, the more the sound is deadened, because more of the vibrations are going into our body rather than into the air.

;)

[Rick Howard]

Indeed.

Our perception of feel is altered by sound.  I know this because, it was tested by golf club manufactures.  The sound of a solid hit made players feel as though they hit solid shots when I fact they missed the center of gravity by a lot.  The converese was true also.  Shots hit on the center of gravity that sounded off center were perceived as bad feeling clubs. 

Where it gets really tricky is... How do we know what solid feels like if we can't hear it? 

Anyway... I agree that a recording of a call is limited for many reasons.  I still like to do it though as it reassures a customer they are getting what they are paying for.  I think most are aware that the recording is limited also but they get some sense of the call.