Built my first (and not last!) Reelfoot Metal Reed call today. With a lot of help from Benny, Ryan Roosa and some of the tutorials on this forum, I was able to build a very nice call.
This one runs very nicely. I ran my first metal reed back in the late 90's at Reelfoot. I was hooked. Made friends with a few of the makers that I met at the show each year and learned as much as I could about the construction of the calls and how to run them.
Much of my process looks like the process detailed in Benny's great tutorial. I used a Dremel to hand cut the tone channel on this call as I still need to make a good jig to hold my router. Reed is hand cut stainless. I don't figure on making enough calls yet to warrant a proper punch tool. I guess the rest of my process came from my years of making Arkansas style calls.
As for dimensions, the bore of this call is 11/16" which is the bore of an Arkansas style call I make so I can use the same custom mandrel. I think it also makes for a metal reed that blows somewhat in between an Arkansas style call and a 3/4" bore Reelfoot call. Some of my exhaust design is actually straight from my regular 5/8" bore Arkansas style call. Gambled that it would work and I nailed it.
My reamer is a chair style reamer that I made from persimmon (thanks Benny). I tested a few different grinds on the blade before I got that right.
Curly maple and African Blackwood. I'm really happy with it!