I'm going to start a thread where everyone can just post up random pictures of different hand call related things they have been doing lately.

It could be whatever. Calls you have made and shipped out, different materials or techniques you are trying, blanks you are cutting, acrylic you are casting, stabilizing wood, whatever. Mainly is it just going to be a picture thread for things you would like to show off, that you don't want to start a whole separate thread over. We all have things like that. So just throw any of that stuff in here.

You can do a quick drive-by, drop some pics, and roll on. Fast and easy. I always really enjoy seeing what other makers are up to. Lets see some pictures!

Here's a few I finished up yesterday. All stabilized spalted pecan, the open reed 5/8 board was dyed Aztec Gold during stabilizing.

My first attempt at an acrylic call. Cast it myself using Alumalite and Diamond mica powders, in a harbor freight paint pot converted to a pressure pot. Used the taper cutting attachment on the metal lathe to get some exact angles/perfectly straight cuts and turned it out. Then I sanded it out and polished it. Put a 1/2" open reed distress board in it and called it good. A friend of mine was there when I was mixing and pouring the acrylic and he helped pick the colors, so this one is his.

It sounds great! I think it turned out pretty dang good for a first stab at the whole acrylic process.

Next on the list is some wood/acrylic hybrids. I have a couple in process with some really neat colors. Excited to see how they turn out!

I like that geometric pattern.

Haven't been doing a whole lot. Picked up a duck call flat jig to toy with making a cork wedge style toneboard.
Thought I'd give making a duck call a try since the bird guys make it sound like black magic. Turns out making a call quack is a lot easier than making one howl so I have been playing with making a friend of mine a good call for his lanyard.
Turning tenons only to wreck em in experimentation was bugging me so I have been gluing in 5/8 delrin instead.
PXL_20230519_035208755.MP by brad harder, on Flickr
Anytime I over file a call the tonechannel is drilled out and the board is used to experiment making distress calls. Feel like I'm getting close to a truly custom closed reed wedge style call.

Lots of stabilizing. Testing
[img]https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/v68/bearmanric/IMG_0252.HEIC[/img]

Wow Rick that's nuts! The figure on that is incredible. What type of wood?

Box elder Burl purple haze

It is beautiful.

Wow. I have some box elder to stabilize but nothing that pretty! Il have to keep looking for some better wood to get figure like that.

Great to see the activity in the hand calls and custom calls forums. New call makers and some guys I’ve known for a little while. I’m finally getting some shop time in so I’ll be getting some calls turned out for the HOM donations.

A mini open reed distress with a great sounding little board in it, cast in violet and silver acrylic. One of my home cast "pill bottle" blanks. Looks like air bubbles in it from the picture but they are not, that is metallic flake reflecting the sun. Also have a few nice pieces of antler from a shed I picked up that are about to get stabilized for some projects I have in mind.

Plus a few more calls that have gone out here lately as I have been experimenting around with different things. For being the off season it sure seems like I am staying pretty busy!

Ooh, antler.

Got home from a Alaska Cruise just put two chambers of Aztec gold in the oven. Getting ready to melt elk calls. Still deciding joking was so Quiet here.

Here’s a little video to look at, a couple of my Crazy Pill calls in a color I call Purple Haze. I call them Crazy Pills because I cast the blanks myself in old pill bottles. Very efficient way to get the blanks I need without wasting a lot of acrylic.

https://rumble.com/v2w0xw2-crazy-pill-predator-calls-in-purple-haze.html