New for 2007! The Shamanic Signature Series Custom ScratchBoxes!

Now don’t all go crowding each other. Somebody’s gonna get hurt. Yes, here they are, the bestest turkey calls the shaman’s has ever made.

Actually they’re the first ones. See, I lost my glass call a few years ago. I wanted a new glass and an aluminum. I checked the prices and . . . Whew! Angus’ bagpipes had set me back quite a bit, so I figured the time for innovation was at hand. It turns out a company by the name of Shipley’s of Cadiz, Kentucky makes the parts for making your own calls. I ordered a bunch of stuff from their website and the order arrived promptly. I had all the fixings for 3 scratch boxes:

Left to right across the bottom: Aluminum, Slate-on-Glass, and Glass

I turned the glass one over so you could see the sound holes.

I also ordered enough material for three strikers: ash, hickory, and purpleheart. I already had nice lucite and carbon strikers, but they have them as well.

The whole thing set me back under $50 with shipping. I spent an evening sanding, a couple mornings before work varnishing, and a little time before dinner gluing, and I was done.

For the surfaces, I started out with 200 grit sandpaper, and then finished off with a little diamond abrasive pad they for $2.25. I’ll probably use a scrap of wood, now that I’m done, to permanently mount the pad. It’s supposed to last a lifetime, and it did an excellent job of fine-tuning all three surfaces.

The sound? Best I’ve ever heard. Also, by cupping my hand over the back, I can vary the tone and volume, so these calls are quite versatile.

Because I’m a bit of a duffer at this, and I did not want to spend a lot of time and money on them, I opted for the cheapest materials they had, including poplar pots. The poplar did not take a stain very well, so I did everything in one of those quick dry varnish/stain concoctions. If I had been interested in a quality showcase piece I could have gone for walnut or something more exotic, and then done a hand rubbed finish on them. As they are, I think the turkeys won’t mind the shortcuts. Shortcuts? The strikers were done in a pencil sharpener. Does that qualify as a shortcut?

 Shipley’s recommends Liquid Nails for an adhesive. I used carpenters glue for the wood-to-wood joining and quick-set epoxy, gluing the surfaces to the pots– just because I had some left over from another project, and I’d lost the cap.

Shipleys has kits and materials for box calls, duck calls, deer calls. This is kind of the Heathkit of turkey calls. The parts require minimal finishing and a minimal knowledge of woodworking.