Here's a few more pictures of WildCalls I made way back when...
The Old World Olive call was built from a piece of air dried wood that was about 80 years old when picked up in Israel. The OW olive is the best quality there is, and is far superior to California and other olive woods in tonal resonance. It is very hard to get and very expensive in the highest grades. And the Cocobolo heartwood call is from a tree I helped a friend harvest and mill near Golfito, Costa Rica about 20 years ago. Shipped home about 6' of that log to cure and build calls from.
(http://wildcalls2k.com/1fnf/olicoco.jpg)
A couple of Spalted Maple Burl calls that came from an aerial burl on a lady friends ranch that was the size of a VW Beetle and weighed about 1800 pounds. I made several calls and other projects out of this wood, and some of them were very hard to finish as the wood was just shy of being too punky to build calls from. Had hard and soft spots in other words, and I made them before I had set up my wood stabilizer. So some of them also had to have the sound chambers lined so the wood would ring with good resonance. But they do make interesting calls.
(http://wildcalls2k.com/1fnf/spalt.jpg)
Ladobe
And you wonder why I have been trying to get my hands on one of them for what, four years? :wink:
Larry, they are all works of art....................and man the grains in those calls. :bowingsmilie: :bowingsmilie: :bowingsmilie:
Simply beautiful. Again and again and again - You are an amazing call maker -
AL
THO Game Calls
www.thogamecalls.com
WoW.....the more I learn about this stuff.....The more I realize I don't know ANYTHING about it.....
Joe
Thanks for posting more pics. I love looking at well balanced calls and then when you throw in the quality of wood that you have used it even gets better.
Thanks,
Jerry
Thanks gentlemen. Glad you like them, and I know coming from you guys its not just canned praise. Means a lot.
Joe hit on a very good point... the more knowledge you can gain the easier it will be for you to build calls you're not ashamed to put your name on. I still regularly add to my wood species data base that I have been building for 4 decades. Knowing everything there is to know about each species of wood itself helps a lot when you are developing new innovations, patterns and finishes for your calls. I also keep a journal of notes on patterns I've tried, what combinations and proportions look or work best IMO, formulas, construction details and shortcuts learned over decades of practice, MSDS's, etc, etc, etc. Writing it down helps me remember and gives me a quick reference as I get older and forget things.
Hey Larry, Ya once posted a pic of four calls I think that ya made for another web page to be auctioned or given away. It was, I think maybe 2 years ago on TPP. If ya have it can ya share that picture again. :biggrin:
Todd -
You are probably thinking of this one. Was for the appreciation fund auction for the two administrators of GGVG in 2004, and was the second one I donated to that end (2002 also). The auction on their board was ran by the funds moderator, and it brought $135 if I remember right. Per the winners request, I sent the call and marking pen to each of the admins in turn to sign the call, then finished it before shipping to the new owner.
(http://wildcalls2k.com/1fnf/ggvgaf04.jpg)
While looking for the above photo I ran across another one you might like seeing. This is a Red Lace Maple Root Burl call I made for my close friend Pete Hauer in MA, with a special sound chamber and reed tuned high for his red fox hunting. Built it longer than my normal calls to better fit his big hands. Pete has sent me lots of pictures of reds he has score with the call. I made him a second one as a gift out of the same wood but tuned high with a different voice to give him even more versatility. While he is a FoxPro Field Staffer, he never goes out hunting without his WildCalls.
(http://wildcalls2k.com/1fnf/foxy.jpg)
L.
Ladobe,
You realize that you are going to have to post pictures at least once a week or the those of us who are call junkies will not have our fix.
Jerry
Larry: the wood you've shown is just outta this world. I Thank God that He hid those calls in there & had a trusted craftsman such as you to unearth(?) 'em.
Beautiful, just beautiful! What more can I say? :shrug:
never in my life have i seen better maple burl. nice. just love those call's. Rick
WOW :bowingsmilie: ok I'll wipe the drool off now and go back ta work those are de finante works of art Larry :yoyo:
Larry,
I asked some time ago to see pictures of your calls and it was definitely worth the wait. You sir are a fine craftsman and Thanks for sharing the photos of your creations. I really appreciate it.
Yip, Larry. That first pic is the one I refered too and man did I miss that auction. :rolleye:
I think I recall that second picture too, and thats a beautiful call.................well is that an understatement! :confused: :congrats: :congrats:
I just never get over the woods ya spin your calls out of, or should I say the final call, you get out of those woods. :congrats: :congrats:
Petes last name sounds familiar for some reason, but I can't place it............and it wasn't the FP thing. :confused:
Thanks again gentlemen. Glad you like them.
But I hope everybody realizes that these calls are approaching the cream of the crop though. No matter how good you get at reading a particular species of wood, you just never know for sure until that last few thou is sanded off. I've made hundreds upon hundreds of calls that came from blanks that were simply awesome in the square, but when turned to pattern yielded calls much less spectacular, one or two sided, out of balance in color and figure, etc. Still probably acceptable calls for most folks, but not worth the extra investment in labor, materials and time to me to finish them. I have tossed a ton of them out unfinished over the years. When I buy an exhibition grade slab of wood I'm happy if 1/4 of it will actually yield nice calls. A call with a truly exceptional combination of balance may only come along once or twice out of every 1000 spun. Gives you an idea of the countless chucks of wood I've turned over the years.
Todd-
Pete goes by PH on the Internet... you ought to remember that.
L.