Checkered hippo ivory open reed

BigB · July 22, 2011, 05:53:57 PM

Brad Gainey and I have been discussing a few things lately about hippo ivory. And that got me going to make this call. I've been working on this call on and off for a while this spring and summer, and the new owner has been patient with me as I tinker along with it. Hippo ivory barrel, aluminum band, and hippo ivory toneboard. The ivory on this call sure has been fighting me the whole time, or maybe I am just a little rusty from not having made a call in a while.

The barrel has treated me pretty good, but it took me 3 attempts on the toneboard before getting one to come out how I wanted.

The first toneboard slid out of my hand, fell to the concrete floor, and busted apart. The second toneboard wanted to fight my router table when I went to cut the air channel, and it ended up with a crooked tone channel. And the third toneboard turned out perfect. I was really relieved to get it finished.

Raw Ivory - I didn't know that hippo teeth could get this big!

Checkering in process:

Toneboard in the making:

Regarding the checkering, I didn't fully checker it and bring up the diamonds to a point on top. I left it old school with the checkering pattern, only because this type of ivory is dang hard and it ate up the checkering cutters with just this little amount of checkering. The checkering is done at 18 lines per inch with a border spacer for an added touch. I probably won't checker another hippo ivory call, after seeing what was involved with working on this one. I had about 8 hours of checkering into this one. A normal wood call with pointy diamonds on the checkering takes me about 6-7 hours to checker.

Thanks for checking it out.

Brian

coyote101 · July 22, 2011, 06:24:25 PM

Beautiful work Brian. I'm sure the new owner will be very proud.

Pat

slagmaker · July 22, 2011, 07:11:55 PM

Now that is a nice looking call!!

Mallardsr · July 22, 2011, 08:41:18 PM

alright Brad, I am waiting!

FinsnFur · July 22, 2011, 10:02:24 PM

That is one beautiful piece Brian.

Yotehntr · July 22, 2011, 11:10:19 PM

WOW!!! Brian that is some over the top craftsmanship. Beautiful call in every respect!

I wish I could say I've never damaged an Ivory toneboard too... I think I have a bag of 5 or 6 that I've ruined... not willing to do a count (hurts to much) lol

Not sure what you're talking about Reggie?

iahntr · July 23, 2011, 07:49:54 AM

Classy !
Very nice call

Lonehowl · July 23, 2011, 09:48:15 AM

Beautiful Brian!!!!!
Mark

FOsteology · July 23, 2011, 01:13:06 PM

That turned out quite nice!

Todd Rahm · July 23, 2011, 04:06:24 PM

Man, I'll never pry that out of Brads hands!

(Todd has plan a home invasion.)

Brian, that's a class of it's own a
A-1 Beauty!!!!!!!

Can I get on that list?

On, a side. Did you take that pic with the lights out and a black felt back ground?

BigB · July 23, 2011, 05:08:54 PM

Thanks everyone for the nice comments. Todd, I always struggle taking pics of lighter colored calls with my normal white background. The lighter colored calls just blend into the white background, so I knew I needed something different for this call so that it would show up. I picked up a small sheet of black felt for about a dollar and it worked out great. The normal lights were on in my light tent so that my white balance setting didn't need to be changed for that color of light.

Brian

Todd Rahm · July 23, 2011, 05:50:22 PM

Pics look awesome.

Frogman · July 23, 2011, 07:58:04 PM

WOW!! That's a great looking call!!

Jim

Hawks Feather · July 23, 2011, 09:22:17 PM

That is one fine looking call.

Jerry

shaddragger · July 23, 2011, 11:00:15 PM

Good lookin stuff right there!