I tried this post in the call making section with little interest so I'm going try it here. I'm in the process of stockpiling wood for future call making endeavors. Right now I have access to Catalpa, Mulberry, Ash, Black Walnut, Hard Maple, Oak(red and white), Hackberry, and possibly some Basswood and Cedar. These are all trees I've identified on our property except the cedar. I will be running them through the sawmill during the next year in with the hopes of getting a good stash of wood ready for retirement when I plan to get into call making full force. Until then it will be small efforts here and there when time allows trying to get familiar with these woods and how to work them.
Mostly I'll be stacking and drying choice woods in the preparation for my call making scheme. I'm in the process of building a woodshed and it should be finished by this spring. The plan is to make good sounding calls with less emphasis on how pretty a call is and more emphasis on how pretty it sounds. Meat calls I guess would be the proper terminology.
It should be quite the experience as everything involved in the process will have my fingerprints on it. The wood will be cut, milled, and dried by my hands in a woodshed milled and built by me and the calls will be fashioned in a future woodshop also milled and built by me.
The question I have for all of you is which are your favorite domestic woods for box and pot calls or combinations thereof. I'll be doing most of my work with wood that grows in the north central US.
Walnut and cedar I know work well with both styles of calls you mentioned as well as others. Can make turkey killing tools very easily. I know people have used others like maple and hackberry and hopefully they'll chime in. I have not and can't speak to them.
Sounds like you have a great plan, few more woods I like cherry, butternut, persimmon and Mahogany
Domestic pot call woods:
Walnut
Cherry
Hard maple
Walnut
Walnut
Domestic box call paddle woods:
Walnut
Cherry
Hard maple
Hop hornbeam
Persimmon
Walnut
Walnut
Domestic box call body woods:
Butternut
Poplar
Eastern Red Cedar
Sassafras
Hard maple
Cherry
Walnut
I will add snakewood and apple make one fine call... especially in a hen box
Tulipwood, persimmon, Walnut and cedar would be the favorite of what I have for pot calls so far.
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Petty sure , you are not going to find a snakewood tree in north central USA,,,,,,,,,,just saying
Walnut seems to be a popular choice so far. Looks like it might be moving up the priority list.
I would also say walnut
I love calls made from these great classic American woods:
Poplar
Walnut
Butternut
Red cedar
Maple
Osage
Cherry
Hackberry makes a nice pot call.
Very sorry, missed the word domestic the first time I read it, my apologies.
Paul, good luck with your adventure into call-making in your retirement. It will be interesting to see how it goes for you.
Prefacing these remarks by stating that I know absolutely nothing about friction call construction, my first thought is that each wood species, depending on its hardness, density, and grain, would require different construction specifications to achieve the desired sound. Assuming that premise is correct, I suspect that you can spend many a retirement hour sorting all of that out with all of the wood types you plan on experimenting with. ;D :icon_thumright:
Cedar walnut butternut hophorn persimmon popular
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I can only speak intelligently about pot calls at the moment, my boxes are in the R&D stage,lol. Walnut, cherry, poplar, cedar, osage orange, sassafras. I make pots out of all these domestic woods. Z
I do not make box calls any longer, but when I did, I had favorites. For paddles, hard to beat walnut. For a box, several domestics worked well including cedar and poplar. My favorite combo has always been a zebrawood paddle and Alaskan yellow cedar box.
For pots, again, hard to beat walnut. I really enjoy a pot made of pecan
Walnut and cedar are the two I like most.
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