So a few months back, my new recurve I ordered from Black Widow arrived. It's a PSA in their "Greenleaf" color combination. Those colors just sort of "spoke to me" and it looked like a bow that belonged in the deer woods. Then I get this bright (or so I thought at the time) idea to make a new 2-piece deer grunt tube to mimic the color combinations in the Widow. To begin with, this call cost way too much in materials. The wood I went with was flame birch, mainly because it should take the green wood stain well and I thought it would turn well with this combination of materials. For the black and white striping I used G10 knife scale material. The larger red stripe I used a piece of acrylic in the color "chili pepper," which appeared solid red in the photos online. It ended up being more of a transparent red with some red swirls in it, not solid red, but close enough. I cut and labeled everything on a band saw then glued it up with clear Gorilla glue.
The G10 and acrylic were really smooth surfaces, so I lightly hit them with some 120 grit before gluing, hoping that would give me a better bond. I was (falsely) encouraged by my test chunk, which was solid and not drilled through. It turned relatively easily and the glue joints seemed to hold up well. However, when I was boring the holes for the call pieces, I noticed a slight glue separation on the longer barrel piece. The 1/2" bit was generating a lot of heat, and the glue began to fail. I re-glued and clamped the piece and hoped for the best. But, the first major failure happened soon while turning the upper end. I've always turned my solid wood calls between centers, but the pressure needed to keep the piece from spinning on the drive end coupled with the density of the materials led to blow up #1.
I re-glued, re-clamped, and rethought my process. I turned a chunk of scrap walnut into a piece I could insert into the drive end of the piece and glue in place, to be drilled back out after the call was finished. This allowed me to use a lot less pressure between centers and let me finish the upper end without more issues.
I did the same process with a chunk of scrap walnut turned to a plug for the 1/2" diameter bottom portion. However, in trying to get the piece initially rounded off, I had 3 additional glue failures on the bottom piece. To say progress was slow was an understatement. Each glue failure cost me a day to give the glue 24 hours to cure. On solid wood pieces, I almost never wear my face shield. I had to wear it the entire time with this call because of the threat of blow ups.
Finally, I was able to get the call finished on the lathe and carefully drill out the walnut plugs without more glue failures. I tested some stain options on my test piece several times, and the best color I could get was using a Minwax wipe on "emerald green" stain. The trick was, the stain would discolor the white stripes. What I ended up doing was using a small brush to apply the stain as best I could without getting it on the white G10. Then it had to be carefully wiped off. I got a little green on the white in one spot but it's fairly faint and hard to see at a glance. Three coats of stain got me a decent color.
All that work and trouble just to make a call that sounds exactly like all of the other grunt tubes I've made. I'll never tackle this sort of project again!
The G10 and acrylic were really smooth surfaces, so I lightly hit them with some 120 grit before gluing, hoping that would give me a better bond. I was (falsely) encouraged by my test chunk, which was solid and not drilled through. It turned relatively easily and the glue joints seemed to hold up well. However, when I was boring the holes for the call pieces, I noticed a slight glue separation on the longer barrel piece. The 1/2" bit was generating a lot of heat, and the glue began to fail. I re-glued and clamped the piece and hoped for the best. But, the first major failure happened soon while turning the upper end. I've always turned my solid wood calls between centers, but the pressure needed to keep the piece from spinning on the drive end coupled with the density of the materials led to blow up #1.
I re-glued, re-clamped, and rethought my process. I turned a chunk of scrap walnut into a piece I could insert into the drive end of the piece and glue in place, to be drilled back out after the call was finished. This allowed me to use a lot less pressure between centers and let me finish the upper end without more issues.
I did the same process with a chunk of scrap walnut turned to a plug for the 1/2" diameter bottom portion. However, in trying to get the piece initially rounded off, I had 3 additional glue failures on the bottom piece. To say progress was slow was an understatement. Each glue failure cost me a day to give the glue 24 hours to cure. On solid wood pieces, I almost never wear my face shield. I had to wear it the entire time with this call because of the threat of blow ups.
Finally, I was able to get the call finished on the lathe and carefully drill out the walnut plugs without more glue failures. I tested some stain options on my test piece several times, and the best color I could get was using a Minwax wipe on "emerald green" stain. The trick was, the stain would discolor the white stripes. What I ended up doing was using a small brush to apply the stain as best I could without getting it on the white G10. Then it had to be carefully wiped off. I got a little green on the white in one spot but it's fairly faint and hard to see at a glance. Three coats of stain got me a decent color.
All that work and trouble just to make a call that sounds exactly like all of the other grunt tubes I've made. I'll never tackle this sort of project again!
