One of the custom call guys I follow on the socials, Dave Nebraska (from here in Ohio), does a lot of textures on his calls. I've been wanting to try it, but 1) I wasn't really wanting to shell out the coin for a detailer like the Henry Taylor Decorating Elf, and 2) even if I did, it's out of stock online in the places I checked. I did, however, find a YouTube video on a DIY version that seemed easy enough to make. This cost me almost a hair over $20 in parts (enough parts to make at least three of these things) and very little time to put together.
Materials for this were:
-Wood blank (leftover chunk of laminate I've had for a few years)
-one rare earth magnet (from another project, they are about $.10/each)
-2 1/8" bearings (10 pack on Amazon for $9)
-Pack of wood carving bits from Amazon ($13/10 bits)
-Chunk of an aluminum rod I had in scrap
Pretty self-explanatory. I drilled the end of the blank, glued in a magnet and attached one bearing to that magnet. The other bearing I epoxied in at the end of the tool. The aluminum rod piece I inserted just beneath the bearing/magnet hole to be what contacts the tool rest on the lathe. I may make another of these, and if I do, I picked up a short piece of 1/2" copper at Menards last night for a whopping $.39 that I can use to encase the entire tip end of the tool, which makes more sense. I also may put two bearings in the bottom of the next one, just to add a little more support for the bottom of the bit.
I'm just scratching the surface of which bits work best and which angles give the results I'm looking for. I grabbed an old call piece that I had screwed up and wasn't using that I was able to practice on a bit. Some results on the test/scrap piece here:
This is the first actual call I have tried using the texturing tool. It's pretty simple, but I like that it gives a little extra grip to the call bell and a little eye candy. This is a 4" cherry coyote howler.
Materials for this were:
-Wood blank (leftover chunk of laminate I've had for a few years)
-one rare earth magnet (from another project, they are about $.10/each)
-2 1/8" bearings (10 pack on Amazon for $9)
-Pack of wood carving bits from Amazon ($13/10 bits)
-Chunk of an aluminum rod I had in scrap
Pretty self-explanatory. I drilled the end of the blank, glued in a magnet and attached one bearing to that magnet. The other bearing I epoxied in at the end of the tool. The aluminum rod piece I inserted just beneath the bearing/magnet hole to be what contacts the tool rest on the lathe. I may make another of these, and if I do, I picked up a short piece of 1/2" copper at Menards last night for a whopping $.39 that I can use to encase the entire tip end of the tool, which makes more sense. I also may put two bearings in the bottom of the next one, just to add a little more support for the bottom of the bit.
I'm just scratching the surface of which bits work best and which angles give the results I'm looking for. I grabbed an old call piece that I had screwed up and wasn't using that I was able to practice on a bit. Some results on the test/scrap piece here:
This is the first actual call I have tried using the texturing tool. It's pretty simple, but I like that it gives a little extra grip to the call bell and a little eye candy. This is a 4" cherry coyote howler.
