Padauk heartwood/sapwood duck call

[Aaron Wingert]

Here's a padauk duck call I made tonight. I got a nice piece of 8/4 padauk at the lumberyard last week and it has one edge with some sapwood on it. I thought that was a cool feature, and I like the black line between the heartwood and the sapwood. The band is aluminum...Would've looked cool with copper. The call was sanded to 800 and buffed on the Beall buffer, then friction polished with Mylands. I'm still getting the hang of making inserts and tuning my own calls after a couple weeks of working at it, and this one sounds great. Nice loud hail call with really good low end quacks and feed chuckle.

Anyone have any finishes for padauk that they recommend? I tried spar varnish on it once on a TV tray I built....Once! It didn't dry and ruined the project.

Any comments, critiques or suggestions would certainly be appreciated.


http://i547.photobucket.com/albums/hh446/thekctermite/IMG_3459.jpg
http://i547.photobucket.com/albums/hh446/thekctermite/IMG_3458.jpg
http://i547.photobucket.com/albums/hh446/thekctermite/IMG_3456.jpg

[Alan Tolchinsky]

Very pretty duck call. The wood is beautiful.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Aaron - once again - real nice work! Wood is really different - almost glows! No idea for alternative finishes but some of those exotics have natural oils that have to be wiped off first before any finish will adhere.

Keep up the good work!

[Scott Hackler]

If you put BLO on it it will take the striking red and tone it down. I have down this to several pens and gotten the same results. One time I did wipe on a dark stain first and then BLO. That eally showed off grain lines.

I would advise a poly of some sort without anything else if you want to keep the current color.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Pretty call. Wood looks really nice. I am not sure I would put BLO on them though. Last time I tried it on one call sure looked pretty but didn't taste to good. Poly or lacquer would work well though.

[Robert McGowen]

Very nice use of the sap wood. It really stands out. Make sure whatever you decide to finish it with, that it does not turn it too dark.

[Aaron Wingert]

BLO is actually a really common finish for walnut duck calls. That's how they did it before durable clear finishes were available, and a lot of us still use BLO on calls from time to time. The smell never goes away completely, but isn't a turnoff.

I've tried poly on padauk and learned that lesson. It didn't dry very well at all. This one's all done (with wax and friction polish) but I may try waterlox on a scrap of padauk to see how it does. I'll also be trying spar urethane.