Harvesting Oak?

[Royce Meritt]

Every year I make a "gift" for 2 deer hunting buddies to present them during our annual hunt. Each of the gifts include antler in the design. In the past I've made walking sticks with antler inlays, mugs with antler handles and pens made of antler. I was thinking that duck calls made of antler and wood would be nice.

I would like to make the wood portion of the call from some oak harvested from the woods at my brother-in-law's farm where we hunt. Having never harvested my own wood before here is my list of "Wow, is that guy a dope?" questions:

1. Can I use limbs from the tree as my stock or should I use the trunk?

2. Does size matter? Will a smaller diameter tree yield the same quality stock as a larger diameter?

3. Should I cut the wood (either limbs or logs from the trunk) into oversized tuning blanks (approx. 2" X 2" X 18") and allow to dry or allow the entire log to dry before milling into blanks?

4. Approximately how long would these turning blanks and/or logs need to dry before turning?

5. Anything else I need to consider?

I guess what I'm looking for is advice on the process of of going from a standing oak tree to a finished duck call. Sorry to bug you all with this but I'm jumping into an area I know nothing about. I think this would result in a very special gift for my friends and would appreciate your help. Thanks.

[John Hart]

Here's my "Wow, what a dopey answer!"

Personally, I would get the wood from the stump and find as much gnarly grain as I could find...or maybe from a wye farther up... As far as drying, I have my ways but they're usually the incorrect method. I'll read other people's responses and learn a bit m'self.

[Scott Loven]

There should be plenty of fallen mostly dry wood on the ground, it dosent sound like you need much. I would split it and cut it into 2*2*18 blanks on a bandsaw, and then turn it.
Scott

[Carole Valentine]

You want to cut down an oak tree for two 1 1/2" x 7" duck call blanks? :confused: What size tree are we talking about here? A sapling? 6"? 10"? Why not spare the tree (and yourself the hassle of cutting and drying) and grab a dry oak log from the farm's firewood pile? Or cut the wood from an already downed tree? There must be some of them on a farm large enough that you and your buddies hunt there. As for drying blanks, I prefer the denatured alcohol method if I don't want to wait for air drying.

[Royce Meritt]

You want to cut down an oak tree for two 1 1/2" x 7" duck call blanks? :confused: What size tree are we talking about here? A sapling? 6"? 10"? Why not spare the tree (and yourself the hassle of cutting and drying) and grab a dry oak log from the farm's firewood pile? Or cut the wood from an already downed tree? There must be some of them on a farm large enough that you and your buddies hunt there. As for drying blanks, I prefer the denatured alcohol method if I don't want to wait for air drying.


Thanks for the advice. I had considered using a downed tree or standing dead tree as opposed to cutting a live tree as both Carole and Scott suggested. I just forgot to ask about that in my initial post. I will go on a seach for a dead tree for my blanks. Thanks for the input.