saltflat

I know some of you guys on here make your own wingbone calls. I would really like to try to make one but don't know how. Would any of you guys be willing to share your secrets?

JW

U betcha!

Okay I was asked so here is a step by step pictorial.

I really try not to waste anything from the bird I have harvested. My tail fans are sent to a lady who uses the feathers and airbrushes wild life scenes on them. You can only have so many tail fans mount on the wall! I do pluck the majority of my birds and these feathers goes to a lady who makes Pine-cone turkeys as a hobby. I save my feet and use them for Hunter Education classes either making tracks for a tracking exercise or add the spurs to a few calls I make and send to others. The wings of course are used for calls and so is the drumstick bones.

So let's make a call.



First ya need to get one of these! - sorry bad pun



Cut the wing away from the body. You will need the three major bones from the wing. the Humorous(attached at the body) and the Ulna and Radius bones (two bones laying right next to each other in the turkeys so called forearm - Ulna is where the major flight feathers are attached and Radius lies under in the muscle.)

Now I boil the wings to remove the feathers as I send these to people who can use them. some use them for kid's art classes and others use them for archery.

To boil I add enough water to cover the meaty portion of the wing. Bring to a boil and try to pull the wing our of the boiling water by a feather tip. When a feather comes free easily I remove the wing from the water and pull out all major feathers using gloves as it is hot! I then trim all meat away and toss this. You will end up with bones that look like this - well sorta at this point.



Above you can see where I cut the knuckles off using either a hack saw or a hobby band saw. I use the latter. NOTE: Keep you Radius bone cut as close to the ends as you can.
Listed in order from top to bottom - Humorous bone [trumpet end], Ulna bone [ middle part of the call] & the Radius bone [your mouth piece]. it is like that old song the neck bone is connected to the head bone! Well the Radius bone is connected to the Ulna bone and the Ulna bone is connected to the Humorous bone. Each will fit inside the other when we get done.

Now once the knuckles are cut off. I soak these bones in a Sodium Carbonate - 4 oz to a gallon of hot water to loosing marrow, gristle and any excess meat. This can be found in any taxidermy shop. I soak for one or two days and then clean the bones in soapy water. I use a scrubby and a small bottle brush and a pipe cleaner and a sharp knife.
The pipe cleaner will help remove the marrow from the Radius bone. The small bottle brush removes the marrow from the Ulna bone. The Humorous bone you just remove any excess gristle or meat. No marrow to remove.

I then soak the bones a day in 3% Hydrogen peroxide. This whitens the bones. DO NOT USE BLEACH IT RUINS THEM!@!@.

Once done you have this!



Okay now we start to fit our bones.

First thing i do is remove the lace-work of bone found inside the Humorous bone with a Dremel tool and a conical grinding bit. If you do not have this you will just need to cut this away until you can ream out with a knife. But it shortens your call!



Here you are looking at the large end of a Humorous bone. Raw - not soaked, cleaned and whitened which shows the bone lace work and Reamed.

Do both ends. the larger end is the worse. If you use a Dremel tool the Humorous bone will change tone when you have removed the lacework. Listen for it to sing to ya!



here is the other end the smaller end of the Humorous bone.


Cleaned Ulna bones before and after


cleaned Radius bones before and after.

Now I visually measure the Ulna bone which will fit in the Humorous bone and either sand on a bench top belt sander or band saw the excess away. I use the saw as I save those pieces for other projects.
then I belt sand down my Ulna bone until it fits into the Humorous bone and then fit the Radius bone into the Ulna bone. then I dry fit and try to tune the call. Once tuned I glue with Devcon clear 5 minute Epoxy. It is a two part mix that works well for me.


Glued with excess

and cleaned


I fill in th gaps with epoxy glue.
I don't worry about excess as I grind it or wire wheel brush it away.

I also will stick a small dab of epoxy in the mouthpiece end as I ahve found if I ream this with a smaller hole I get a easier call to use! I use a diamond conical bit in my Dremel. Not too much now as you don't want to plug it so bad you can not drill it!

Below you calls should now look like this after yo have lceaned the exposy glue. Now you have a finished call or you can add artwork.

These are the artwork tools I use.



Continued as I don't know how more I can type on this first post!

JW



Part 2

Okay now we can sign our calls, add the bird's biographic such as date of kill, beard length, weight, spur lengths, area killed, and Specie. anything you all want! Art is in the eye of the beholder! :

I also draw feathers and turkey tracks - it is a hobby as I do not sell but do trade and do donate to wildlife organizations as a silent auction article.

I draw feathers by starting the feather shaft first. Then I draw the outline of the feather and then add the feather texture with hooked lines. I then change pens and add the feather barring we see. I have several good feathers I have saved and just mimic what I see. If you make a mistake - don't like what you have written or drawn - I have an eraser! I do use India Ink. Eraser you say!! YUP!
I use a wire wheel on a grinder. Takes it off quickly. hehe



Above you can see I made a mistake - so off it comes!



And am happy with this!



here is a started outline of a tail feather

A wing feather complete



And both complete


Now I add a few tracks


Sign it and let it dry.

I will then coat it with a few brushings of clear polyurethane.....add a small screw eye which I epoxy in place.....a piece of leather for a call lanyard and may add some beads and my spurs or even the shotgun shell I used with the beard glued in it!

Spurs I cut off like this


let dry in a cup with borax for a few months. then I clean out the marrow and run my leather strip through them.



And above is what I end up with.

Now ti sounds hard but really is not! I can finish a call in about a week. But it just a hobby and if ya all want a call - go look for my post "I need wingbones".

We can make a deal!

JW!