JW

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 int he turkeys so called forearm - Ulna is where the major flight feathers are attached and Radius lies under in in the muscle.)

Now I boil the wings to remove the feathers as I send these to people who canuse 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 conneted 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 Humorouse bone you just remove any excess gristle or meat. No marro 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 griding bit. If you do not have this you will jsut 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 int he 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 unitl it fits into the Humorous bone and then fit the Raidus 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.

this are th artwork tools I use.



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

JW

JW

Okay now we can sign our calls, add the bird's biographics 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 jsut mimic what I see. If you make a mistake - don't like what you have written or drwan - I have an eraser! I do use India Ink. Earsser you say!! YUP!
I use a wire wheel on a grinder. Takes it off qucikly. hehe



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



And am happy with tihs!



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 witht he 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 throught 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!

Tree climber

thanks for the very informative post.
if anyone can't read this and make a call,they got a problem,

I made one from a hen bone (when we could take hens), and it still works great.

DHF:KYLEN

Man, this place rocks. This is just what I was looking for. Hunted for 5 days in Alabama on private land. Big toms all over the place. Very call shy to say the least.

Found out all about "FIELD" turkeys. Man, what a pain. Exspecially when they are on the other side of the fence. This old boy who owned the private land all around the property we hunted had monsters all over it. Walking right out in the open over 100 yards away. True torment. But was really fun.

Anyway thanks for the post. Plan on making some calls out of my Osceola bones. Going to look up your other post about bones needed.

VP

Great Post JW!

T_in_PA2

Any instructions for using one? I have some noise but if anyone can offer some explanation on doing different calls it would be greatly appreciated.

Stickemup

My brother in law makes these in exactly the same manner. The only thing different is that he puts a piece of rubber over the mouth piece to act as a stop so that when you stick it to your lips, the opening of the call lands at the same place every time. It definitely makes them easier to use.

This is fast becoming my favorite call. I killed this year's first longbeard after two yelps. He gobbled, I walked to him and yelped and he cut me off. I walked about seventy yards to a good crossing and sat down and yelped again. He cut me off again and within a minute he was flopping on the ground. The whole hunt lasted about five minutes. I sure wish I could do that at will. I've hunted like a maniac for the past two weeks and haven't connected again yet. Lot's of gobbling, hens and hung up birds.

JW

T_in_PA2

got jsut what you need.

These ole boys can help you. The first has a sound page to tune your call too.


http://www.jesseshuntingpage.com/wingbone-call.html


http://hometown.aol.com/wingbonecall/Wingbone.html



http://www.oakleafguideservice.com/page3.html






JW

DHF:KYLEN

Hey "JW", I've got my Osceola bones in the Hydrogen Peroxide right now. And have a question for you. You stated in your post, that you "tune" your call prior to the final setting stage, ie, (5 minute epoxy). My question to you is: Does one dry fit the bones together, then try the call and achieve a sound. Now how does one modify the sound within the bones. Shortin the length? Increase the diameter?

Sorry for the questions, remember I'm a rookie, but turley love the sport. My uncle has hunted turkey for over 30 years and his favorite call was a home made wing bone. He forgot about it one day and ran it over with his truck. He still carries it, broken and all, and it still works.

Thanks for any help.

JW

Yes I dry fit.
You can stuff cotton in any gaps.

I may ream out more from the Humorous bone and may shorten the Ulna bone but the mouthpiece I leave long(radius bone). I make my calls longer than any I have seen.

Now if you get sound you are happy with you can still make one more improvement.

Take a dab of epoxy and glue the mouthpiece shut. Then when dry drill out with a conical drill bit. I use a Dremel diamond bit. The bit size is 1/16 at the end to 1/8 at the top. This will make the call much easier to use.

JW