How to Carve a Duck Call

Carving a duck call gives you the pleasure of adding your own skills and touch to the water fowl call. The carving comes after you turn the blocks of wood on the lathe. This is a three part process: turning the two blocks of the call wood, carving the two lathed pieces, and attaching the two together via the insert-call. Once finished, you will have a custom piece of hunting gear to bring along on the fall hunt.

Things You'll Need

  • Lathe and turning tools
  • Carving tools
  • Wood files and sandpaper
  • 2" x 5" block of softwood
  • 3" or 4" x 5" block of soft wood
  • Call insert
  • Wood glue
  • Bench vise
  • Power drill
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Instructions

    • 1

      Place one of the blocks of wood into the lathe. Turn it while applying pressure with the turing tools to make the block into a cylinder with a taper on the end. Place the second block into the lathe and do the same.

    • 2

      Mark the center of each block at the tapers. Carve out the center at the marks to create collars where the insert-call fits in between the two. Picture it like this: large block-insert-small block.

    • 3

      Customize the carvings and etchings on the side of the call. Examples include carving ducks, names, initials or designs into the side of the blocks, far enough down from the collars so they will not be covered once the three pieces are put together.

    • 4

      Place one of the blocks into the bench vise and mark the center again. Use a fine and small drill bit and drill a hole straight through the center of the piece, going lengthwise. Do the same on the other block. Make the hole the same size as the hole on the insert call.

    • 5

      Sand down the blocks, then add shellac or lacquer as you desire. Let it dry.

    • 6

      Push the two carved pieces together with the insert-call, making a long tube. Blow through the small top end of the duck call to make the duck call noise. Remove the pieces and add wood glue around the edges of the pieces, then push them back together. Let the glue dry.

    • 7

      Use the carved duck call once dry.