The reed can be made of Mylar sheet (0.014 thick). A small part of it is bent upward at a 90-degree angle.


allows the air you blow to travel under- neath the reed, causing the vibrations that produce the sound. If you mess up on the air channel, chances are high that your call won’t work. When mak- ing the air channel, focus on not cutting too far. Depth will increase the sound volume, but you do not want to make the air channel go all the way to the tip of the call. The air channel is made by holding the drill bit down against the


Place a castration band around the end of the reed that is flush with the call. This keeps the reed in place. Then fine tune the reed (trimming to make it narrower or shorter) to find the perfect sound for you.


marrow and letting the drill do its work. You also can use a rat-tail file to remove the marrow. End the air channel with between ¹⁄₁₆ to ¹⁄₈ of an inch of antler left at the tip. Now comes the moment you’ve


been waiting for: adding the reed to your call and blowing it for the first time. Three factors affect the sound produced by the reed: reed length, reed width, and reed thickness. These also


are associated with the air channel of the soundboard as well as the width, length, and curve of the soundboard itself. For the reed you can go to a local craft store and purchase a piece of Mylar (0.014 thickness) very inexpensively. You also can go online and buy enough Mylar for 100 reeds for only three or four bucks. I used a section of milk carton that I cut out, and that worked fine. I also was able to use a section of


Page 98 Winter 2013


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