I really love the look!! Still tweeking the button throw a little. Great job Vaughan
Looking forward to designing the next oneVR Wood Mods bottom feeders kiwi style
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I really love the look!! Still tweeking the button throw a little. Great job Vaughan Looking forward to designing the next one
Thanks Spydro, You just echoed what I have been thinking! The big thing for me is that if I cannot be more efficient in my processes and turn these things out faster, the financial aspect may make them unviable. Craft or art based work is probably the hardest way of all to make a living especially with luxury items, as you know better than most! Full respect for making long a career out of your craft, something to aspire to!Twas just a tongue in cheek observation Vaughan. Constantly trying to improve anything and everything, new ideas dreamed up and actually built, even reinventing the wheel completely sometimes are just some of the marks of a true craftsman.
It would be near impossible to list all the changes, modifications, new styles, new woods and finishes I used on the animal calls passion over the 50+ years i made them. I say "near" as I do still have fairly detailed records of many of the thousands of calls i made over those years, and on all of the woods. My wood data base was started soon after I stared making them, continued to grow to the end when any new proven data for any wood species worldwide turned up. Was the same with the other passions I had that also spanned 4-5+ decades. But as your experience doing turns into years your abilities and knowledge of the fine points increases to where you simply have to incorporate them into you craft. Fail to do so and the passion eventually dies.
*For whenever you''re ready to get into the complex laminates and freeform mods, please put me down now as #1-#? on your list for them.
The really tricky ones will be made covertly and offered when finished, with you on the list. I have a plan with Jazz for a laminate, he seems to have the air of a collector of fine things also. Watch this space...
The 3mm can also be swapped for a 1.5 and a 1mm, for a .5mm increase in throw. Same for the button height, I have more magnets coming in the standard 2mm and 1mm with 1.5mm magnets coming too, for finer adjustment.
Thanks for the input Spydro! for matched caps the block must now be 90mm minimum as I have recently been making the body a little taller (74mm) to allow height for the new 510, being as it is less compact than the full FD version.
The going wage for a passionate craftsman is bread and water, a can of beans on special holidays. So setting a price is always a concern for passionate craftsman when part of the pay is being paid at least something to play with your passion. Other craftsman are only in it for the almighty buck (we all know who some of them are on ECF).
The surge in call makers about 15 years ago was mostly less than talented people trying to make a fast buck. Most were not craftsman or passionate, and most didn't last long before moving on. Making money making calls is mostly left to the commercial makers who let molds or CNC machines do the work, rely on quantity sold for cheap prices rather than on quality hand made work.
I didn't make the calls for a living, I made them for my own ADC use and for hunting friends for most of those years. When the word got out by a couple of "friends" on the Internet I was pushed into making some for sale. I did not want to sell them. When just one turned into 350 orders within days and I stopped the list. Those sold was mostly to folks I'd known for years on the Internet gun forums, some I later hunted with. They were folks still raising families, so I sold those calls at a loss, or just tried to cover the expenses and on a few with a little next to nothing extra for some of the labor. It was my passion to make them, that was good enough for me until some of them started turning into trolls and playing troll games. So I stopped selling any calls, went back to just for personal use mostly and a few for friends. Each of those calls took close to 4 weeks to finish, mostly because of the home made finishes I put on them, a 21 day process. So no way a per hour labor charge could be added to them even though some would have sold their first born for one of my calls. The exception was a few big time collectors I didn't know previously who commissioned very high end calls from me out of very expensive materials. I had to search worldwide to find some of the materials they wanted, sometimes took months to find and then pay a premium for them. So I did some calls where the materials alone per call was in the $500-$800 range. A lot of extra hand labor also went into them, more for those I scrimshawed as well. Some of the commissions were for just 1 call, some for 2 and one for a set of 4 matching materials but with tuned reeds and special sound chambers for different uses. I let all of them set the prices after they received them. They all over-paid me IMO, but especially a couple of gents from TX, one each from Scotland, Saudi Arabia, Oz and Japan who way over paid. All of them hunted many species worldwide, so money was no object to them. One even wanted me to do an African safari with him, all of it from my front door back to it on his nickel, including all the trophy fees. I passed, I will not hunt with folks who kill dozens of animals just to be killing them, and I had found out he was well known for that. I was scheduled to go to Namibia with friends on a hunting safari a couple of years later on my nickel, but a 2 story fall shattered a leg/hip, so I had to cancel and never did get there.
Covert Mods... Being in on the plans, supplying woods, etc would be my wish on them as well.
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Funny how the 'fast buck blokes' come out and expect to cream it, they are delusional for sure! All I want is to draw a wage I can live on, without having to be back on a building site 10-12hrs a day, and raise my kids to know that passions are there for chasing, and that it can be done.
Sad about your African trip, I had one of these on offer a decade ago, to shoot a year's restaurant meat (no trophies) for a friend's family game reserve outside Durban, but was caught up by the war in Nepal when supposed to be flying out of India. Missed my one chance I think, but these things happen for a reason sometimes. Well done for turning down the free trip, those guys can be a little lacking in ethics. There are bull Tahr trophies taken here in an afternoon with a helicopter, that we ground hunters graft for a decade to secure...
Sad about your African trip, I had one of these on offer a decade ago, to shoot a year's restaurant meat (no trophies) for a friend's family game reserve outside Durban, but was caught up by the war in Nepal when supposed to be flying out of India. Missed my one chance I think, but these things happen for a reason sometimes. Well done for turning down the free trip, those guys can be a little lacking in ethics. There are bull Tahr trophies taken here in an afternoon with a helicopter, that we ground hunters graft for a decade to secure...
It can be done, but many craftsmen have also failed by raising the pricing on their products until what was once robust sales dwindle away. Getting an acceptable return without loosing sales is a balancing act that some custom craft folks never figure out. Becomes even more evident when their product has been out there long enough to have somewhat flooded the narrow market for them to customers that just can't afford to pay the newest price of admission anymore. Less customers always equates to less sales. So some raise prices even higher to make up for it and soon loose almost all of their customers, scare off possible new customers. Have seen it happen in the call making business, in custom furniture, custom firearms, custom classic cars, fine art, in mods, in many other interest specific areas over the years to craft folks that were once on the top of the game in their field. Establishing a baseline of reliable income can be done with some standard products requiring less custom work priced where anyone can afford them. That comes at a price though for a passionate craftsman, can become too routine and like a production line when they really want to continually make better.
Brilliant conversation goin on right here...
Vaughan, I've been a wee bit out of touch dealing with family loss, but a package will be heading your way no later than Tuesday of next week.
Vaughan, I've been a wee bit out of touch dealing with family loss, but a package will be heading your way no later than Tuesday of next week.
Right on all accounts mate. My goal was, and still is to keep my product affordable, but an actual custom with customers ideas made real wherever possible, instead of a production based piece. Not many are doing this. The biggest thrill is still the feedback from stoked customers, especially months after the sale. When I was doing my carved vases years ago I had people coming back to NZ every year for more, and sold hundreds of nice original pieces. I'm up to the 51st mod now and after much trial and error now have what I like to vape, and now it's about addressing the finer details with the help of owners feedback, and getting efficient. Cant wait to see what No 100 looks like...
No worries at all. Sorry for your loss, take your time. Good to see you back though!
View attachment 511274 View attachment 511275 Finally had a chance to post some pics
Congratulations NF!! From the tip to the base,that baby is simply stunning! Good on ya my friend...
( P.S very fine choice of atty too..)The man out did himself with that one...
Vaughan,
She's a beauty.
Brings a tear to my eye.....
Has to be a tear of joy me thinks...Nice choice of atty too.
Houndb's matching DTs fresh off the lathe, excuse the dust. An expansion of Nauti's idea at Hound's request, not flash pics but you get the idea...
12mm at the top, 13mm overall over delrin body. Single o-ring with a nice firm fit on all my atties.
12mm at the top, 13mm overall over delrin body. Single o-ring with a nice firm fit on all my atties.
Damn houndb, you had quite the elaborate plan, most incredibly excellent.
Like.
If we do custom matching DT's for mine I still hope to go with the suggestions I made to you before, slip fit wide bores on either thin wall Delrin or SS cores.
Thanks so much DB!! Means a lot coming from youCongratulations NF!! From the tip to the base,that baby is simply stunning! Good on ya my friend...
The man out did himself with that one...
Vaughan truly took my vision and made it a reality. As you know he's a great person to work with and does beautiful work. 
A true craftsman!! Btw I do love my Stumpy attys
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