Having made old style Turpin and Stribling Reproductions for 30 years, and carried the same call on my hip for 27. I feel it is a moisture and oil situation. My old call will make a few good calls out of the holster to start with, but if the dew is heavy and plenty of moisture in the air, it starts to slide and not rasp as much. Finger oil etc has the same effect. After the dew dries you can play that old call of mine without hardly any chalk for hours working a bird.
Had a friend up river asked if I would look at so some of his Roger Latham calls that he had gotten off ebay. He had several of my Turpins and said he could not get much sound out of the Lathams. I did and found that on these calls, all had a rubber bushing inside the Top Hat. It was killing the sound. I took them out of all three. Two tuned up to a tee, with very light sanding and new chalk. The third had the french curve sanded down and I had to recurve it to get it going.
If the paddle does rub the screw on the stroke and it does not have enough "free play". this will lessen the rasp and roll over. On an old style call, I have seen this come into play especial if the fit is tight around the screw, and the wood swells at all in the early morning. Richard is dead on about oil in woods like Teak. I put a teak paddle on a call that Mr. Wineman wrote about in his first chapter Bird of Courage, "This is a CALL". Sold that call to good friend Colt James that told the story for the book. The dust from sanding that paddle would stay together. Had to leave that paddle on top of my hot water heater and chalk it constantly to get the paddle where it would play.
Most callmakers will be glad to retune calls at no charge. If you are not happy with a call of mine, I will swap it out for another one or refund what you paid for the call at anytime. Most callmakers want you using and hunting their calls. Word of mouth is the best advertisement for a callmaker. There is an old saying that holds true for callmakers. It applies to Doctors and I heard my dad quote it quite often. "A good Doctor, does not have to Advertise."
Mr. E
