Scott sent me some nicely figured maple to make a Trumpet call. We talked about it and he asked me if I could stain the wood to enhance the natural figure. I don't normally stain woods for the calls I make, but I suggested a gun stock stain from Laurel Mountain Forge and he chose the Lancaster Maple. We also decided on a light colored horn for the mouth piece and he wanted a turned lip stop. With some trepidation, I approached this project.... slowly...I have had some bad experiences with curly/burly woods and I had two pieces to get it right. He had also sent me a piece of curly/figured walnut...which promptly disintegrated on the lathe for me adding to my angst...
I tackled one of the pieces of maple, (not the one he had marked for his call) and had no problems with it and then turned the next one with no problems. My next concern was how it would take the stain, some maple can be very blotchy I have found from past experiences. I sanded to 1500 and the gingerly applied the stain..."WOW" It really made the call "pop" and I was anxious to apply the gun stock finish to see what it would look like, but had to follow the directions and wait. I decided to tackle the mouth piece and lip stop. That process went smoothly until I got to the lip stop. The problems arose when I tried to slide the stained lip stop over the rubber insert which was mounted on my wood turned mandrel and coated with CA glue. I got it on there only to find I had bonded everything to the mandrel. I removed everything for my chuck and soon found the CA had stuck my fingers together...I finally got the lip stop off the mandrel but my fingers were still stuck to it so I headed for the acetone...it sort of works to remove it and at least I got my fingers separated..what a time! Sorry for the long winded story, but it needed to be told..and what story involving Scott doesn't get a little long winded j/k
Here is the call, I hope it was worth the wait Scott! It plays pretty sweet too!
https://soundcloud.com/david-hodgkins/lancaster-maple/s-sCopESome exceptionally figured Maple with (Holy Cow!) Horn
