# Reed Sticking



## smoke (Jun 3, 2006)

I would try rain x on the tone board and reeds as well, this sometimes helps. Take the call apart. Dry it completely and dampen a paper towel with rain x. Wipe it on the tone board and reeds both sides. Let it dry and completely wipe off the dried rain x and repeat. Reassemble the call and see if it helps. IF it doesn't help after two coats in ain't gonna happen brother, it just is what it is. 

If you don't know what you are doing with a file or sand paper, don't go sanding on the tone board, it will only get worse unless you get extremely lucky. If you sand in the wrong area or take too much off the tone board, your sol. 

All calls will stick from time to time, unless the angle back towards the cork slot is so steep the call doesn't like to play on the bottom end. The absolute worst calls for sticking are made from any type of plastic. 

There is nowhere for the moisture to go e.g. soak into. Yea that&#8217;s right, wood stoppers soak up some moisture but it doesn&#8217;t hurt the tone what so ever. at least not from a ducks perspective. An actual duck doesn't sound near as pretty as a contest caller&#8217;s call. There is a fine line between building a stopper that will play even when wet and play good to a call that will frustrate the heck out of you because it seems to "always stick". 

It also has a lot to do with the tone board configuration e.g.: how much angle back, how wide the tone board face is, depth of tone channel, radius on the end of the stopper, where the reed comes into contact the the tone board, how much reed actually touches the tone board when "dry" length of reed etc. There is so much going on inside of today&#8217;s high performance duck calls it's staggering to be honest. I have been building them for 25 years and still learn a few things. I have changed the design of my single reed calls 5 times over the last 25 years. The duck calls of today; to compete with other good call makers is a completely different animal than it was say back in the 60's through the 80's. 

It's one thing to mold the stoppers and plug them into a barrel that fits the stopper. It's a completely different thing to design, develop and build a single reed frame that tends not to stick, but will still play the full chromatic scale and get quiet on the bottom end for finish work. 

My double reeds are polycarb injection molded inserts. They do have quite a bit of angle back. However, they do stick occasionally; it's the nature of the beast. But they do play down on the bottom end. My single reeds are built in a fashion the allows them to be somewhat stick free, but I do not claim them to be non-stick as some have tried to do. e.g. spittech? Nothing more than machine marks from a cnc machining center in the mold and not benched out to a > 600 mf. My timber xtreme has a totally different tone board; damn flat by industry standards with a reed that most would say is "way to short". Guess what? it's a combination that is absolutely DEADY on duck, and even with the "flat" tone board doesn't tend to stick up on you. Amazing to me even. But the stoppers are made from hedge e.g. bois d ark Osage orange. The very best imo material to build duck call stoppers from. 

Long post holy shiatski! I gotta go to work! LMAO

See U @ the waterfowl show this weekend, we'll be there! 

Smoke out


----------



## lastflight (Aug 16, 2005)

smoke said:


> I would try rain x on the tone board and reeds as well, this sometimes helps. Take the call apart. Dry it completely and dampen a paper towel with rain x. Wipe it on the tone board and reeds both sides. Let it dry and completely wipe off the dried rain x and repeat. Reassemble the call and see if it helps. IF it doesn't help after two coats in ain't gonna happen brother, it just is what it is.
> 
> If you don't know what you are doing with a file or sand paper, don't go sanding on the tone board, it will only get worse unless you get extremely lucky. If you sand in the wrong area or take too much off the tone board, your sol.
> 
> ...


Great info Smoke! I guess I never put too much thought into stoppers, tone board angle, etc.
I will put on a LIGHT coat of rain-x (per Smoke's instructions). If that doesn't do it I have a good excuse to go call shopping!


----------



## Bellyup (Nov 13, 2007)

Does it have to be a $1.00 bill or can it be a $10.00 bill or even a $20 ? 















:lol: Kidding, just had to find some humor this morning I guess.


----------



## smoke (Jun 3, 2006)

D when I was blowing in contests I used to use $100.00 dollar bill. And tell the guys I was competing against I was "going to double down on this benny when I win this contest". :lol: It didn't happen very often but I was just playin em a little and most of the guys I was calling against knew my tricks and would just snap a wink @ me. 
Smoke


----------

