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Name:
Jim Chamberlin |
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Chamberlin Calls
Callmaking for Jim is presently a part-time hobby, which he enjoys on the side. His calls, which go by the name “Chamberlin Calls”, are sold primarily for hunting. But don’t be fooled, if you are looking for a quality collector grade call his fancy checkered calls are perfect for any display cabinet. He makes approximately 50 – 75 calls each year but those numbers are sure to rise as his calls are starting to gain attention. During duck season Jim can often be found
hunting with his father (age 77) and son in Arkansas and also around
the Altamaha river swamps and tidewaters of coastal Georgia close
to St. Simons Island where he currently resides. He is also a member
of the CCAA, Ducks Unlimited and the Georgia Water Fowlers Association.
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Jim
Chamberlin’s first introduction to callmaking started in the
early 1980’s when he watched Butch Richenbach turn him a duck
call out of cocobola wood. Inspired by Mr. Richenbach’s performance
and what seemed to be an easy task, Jim quickly found himself purchasing
a lathe of his own. He was always the type of person that enjoyed
woodworking, and the idea of making a call didn’t seem to be
that hard of a task. Jim’s first attempts at turning were nothing
that would impress anyone and eventually this interest shifted to
the area of decoy carving. Jim picked callmaking back up in 2001,
and with some helpful tips and an introduction to aged green bois
d'arc by Billy Ray Starks (Rebel Calls, Stuttgart Arkansas) he was
back in business.
He
will be the first to tell you that you won’t find an experienced
callmaker that doesn’t run into problems when designing a call.
Whether it is working out the proper radius of the tone board, determining
the depth and length of the tone channel or perfecting the size
of the exhaust, all of these decisions ultimately affect the sound
and tone quality of any call. Of course any callmaker would like
this process to be perfected on their first attempt and Jim is no
exception to the rule. There have been many times that he spent
lengthy period filing, sanding and trimming reeds only to discard
the insert to the woodpile. Compared to achieving this proper sound,
most other aspects of call making from wood selection, preparation,
turning, installing bands, finishing and even checkering came relatively
easy for Jim.
Since
then, Jim has worked on ways to improve his calls and has now developed
a distinct but simple and clean design that has all the right sounds.
Even today he jokes about how he still is able to heat his shop
with the discards that made it into the woodpile. Jim’s calls
are made from a variety of woods. African Blackwood and aged bois
d’arc are among his favorites, but he regularly uses cocobolo,
Bolivian rosewood, ziricote and bocote. If you ask what his favorite
combination is he is quick tell you nothing beats the look and sound
of a Blackwood insert with an olive barrel.|
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