Cajun Callmakers and Dandy Decoys

It is a given in my house that we take any excuse to go to New Orleans. I like to eat and my wife likes to shop. You can see why New Orleans would make us both happy. This weekend, it did not take much of an excuse to trigger a New Orleans road trip. The 29th Annual Louisiana Wildfowl Festival was this weekend, so off we went!

The Louisiana Wildfowl Festival was sponsored by the Louisiana Wildfowl Carver & Collectors Guild and runs concurrently with the Annual Gulf-South Championship. The event was held at the John A. Alario, Sr. Event Center in Westwego, Louisiana. We walked into the event center, and immediately behold a basketball arena floor covered with tables of beautiful hand-carved and hand-painted decoys. A vendor’s area adjacent to the decoy competition was bustling with sellers of decoys, carving tools, blanks of Tupelo gum wood, and duck call makers.

The quality of the submissions at this carving contest and exhibition were simply amazing. The beginner and intermediate categories were very, very good work. And the upper levels and professional submissions simply defied belief. The feathers on the beginning carver’s decoys had the feather detail painted on the blocks. However, the upper levels had the feather detail carved into the decoys. When I say carved in, I mean each individual feather on the entire duck was carved. Not only were individual feathers done, but each feather’s spine, and even the wavy worm-like lines of vermiculation were visible. Each vermiculation was individually carved and painted in almost microscopic detail. I have a new level of profound respect for decoy carvers as artists after this New Orleans trip.

In addition to decoys, there are other categories of entries. Fish, owls with snakes in their mouths and life size red-tailed hawks were also represented. Each was judged by the same exacting rules as the decoys. There was one full-sized hawk perched on a series of rocks that was carved from a single block of wood. Given the cost of a block of tupelo gum of that size, it seemed to me that the carver would go broke if he ever made a single mistake!

The Louisiana Wildfowl Carvers Guild is a very professional organization. Their list of rules and judging criteria for the different categories is very extensive. The rules leave no room for doubt about what is expected and what is not acceptable. The motto for the competition is “We Play by the Rules.” It was very apparent from the careful scrutiny of the judges that they meant exactly what is said in their motto! The difference between first, second and third place in the professional class of carvings was tough to figure for a layman like me. All three of the carvings looked like they would peck me in the head and take off flying at any second. They were that good.

In keeping with “playing by the rules,” some of the more advanced categories of competition require each submission to be tank-tested in water. Points are deducted for a carving or decoy that does not float at the right depth or lists to one side. I was stunned to see a jaw-dropping beautiful carving placed in a tank of water and floated around! I almost could not breathe thinking of the thousands of dollars some of those one-of-a-kind “dunked in the tank” carvings would bring on the decoy market. But, sure enough, they shed water just like a real duck. You remember the old joke where a guy wakes up after a DU banquet and his wife tells him the decoy he paid $500 for is a phony? “Why?” the guy says to his wife. “Simple,” she says. “I dropped it in the bathtub after you went to bed and it sank!” Well, I can tell you, and you can see from the pictures, the decoys at the Wildfowl Festival will darn sure float.

Although I enjoyed the decoys very much, I had almost as much fun meeting and speaking with traditional duck call maker Mr. A.J. Bordelon. A native of Arabi, Louisiana, Bordelon retired from Mobile Oil Company and now can make his duck calls full time. This is the first year that he has sold any calls. Previously, he only made them for friends. Mr. Bordelon says that he has probably given over 900 calls away in his career. Obviously, Mr. Bordelon has a lot of friends who really like his calls!

Mr. Bordelon is a friendly fellow who is delighted to talk duck call making with anyone. He got his start in gear making by building pirogues in South Louisiana. One day over 34 years ago, a venerable old marsh guide showed Bordelon how to make a cane duck call. It took Mr. Bordelon 4 years from the day he first learned the required skills to get a call that he felt was good enough to show around. He has now been making his calls for 31 years.

I have always been a fan of traditional tools that are made by hand. Bordelon still practices the art of making metal-reed duck calls out of native Louisiana bamboo. This is an art that is slowly dying out as we loose the elder generation of watermen and guides. I listened with rapt attention as Bordelon explained how he hand cuts bamboo of a certain diameter, and then soaks the green bamboo in a pond by his house for 3 weeks so that the cane will swell without cracking. He then whittles and sands the cane down perfectly round and smooth before putting in a “bed” for the reed. The reed bed goes in the inside of the call, since bamboo is hollow and cannot have the shape of the tone board cut into it like a wooden or acrylic call. Bordelon makes the reed bed for his calls out of red cedar that friends bring to him from Demopolis, Alabama.

The reeds used by Bordelon are very unique, in my experience. He still uses metal reeds. He has made a grand total of two calls with mylar reeds. He does not like using plastic in his calls, and states he will never make any more. “Plastic,” he says, “is for toys.” His reeds are different in their dimensions as well. Every metal reed call that I have ever seen has a short phosphorus bronze reed that is similar in size to a traditional mylar-reed call. However, Bordelon uses a very long, thin pure brass reed with a pointed tip. In fact, it looks just exactly like a collar-stay from an expensive dress shirt. Mr. Bordelon assured me in no uncertain terms that his reeds were not collar stays!

A Bordelon cane call differs from the traditional “Arkansas type” call in other ways. Most modern call makers place their reeds in the insert of the call, and not in the barrel. Bordelon puts his “reed bed” and reed in the barrel of the call. The insert of the call is actually empty. He constructs his calls in this manner so that all the weight will be in the barrel. This way, when the call is hung from a lanyard, the barrel hangs almost straight down. Mr. Bordelon prefers this set-up so that no seeds or other debris can fall into the call and pinch the reed. His calls come with one stern instruction: “Don’t take it apart. Send it back to me!” Given that the calls are made to such tight tolerances, I am not sure that I could take one apart if I wanted to try it.

Bordelon also gave me the most unique advice I have ever received from a call maker. He told me, “That call sounds sure enough good by you right now.” However, he guaranteed me he could make his call sound better without touching it. Of course, I had to ask how he could do such a thing. “Run the garden hose through it and it will sound even better, you hear me?” I tried it. Amazingly enough, Mr. Bordelon was correct. The call had more range and was slightly easier to blow when wet. He says the water on the reed “brings out the fine texture of the notes.” Who am I to argue with this logic?

The “Cajun squeal” type of call that Mr. Bordelon makes has a very distinct sound. My first call as a child was of this same type, so I find it very nostalgic to blow. Every note takes me back to my childhood and my mother threatening to beat me if I did not, “TAKE THAT NOISE OUTSIDE!” The Bordelon call is much easier to blow than any other metal reed call I have blown. It certainly has the trademark “squeal” at the end of the notes. It has also has a sleeping hen mallard and marsh grass design burned into the barrel. The call has also been signed by the maker. It is a very unique and functional piece of folk art. I am looking forward to shooting some ducks with it, and reporting back to Mr. Bordelon at the next Louisiana Wildfowl Festival. I hope to see you there!

 Copyright © 2003 by Mark Edwards at WaterfowlReview.com.