Porter Custom Calls was started in 2006 by me William M. Porter due to increased demand for my custom box calls.  Since a small boy I have loved the outdoors particularly hunting, fishing and trapping small game and have been hunting 51 years with firearms.  For four (4) decades I have been involved with wood working and metal working related to stringed musical instruments; e.g., banjo, mandolin and acoustic guitar and hunting climbing apparatus (Foot Climber Tree Stands) and will take you down memory lane  with pictures and narrative type comments more or less a self-biography.  I have  featured special  and talented friends and family that have helped and inspired me and in no way inclusive in this section and other pages throughout  the website.  This site is more personal than professional but it is my desire for you to get to know me and the custom turkey box calls that I can personally design and craft for you.   I have strived to stay away from other call maker's signature designs but some overlapping of generic features subject to public domain are inevitable such as basic lid radius and shape and call body side angle.  I DO NOT make copies, fakes or reproduction calls of other call makers present and past  and that includes the late great Neil Cost.  Porter Custom Calls will not inlay various parts of the human anatomy that are considered indecent, obscene and offensive or copyrighted logos and registered trademarks of others.  Porter Custom Calls are not only beautiful to look at, easy to use, in other words user friendly and our modern day word usage of ergonomically designed.  Porter Custom Calls have the ability to lure wild turkeys within gun range when in capable hands resulting in a rewarding and successful hunt.  Visit the Photo Gallery section of this website for a sampling of turkeys harvested. 

A Porter Custom Call such as our North Carolina "Limited Edition" Custom Deluxe will make an excellent addition to your box call collection or a special one of a kind presentation call. 

Our "Pop"  William Allen Porter taught us the value and respect of the great outdoors and we shared many memorable days hunting cottontail rabbits with all breeds of hounds and later had to use the small beagles because of the increase in the Whitetail deer population.  Pop loved woodworking and made a great porch/yard swing with the correct seat and back angle curve and used "old world techniques" such as a draw knife, chisel, etc. to fabricate his swings.   I made him several drill fixtures with hardened drill bushings over the years but he loved the ole way of doing things.  Pix of our Dad taken in the early to mid 1960s with my dog Brownie.  Pop passed away on August 10, 2007 after a long battle with heart disease and inserted is the last pix I took of him on July 4, 2007 while enjoying some ice cream and cookies at our home.  My sister sent me pix of his school days in 1934.  Pop had a continuous testimony for Jesus Christ, loved his Church and fellow man and he witnessed to us and those in the hospital room hours prior to his death.  He was an honest hardworking man devoted to his wife and family and is greatly missed but not forgotten! 

Above three pixs of our "Pop" William Allen Porter taken between 1934 and July 4, 2007.

William M. Porter is no stranger to woodworking and custom made products having owned and operated a mail order business from 1969 to 1978 under the business names of Porter’s Musical Instrument Repair and Porter Banjo Company.  In addition to supplying factory replacement parts for banjos, mandolins and guitars I custom made mother of pearl and abalone pearl inlay patterns for prewar vintage instruments specializing in Gibson Mastertone reproduction and conversion work and various stages of completion of banjo necks, resonators, fingerboards, peghead and metal fabricated parts.  I have supplied mother of pearl and abalone inlay patterns to Gibson, Martin, NBN, GTR, Dobro, Custom Shops and Instrument Builders all over the United States and several countries.  Inserted a few pixs from that time era:

  Bill Porter picking Dobro in 1975 with "The Ole Timer's Club".

This pix is around 1977 and compressing 5 veneers to form a curly maple Granada  resonator back for a banjo and adjacent pix of some burl walnut resonator backs for #5 Deluxe resonators.  Press was custom made using a frame and a 20 ton manual hydraulic press with heating elements on both upper and lower molds.  The molds were made from aluminum truck pistons that were melted down and sand cast with final truing of both pieces on a CNC lathe. 

A few more pixs from the musical instrument making days:  Sheet brass .063 thickness was die stamped to fabricate a metal flange for early Gibson tube and plate banjos. 

      Tone hole die set in action.

This part required a 60 ton press to stamp the OD/ID and was “farmed” out and the rest of the stamping was done in house using a small 5 ton mechanical press.  Parts were then "out sourced" and nickel and/or gold plated.  A few years later, Gibson Musical Instruments decided to produce the tube and plate flange again due to increased demand.  That part had not been manufactured by Gibson since the late 1930’s.

The tube portion of the flange required a bender with special spiral tooling to transform a ten foot section of 3/8" diameter heavy wall brass tubing into 3 complete units and it took seven other fixtures including silver soldering and a lathe operation.  My tube and plate flange was identical to the original 1925 parts.

Pix of several banjo fingerboards and pegheads being inlaid with mother of pearl.  Mother of pearl price in the early 1970’s was around $35.00 per pound.  Now the price is over $400.00 per pound.  In the 1970's,  Porter was considered "The Source" for accurate Pre-War reproduction inlay patterns.

Above pixs of a few of my Gibson Mastertone banjo mother of pearl inlay patterns (master patterns) I cut and had them photographed and offset printed patterns for cutting and inlaying purposes.  Little digital camera doesn't capture the detail in the cuts since they are mounted under glass.   It was individuals like myself and many other custom instrument makers that "forced" Gibson Musical Instruments to reintroduce their old style Mastertone series banjos due to the increase in demand.  It only took them about four (4) decades to get back on the band wagon so to speak.

       R&D Wood Rim 1972

Above pixs of a custom inlaid Smith and Wesson skinning knife that I did for myself around 1975.  I retired that knife to my show case in the early 1990s.  The mother of pearl inlays are from a copyrighted pattern of mine titled “Flaming Claw” and my standard pattern I used on banjos and Dobro aka resophonic guitars.

Specialty items and parts such as the Pre-War Kershner banjo tailpiece, banjo hook nuts, resonator hardware, Pre-War wood purflings for Gibson Mastertone banjo Granada,  #4,  #5 Deluxe and Martin Pre-war wood purflings were made in West Germany for me and the first to offer those exact reproduction items for sale.  There were some close imitations out there but none as precise as those I had made.  Note:  Pre-War references prior to WWII.

I give a tremendous amount of credit to Mr. George Hall of Kalamazoo, Michigan now deceased who worked for the Gibson Musical Instrument Company from 1925 to 1927 and possessed a huge amount of knowledge of every aspect of the Gibson Mastertone Banjo construction and "picked his brain" many, many times via telephone and letters for manufacturing details.  I still have some of his hand drawn sketches of Gibson's Pre-War  banjo wood rim bending machine and he was the first person to detail a banjo wood rim made like a "jelly roll" ; e.g., one continuous 10 ft. piece of 1/4 inch x 4 inch hard rock maple wood steam bent and rolled onto a 9.4 inch diameter (elliptical)  shaped steel wheel,  dried  and glued at the same time consisting of four complete revolutions with each end feather tapering to make a complete round part after a lathe turning operation. 

Clarmon "CE"  Ward who operated Ward's Musical Repairs in Charlotte, NC. back in the early 1960's was one of the earliest to do Gibson Mastertone banjo conversion necks in NC and has cut up more tenor and plectrum original banjo necks than any person in this part of the country, maybe the US.  CE is an outstanding banjo and mandolin picker and won the Banjo Picking Contest in Union Grove, NC way back when.  CE had a contract to do Band Instrument Repairs for the school system and also later worked as a auto body repairman.  I "gleaned" from his experience and he was a foundation stone in getting myself started doing custom inlay work.  I later supplied him with the majority of his Gibson banjo inlay patterns.  CE made outstanding  reproduction F-5 mandolins long before Gibson reintroduced them again and many of his F-5's are in the hands of professional musicians today.  CE is retired and lives in Concord, NC and below pix of him and Bill Simpson around 1979.   CE Ward left in the pix and Bill Simpson (right in pix) was a tool and die maker who did a pile of my early fixtures for metal components.

Also, Mr. Dave Kennedy of Athens, West Virginia who worked for Gibson prior to the 1970's as an accountant and then in their repair and custom section.  Dave is a genius at designing things and holds a US Patent for a banjo two-in-one tone ring and has given away countless other inventions.  Dave is a very intellectual man who taught law at one of the Colleges in West Virginia and did contracts/beautification projects for strip coal mining companies.   He was instrumental in providing technical data and we "horse traded" many of my banjo inlaid fingerboards and pegheads for all sorts of things.  Dave was the first to build a wood bending machine to make the "jelly roll" wood rim described above and I used his "prototype" machine for a few years and some excellent wood rims were produced from his machine rendering outstanding sounding banjos!  He has a park called "High Wall" and host bluegrass festivals.

Pix below of Dave Kennedy,  his "bride" Carol and I believe that is their son Dwayne (or his hands/arms anyway) with his prototype wood rim bending machine.  Dave later built another full production model that was strong enough to be used as a mini-crane.  Can't remember what ever happened to his prototype or production model machines.

The pix to the far right is Bill Porter & HC Morris in Morocco, Africa 1966 (winter) while in the U.S. Navy stationed about 20 miles inland from Kenitra at a Receiving Station near Sidi Slimane .   HC is from Cheraw, SC and retired from the US Postal Service.   We had many adventures in Casablanca, Tangier, Rabat, Fez and Marrakech! 

After the recession in 1977 things were a little tight money wise and had the opportunity to sell the business in 1979 and went to work with the N.C. Department of Correction and still employed with them today as a Correctional Armory/Officer certified armorer  for Smith & Wesson, Ruger and Remington with 29 years of service as of January 2008 and looking forward to “retiring” in a few years from the NCDOC.  I have an Advanced Corrections Certificate since 1992, have been a Firearms Instructor, Unarmed Self-Defense Instructor and General Instructor off an on for 15 years leaving the instructing now to the younger folks.

The music business took up most of my time and hunting was at a premium until the early 1980’s and started turkey and deer hunting again harvesting a long beard in 1982 using an old Lynch box call.  I made a custom wing bone call that year but can’t remember who I gave it to.

It didn’t take long before I realized there was a need for a good bow hunting tree stand and starting designing a telescopic foot climber type tree stand and sold tree stands to the public and a few dealers as early as 1986.  I was granted two US Patents 4,953,662 and 5,167,298 and sold the business W.M. Porter, Co., Inc. in 2000 to an outfit that made aluminum dog boxes.  Attached pix of tree stands:

This pix was taken of the last tree stands that I made before selling all the tooling and rights to the “Hunter’s Dream” tree stand.    It is to my understanding the company that procured the tooling, etc. was unable to get adequate product liability and they decided to cease and desist production of the tree stands.  All my production fixtures and jigs were made by myself and had to contract out a few custom parts for their assembly that required a larger metal lathe.

Bowhunting is my main hobby since 1979.....a few pixs of my "archery hole" in one end our basement.  Some of the pixs below were around 2001 and I have since got rid of all my recurve and traditional archery equipment.

Pix to the left of my early custom made bow press.  I had special tooling made to swedge aluminum arrow shafts to a six (6) degree taper for the old type insert-less "Snuffer" and Black Diamond  broadheads.   One of my best inventions I "gave" away was an offset roller cable guard long before the single track wheel and true cam bow was on the market.  I used my invention to separate the cables on an  older wide track round wheel compound bow  providing increased fletch clearance and a much quieter bow by isolating the cables.  I used two small one inch diameter rollers from an ole Whitetail Hunter model Bear compound bow with an aircraft aluminum supporting main frame with the majority of the support bar/frame milled away to reduce the overall weight.  It didn't take too long before my invention was on the market with a few modifications such as adjustability to fit different brace height bows during the early 1980's.  I believe it was about the same time that Kidd Archery procured Jennings bows to go along with the Bear bow acquisition.  I learned from that mistake for sure!  Don't show or tell about your invention unless you have pertinent documentation such as a patent pending since you only have a year to file for a patent once you display your invention.

With some free time on my hands again, I decided to make another musical instrument and called my good friend Jim Yarboro in Gun Barrel City, Texas that still had the molds for building a resophonic aka Dobro guitar that he got from me in 1979 and he shipped them to me UPS and the fun started.  I had sold most of my equipment and had only a few power hand tools left and this guitar was made by good friends letting me use critical pieces of equipment such as the band saw, table saw and jointer, etc. all of which I do have today…another grin is in order.  A few pix of that guitar under construction and Jim Yarboro and his banjo picking "bride" Carol in 1979.

   Don't trust all decals & labels!  Made in 1972.

Pix of the guitar back with the bracing just hand planed to shape.  Most resophonic guitars (square neck) do not have any bracing but I added it since this was going to be my personal guitar and might have been just a little overkill but that is ok too.

Pix of semi-finished body of guitar with the holes for the sound screens not cut yet or any bindings added and bending mold and working jigs used to build the guitar. 

Note:  Ervin Sloane's mold design.

Inlaid ebony fingerboard with the Flaming Claw mother of pearl inlays being glued to the curly maple neck blank with a pile of C clamps.  Might be another overkill on the clamps too!

Old style "neck tongue" construction.

Pix of finished resophonic Dobro guitar with all curly maple neck, back, sides and top with inlaid ebony fingerboard and peghead.  It was finished on Father’s Day in 2000 and has aged now and sounds great!  The little pc microphone doesn't accurately replicate the bass range of the guitar and the guitar sounds much mellower "in person". 

I'll Be All Smiles Tonight with Porter & Curtis.  Click on links to hear mp3 sound file. Fireball

Since I have taken you on a journey, I will finish up soon.  It was some of my turkey hunting buddies that nudged me into making box calls and they wanted something that would work and also something different to add to their ever growing box call collection. 

Having failed to mention that I worked in electronics installing and repairing two way radios, base stations and mobile telephones for the NC Telephone Company from 1968 until 1972 and switched over to inside equipment working on Microwave, special circuits requiring modems and switching equipment until 1975 at the same time I was running my musical instrument repair mail order business and attended the local Community College until 1978 studying business.  While working with the NC Telephone Company I maintained an Amateur Radio Advanced Class "Ham" license call sign WB4GAN and kept a 300 ft. long wire antenna and Collins KWM2A transceiver at our radio repair and installation facility to chat and Morse code with folks all over the world.  I was also a member of the Navy MARS program call sign N0KOU.   I still have a current FCC Commercial Radio Telephone License which collects dust and guess too much of a good thing (electronics) can burn one out. 

With a background in electronics from the US Navy,  the Telephone Company, and CIE graduate,  I decided to apply some techniques used from my music days for testing sound chambers and experimented for a couple years with different call body shapes and configurations to come up with my current box call which is called “Dual Hens” which features a unique and novel sound chamber with a “Torpedo Nose” inside taper.  With the aid of computer audio editing and imaging programs,  I am able to hear and see what the frequency analysis of the sounds being emitted by my calls and other maker’s calls as well to achieve my goal of producing an excellent sounding call.  Even with technology, it is about impossible to get two calls to give the same frequency response and timbre or color due to the individual characteristics of wood from the same billet or fletch.  This is what makes call making so much fun and exciting and yet stress the brain a little when something doesn’t work just right when it should!    Calls will however exhibit certain sound characteristics attributed to the call maker either by design or accidental discovery of design commonly called (trial and error).

The difference between the sounds from a good box call and a great box call can be attributed to the timbre or color of the sounds emitted which can be described as mellow, harsh, piercing, raspy, mild, clear, warm, strident, sharp, breathy, flat, light and heavy of which is very subjective and to some degree changed by weather conditions such as humidity and barometric pressure.  A box call will sound much different when played 25 yards or more away from the listener and the acoustic surroundings such as dense undergrowth, hillside, valley or an open field will change the perceived timbre of the call and could sound nasal, hollow or throaty as well.  The harmonic overtones produced by a box call greatly influence the timbre or color of the sound transmitted by the call and is difficult to give a word description but sound recordings and graphs depict what is taking place.  However, such recordings or graphs do not tell you how to arrive at such a point but merely show the end result!  A call's resonant frequency or pitch can have a beautiful tone, color or timbre yet be lacking in volume or the ability to project the sound a great distance.   There are a host of variables affecting the acoustic qualities of a box call but most agree timbre is that component of sound that is most pleasing to the ear in addition to the calls ability to reproduce the sounds of the wild turkey.  Timbre is what separates Stradivarius, Amati, Guarneri and Stainer violins from other violins within the same 18th century period of construction as does any musical instrument including box calls.  There are many myths such as water logged century old wood reclaimed which produces that magic sought after sound element timbre but that theory and myth is as water logged as the logs themselves!  Other myths was the usage of centuries old wood from cathedral timber but carbon dating of Stradivarius violins disproved the old wood theory along with a "secret" varnish used was also disproved by chemical analysis.  Old growth dense wood is only one element in the equation for great timbre whether it is a musical instrument or turkey box call.  Musical instrument components along with box call components are adjusted to compensate for the density of the wood used depending on what type of sound you are opting for.  Mass production call manufacturers are not usually set up to account for wood density and ever so often a super sounding call will come to light more or less by chance.  Those are the calls that are entered into some of the call makers contests, however when a call manufacturer has a 1000 calls to choose from, it is hard to compete using only one single call but it can be done but the odds are high. 

Some call makers are advertising one piece hand hewn call bodies but if using a drill press or any power tool to remove call body material, that call in reality is not hand hewn.  I would welcome a CNC router or laser of which I do not have to aid in the quick removal of “waste” material on a call body but instead use conventional tools such as router, drill press, table saw, router table, cut off saw, planer, jointer, carving station, sanding stations, palm sanders and yes hand tools such as chisels, rasps, files, gouges, carving tools, etc.  The inference is that a hand hewn call is superior in construction and produces a better sound than a call that is machine carved or routed but is subject to much debate and opinion but microscopic analysis of test wood cells and fibers along with audio frequency analysis cannot support  such views.   Machine carvers and routers do impart certain characteristics to the wood cells that hand tools such as a chisels and knives cannot accomplish.  There is a valid case for musical instruments including box calls that have the soundboards  "stress relieved" in the construction process with "special tuning"  and component configuration allowing the wood to vibrate or flex in a controlled predictable manner.  This is not a new technique but centuries old of which the wheel has been merely re-invented with the aid of modern technology mainly the personal computer.  Many have expressed interest in this "special tuning" and Roger Siminoff has a book and DVD available detailing The Art Of Tap Tuning.   Please check this link out http://www.siminoff.net/parts/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=10_37&products_id=276    to order a copy of his book and DVD.  The beauty part about a turkey box call when using a tap tuning type procedure,  you have the advantage of exciting the soundboards with the box call lid instead of a separate tuning hammer and the sustain is much longer without needing a compressor to retain the tone generated when sending to audio imaging/editing software or a strobe tuner.   I use a different audio editing program than Roger but his recommendation and usage of Peterson strobe tuners is top of the line indeed as all the musical products and accessories that he manufacturers and sells.   Roger Siminoff is the guru when it comes to the lost art of tap tuning different musical instrument components!  Most current factories do not use tap tuning procedures because it is time consuming and time is money!

NOTE:  No laminated or glued-up calls available!  Call base is integral part of the call body and not glued in place. 

Pix of my field grade “Dual Hens” model call with inlaid # 4 wood purfling and Eagle medallion.

     Click on turkey icon to hear sound file.

Call available in Butternut, Black Walnut, Sassafras, Mahogany and Poplar with cedar lid.

Pix of one of my North Carolina “Limited Edition” Custom Deluxe calls:

     Click on turkey icon to hear sound file.

Eastern Red Cedar lid inlaid with Mother of Pearl Dogwood blossom with Green Abalone Pearl center and the North Carolina State outline is done in Red Abalone Pearl with strutting turkey in Green Abalone Pearl with etching/engraving for feather detail.

Check out the Products section and look under Shop Pixs for custom inlays designs on the drawing board. 

My one piece carved box call bodies are roughed out and allowed to acclimate or age for about a year before any final tuning.  I keep a good supply of various woods on hand in this pre-tuned condition.  I personally believe it makes a difference in the final sound of the call and most calls do get better with age!   The delivery time of my field grade call is around two to four months and there is a current back log of one to two years for a custom deluxe call depending on how much inlay you desire.  Calls are first sealed with sanding sealer and a coat of satin lacquer applied.  I have found the less finish applied, the call has more response, sensitivity, volume, tone and timbre with all things being equally compared to a non-finished call.  The inside of the torpedo nose tapered sound chamber has very little finish only a light coat of sealer which for the most part is scraped or sanded away at critical areas affecting the call's resonance.

Pix of calls allowed to acclimate or age before any final tuning, etc. and end view of my one piece carved call body calls.  This procedure  is very time consuming and costly up front but the end result is worth it.  Most of the time, "You get what you pay for".   The far right pix of a few well known custom call makers calls used in my Research and Development although I do not make a long box or fence post type call. 

My standard Field Grade “Dual Hens” call is $150.00 plus 10.00 shipping.  Money back guarantee (less shipping charges) if not satisfied provided call is returned prepaid and in undamaged condition.

The North Carolina “Limited Edition” Custom Deluxe call pictured above start at $350.00 which requires a $50.00 non-refundable deposit.  Prices and delivery time subject to change without notice.

CONTACT: contact@portercalls.com

Recent pix of Bill Porter drilling a hole into a box call lid for the installation of standard Eagle medallion and laying out a custom mother of pearl inlay pattern.  It has been many years since doing any serious custom inlay work but it is like riding a bicycle, it is coming back quickly.

Pix of my bride and myself taken on May 2, 2008 in San Diego, California attending our son's retirement ceremony from the US Navy.  The date on the camera is a couple years behind....grin if you must and pix of our 37th wedding anniversary taken in 2005 and one taken on January 22, 1978 and a few other pixs.  Time waits on no one!

My bride Joyce aka “Tweet” has put up with a lot of my mess (hobbies & businesses) from our home the past 40 years which seems like only yesterday we were married.  She is the love of my life, my best friend and been by my side supporting me in all my endeavors and an excellent crafts person and artist! 

Praise be to God for his many blessings through out our lives through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior!

Two of the greatest ships that ever sailed:  Friendship and Fellowship!