![[Nameplate]](http://www.dddnews.com/images/nameplate.png)
RSS
Print
Email link
Respond to editor
Post comment
Share link
Facebook
Twitter
del.icio.us
Digg
StumbleUpon
Technorati
Newsvine
Reddit
Google
 Barry McFarland's hand carved duck call set won the 2005 Best of Show at the Callmakers and Collectors of America show in Chicago, Ill. Pictured are the duck calls which McFarland entered as a set, and the plaque that was awarded to McFarland. [Click to enlarge] |
"Growing up back then, there just wasn't a whole lot to do but to hunt and fish," McFarland said. "Back then, corn was the cash crop and ducks were abundant," he added.
McFarland grew up hunting and learning duck-call carving from Joe Stone, Claude Stone's son. "He carried on his father's tradition," McFarland said. "He taught me how to do the checkering, which I won first place on in 1993, in the Fancy Call Contest in Chicago Ill."
McFarland just recently won the 2005 Best of Show at the Call Makers and Collectors Association of America, this past April in Chicago.
"I wasn't even planning on entering anything until a friend took a look at a set of calls I had carved, he told me I should enter them, so I did," McFarland said. "After going back to the room and taking a nap, and going to dinner, I returned to find that mine had won Best of Show," McFarland added.
McFarland has received numerous recognitions. He was featured in a 1994 and 1995 edition of Ducks Unlimited and the Missouri Conservationist magazines, the Custom Calls for Today's Craftsmen book, and the Arkansas Duck Hunters Almanac.
"Its been a hobby of mine since I was a kid," McFarland said, referring to duck call carving. "Joe taught me a lot as a kid, but the best of them all, was the Stone, 'Big Lake Style' carving."
As well as carving duck calls, McFarland is a collector. He knows the history of each duck call he owns.
"History is so interesting," McFarland said. "My carving style, or the style I use, started with James (JT) Beckhart. He's the founder of the Big Lake Style," McFarland added.
McFarland went on to describe how Beckhart started the Big Lake duck call carving style by converting a sewing machine into a lathe, where he could turn his walnut into the basic call shape and then finish it by hand.
"He operated the lath by working the treadle with his foot," McFarland said. "Beckhart would then use a knife to carve the fancy art work on the duck call."
"Of course, the designs pertained to wildlife; hunting, fishing, guns, etc.," he added.
"When Beckhart died in 1922, his widow, Anna Beckhart remarried and sold all of his duck call equipment to Claude Stone, who was already making the Beckhart style calls," McFarland said.
McFarland was contacted back in 2000 by former Hornersville Mayor Mark Moore. Moore and his wife Mary Jean, then a counselor at Senath-Hornersville High School, inquired about the possibility of donating one of his duck calls, that would be raffled off for the seniors to take their senior trip.
McFarland agreed, and several thousand dollars was raised and the seniors took a trip to Disney World. McFarland has done so ever since.
"I just want to keep the old style tradition alive. Not like today's duck call carvers, I still soak mine in Linseed Oil, I use the German Silver, and I always use either walnut or cedar," McFarland said.
McFarland has many people that order the special duck calls. Several place orders and McFarland ships them. He has shipped duck calls to Washington, Alaska, even as far as Denmark.
The duck call shipped to Washington was to yes, none other than former President Bill Clinton.
"I made him one with his name on one side of it and I even carved his dog on another side," McFarland said. "If I could have just made it about a year sooner, that cigar would have been history," he laughed.
Clinton wrote a very nice thank you letter to McFarland in appreciation of the hand carved duck call, which is now on display at his library in Little Rock, Ark.