This is the story of how I came by the two Neil Cost prototype or experimental Boat Paddle calls. These two calls were the 1980 Poplar Experimental Boat Paddle call and 1986 Butternut Experimantal Boat Paddle Call. Charlie Neil was a long time friend of mine and I visited and stayed with him once or twice a year for many years.From the beginning, I was very interested in Neil's "boat paddle" style wild turkey calls.Unfortunately, Neil had an ongoing deal with Dick Kirby to sell 25 calls a year to him and Neil treated the agreement pretty much as exclusive.At least he would not make me a boat paddle in those days.It was close to, if not totally, impossible to get Neil Cost to make a boat paddle call until after the term of the agreement with Kirby expired.
I was visiting Neil in June of 1993 and we were in his shop tinkering around working on calls. Up on a shelf I saw a few (three or 4) old boat paddle calls just collecting dust. I asked Neil about them and he said they were from when he was working out the details of the boat paddle call. I got them down and noticed that a couple of them had a #8 round top (aluminum?) screws. I said to Neil, I thought you said the boat paddle needed a #6 screw. He agreed, but then neither one of us could find any #6 round top screws. On our next errand run, we actually stopped by the local hardware store to buy a box of round top #6 screws, but they did not have any. So, Neil ordered a box.
After we got back to Neil's house, I dug up a couple of #6 screws (not round top) in his shop In addition, the lids on the calls did not match well. Neil had a whole batch (50 or more) of new boat paddle lids hanging off nails in the rafters of his shop as well as a few of the old style boat paddle lids..I went through a few lids before finding ones that satisfied Neil for these two experimental calls.This is why the lid on the 1987 Butternut call is a newer style lid.It turns out that the 1980 poplar experimental call got one of the old lids that had some imperfection at the end of the handle.Neil had filled in a couple of spots with wood putty.I messed around with these 3 or 4 calls and got those two sounding pretty sweet. I can't remember his exact words, but they were something along the lines of, "Well, X@**&#@, those two calls were good all along except for the screws. I guess I never got back to them after changing screws to #6. Mr. Charlie, you just got yourself a couple of pieces of history." He took a hammer to a couple more "prototypes" that had something about them that he didn't like and threw them in the trash barrel, just to discourage garbage collectors he said.
He signed the calls and gave them to me. I was the happiest guy in South Carolina that day. I asked him why he only put my name on one of the calls and he said it might be worth more to collectors without a name. The development of the boat paddle call took Neil a number of years to complete. Neil told me it was the hardest thing he ever tried to do in making turkey calls. The insight that broke open the mystery and allowed Neil to produce the Boat Paddle calls was when he discovered the red cedar lid. Unlike the regular length calls that Neil produced, the boat paddle call does not have a spring and its lid material is almost always red cedar. What Neil discovered was that to make this fantastic call operate, a flexible lid was needed, whereas the short boxes required a stiff lid. A couple of other differences are the boat paddle does not need inlays (to add stiffness) and it uses a smaller hinge screw which allows the lid to rock slightly as it passes over the box edge, giving it a distinctive tone.
In the development of the boat paddle call, the originals were made with squared-out sound chambers and these early prototype or experimental calls were slightly larger than the ones Neil made later on. To me and some others who have studied Neil's work, the squared-out slightly larger boat paddle call was the greatest single accomplishment in Neil's storied call making career. You might have a different opinion, but that is mine.
I know of two reasons that Neil departed from the larger squared-out version of the boat paddle. First, it was hard, I mean aggravating to Neil to tune such a long sound board. The slightly smaller (length) and rounded-end sound chamber (making the sound board even shorter) was easier to tune. Second, you would know this if you ever shook hands with Neil. Neil had very small hands. He liked small turkey calls that would easily fit in his hand. However, neither of these reasons detracts from the legendary characteristics of the squared out and slightly larger version. It was this larger version that was made famous by some senior NWTF personnel.
To me the boat paddle call was (is) the greatest box call ever built. While I have not seen them all, I have seen thousands of them and have found no equal yet and I personally have had 500 or more turkey calls in my collection at one time.
Both “Experimental” Boat Paddle calls are featured in Michael Marks’ book Magic with Wood a Photographic Collection of Unique and Rare Turkey Calls by Neil D. Cost. If you are serious about seeing Neil's work, this is a must have book. . That is my story and I am sticking to it.At least till my memory throws out some forgotten detail different than what is written above.