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Neil Cost had planned on presenting George Denka with what became the glue-toned call for Christmas 1999, but Denka didn’t get it in hand until spring 2000. Knowing he had something special, George Denka asked Neil Cost to note on the call that it was one of only two glue-toned boat paddle calls he ever made. |
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George Denka, president of Shelton Vineyards and call collector, owns one of only two glue-toned boat paddle calls Neil Cost ever made. |
Glue-toned calls and the bond of friendship
By Karen Lee, Turkey Country Editor
Oftentimes, a word or phrase in an article stumps me, usually sending me to Webster’s dictionary or on a Google search. Rarely, does that search yield an entirely new article.
But in one of the January-February issue’s It’s My NWTF profiles, interviewee George Denka — president of Shelton Vineyards, NWTF volunteer and turkey call collector — said that the rarest and most interesting call he owns is a glue-toned Neil Cost boatpaddle.
Boat paddle call?
Simply, it’s a long, narrow box call resembling, well, a boat paddle.
Neil Cost?
He’s one of the most legendary custom call makers ever.
Glue-toned?
Denka lost me on that one.
I shot a quick inquiry back to my interview subject, making sure the phrase “glue-toned” wasn’t a typo.
“Glue-toned is correct,” Denka said. “That was Neil’s term. It is one of only two he ever made that way.” In 2000, Denka invited Cost to turkey hunt at his club on South Carolina’s Edisto River. Earl Mickel, the late author, turkey hunter and fellow call collector, was also on the hunt, as was Cost’s friend and callmaking apprentice, Steve Mann.
The story goes that Cost wanted to give a handmade call to Denka as a gift. But the aging Cost, whose health had deteriorated so much that he could no longer stand to breathe wood dust, had Mann drill out the last boat paddle blank he had.
Mann, who by that time was doing about 90 percent of the work on any calls Cost made, spent seven years learning the trade from the callmaking legend.
“It always made me nervous to work on Neil’s calls, because I knew how valuable they were,” said Mann.
When chiseling the cavity of the call, Mann took too much out towards the bottom.
“You have to leave more in the bottom of the call and get the sides thinner as you work your way up to the top of the arc or sides of the call,” said Mann. “So you can easily go all the way through the side of the call if you take too much out. I was worried I had ruined the call.”
But, to Mann’s amazement, Cost used wood glue to fill in the call cavity and stiffen the weak side.
“Neil apologized and asked if I minded if he glue-toned the call,” said Denka. “I asked if he had done this before and he said only once, so I asked him to note that this was one of only two that he had ever glue-toned.”
Denka used the call to kill a gobbler during the hunt with Cost, Mann and Mickel.
“It brings back fond memories of three good turkey hunting friends, two of whom are no longer with us,” he said.
But for Mann, it was one of the many lessons he learned from Cost — on callmaking and life.
“Neil was the best friend I have ever had,” said Mann, who would go to Cost’s house every morning to drink his fill of coffee, jokes and stories. And if it was deer or turkey season, they would hunt or simply ride around the countryside. Mann worked second shift at Eaton Corporation in Greenwood, S.C., but carved out a few hours with Cost each day before he had to get ready for work.
However, it was when life threatened to weaken them as individuals that they bonded most.
“Neil lost his son in a drowning accident, so I guess he missed having someone around,” said Mann. “He was there for me when I lost my first son also.” Mann’s son, Steven, was killed in a car wreck at 17.
“We shared a common bond,” said Mann of his mentor. “He was like my second dad.”
FYI > The only other call Neil Cost ever glue-toned was used as a doorknocker at a clubhouse owned by Gary Berry. Berry is a wingbone call maker from Ninety-Six, S.C.