Last year I got a wild hair, out of raw, yet to be assembled curiosity, to explore the formulation of a "sweet" attractant to augment my gland lure offerings at dirt hole sets for canines, which involved the prospects of essential oils. I waddled around here barefooted a few times rather recently soliciting information and ideas to fill my void in that regard.

My experience as a homemade type lure maker spans more than five decades, with these qualifications: I know absolutely zilch, as in el zippo diddly, about incorporating active ingredients into a formulation little beyond glands, a few body parts from this one and that one, and wiggly offerings out of the creek behind the barn that either got filleted, diced, cubed, minced, or just simply mushed or stomped, depending upon my mood at the moment as how to render those morsels for what I thought I was trying to make.

And, I couldn't forget the staples of fish oil, skunk essence, liquified mice, rotten eggs and assorted mammalian, urinary bladder waste products.

Did I mention chicken livers, molasses, stiff honey, waterfowl oil glands, horse hoof frogs, anchovies (the only thing I don't put salt on,) "oceanic" canned cat food..........? For those of you who have entered this arena know the rest of the litany. I know I left a lot out in this meager itemization, because I did not intend to generate a comprehensive list - besides, I am in the Senior Moment cloud as my quill is moving, and I would have forgotten half of them anyway, probably without even knowing it.

With that unpretentious background established and securely in place, here is the deal. Thanks to several members here, I was introduced to the alien world of "essential oils" to expand my horizon a little higher than just looking down at my boots and my path to see where I was going, or where I thought I wanted to.

Of course, over all of those years I was aware of, in name only, of all the clan members on the "essentials" roster. My interest dead ended right there on purpose, because I figured, "Who needs all that foreign, exotic sounding, and rather expensive juice, when the body parts I was using for my lure was more than capable of attracting critters to linger at my sets long enough to be caught."

And, I knew full well, too, that the two or three commercial lures that I was using had some of these fancy odors in them. I really didn't care, because the Lenons, Dobbins, Daileys and Hawbakers really, really knew what they were doing, and I didn't. And, I had no hidden aspirations to evolve to their level professionally.

And then, all of a sudden, I answer the knock on the door to find an exotic dancer standing there. After an informal introduction, her name is Ambrette - sounds kinda French, but I'm not very good at profiling nationalities.

Back to a more serious voice. I was surprised that ambrette's source was not animal in origin - as possibly from a reproductive organ or rare tumor from the gall bladder of a nearly extinct animal with a post office box hidden somewhere deep in the Amazon. And, that lure ingredient chemists (the one or two still alive who supplied it to lure makers) were hoarding it in the supply-demand closet, thinking they were on par in the tradition of the OPEC dude club, selling it for $137.50 an ounce, plus $8.90 flat rate shipping to anywhere in the continental United States, with bootlegging options for Canadian residents.

Interestingly, it is the distilled "musk" oil from the seeds of a little plant that is cultivated for the purpose of supplying this essential oil to the cosmetic industry for perfumery. It is aromatic and, ironically enough, is "sweet" and resembles muskrat musk. Imagine that!

Now that I have 4 ounces of it to swing and sway with, are there any of you seasoned homemade or professional lure makers willing to share some general ideas, without full disclosure, on the steps used in exotic dancing with this partner in the fur shed - with the lights on of course. I have a few intuitive ideas, but would appreciate any thoughts you may have on blending other oils with it to arrive at my "sweet" attractant to use sparingly at canine dirt hole sets.

Arthur Murray Dance Studios doesn't have a clue - never heard of it.

Thank you for your considerations.

Jonathan

Every animal species I can think of are attracted to ambrette. It is a universal attractant just like muskrat musk or beaver castor. Need I say any more Jonathan? Ace
PS-I use the crystals straight as is. Just like ground castor, ambrette crystals will permeate a lure's base after a time of ageing. One won't smell it right away, ambrette should be aged in lures for several months before sniffing the end product. Ace

LOL - quite a dissertation to ask how to incorporate ambrette musk into your lures.

I like turning it into a liquid and using it in that form rather than using the crystals.

Play with it and see what works for ya and in what quantities.

I can offer one bit of advise. Be careful when you make the first batch. Amberette will be hard to detect right away but will easily overpower a lure with just the slightest bit to much. Learned that the hard way..

Well, I am certainly not a lure maker nor have I had a dance from this ambrette, but it surely has peaked my intrest. LOL as always another good read from Jonathan.


........dirt

I remember my Dad using musk ambrette in lure formulation way back in the 1950's so it isn't anything new. I suspect a lot of lure makers over the years have not been familiar with its usage and attraction to all animal species.
KY Boy made a good point as usual, ambrette will fool one because it is not a nose burning ingredient but its intensity is like that of castor, it will after ageing a while overpower most everything else in a lure formula if one dumps in too much thinking it is mild. Those experimenting should add it sparingly and go from there. Ace

I'm going out on a limb here, but I thought ambrette was from whales and no longer available, so what we have now is a synthetic ambrette. Maybe I'm thinking of something else and I'm too pressed for time to do any research.

hawkeye - I think you might be thinkin about Ambergris

Jonathan, is your PM box full? I tried sending a PM, but it didn't seem to work.

wow! is ambrette worth that much.I placed a order with russ carman many years ago.I still have the undated Invoice.I got 8 oz ambrette,16 oz rat musk and 8 oz caster all for 50.00.I still have unopened 4 oz of ambrette and a 2nd 4 oz bottle with a little over 1 oz.Only problem is I could not find them. Will look again in the morning.found them !!!! I will take the 4 0z bottle to the PA convention and test the prices

Heck Paul, don't go out to breakfast with the guy, by the time he is done ordering two eggs over easy, hash browns and toast it's lunch time. Then you had better order his burger and fries for him or you'll be there for dinner, too.

Possum skinner, I believe you are right.

Now, now, Hawk, don't be so quick to rush to judgment.

This is for your personal edification to fill in the blanks that you so awkwardly tried to do on my behalf with a tongue swollen with false assumptions:

The ambrette "dissertation": I had a spasm in my unquiet mind when I started the thread on that oil. I have tendencies, especially when a full moon is less than a week away from giving me permission to see my garden in the dark while standing on the back porch after midnight.

My creative juices get high on themselves every month about the same time - been that way for as long as I can when it stated as a little kid. The fact that I was hatched under a full moon on a Friday 13th in 1942, seems to correlate the most.

Oddly, when my coil spring snaps under that profound influence, it only manifests itself through my quill's pen (usually pencils) and my art work - not verbally. I don't talk to myself or sing very often in the shower either.

And, conversely, I am not all that verbal in real life either, and I am not antisocial, timid or overly shy. I romp vocally in low key mode, only because I am verbally challenged by choice so that I can continue to hone my listening skills.

Now hush. I am listening.

Jonathan

In other words you don't talk like you write and you don't write like that unless it's a full moon and your in your garden. Is that about right?

Close enough, but you weren't listening - I was standing on the porch, not in the garden.

That's okay, Hawk. You have my permission, and an open invitation, to make fun of me and my writing style any time that you want. I have more ink than you do. And, keep one thing in mind, I am allowed to tease back while playing in this sandbox, but I respect you as a person enough never to throw sand in your face - not my style, and revenge does not reside in my blood type.

Wanna shake on that, now that we have re-set this trap and covered it sufficiently to catch something more important than wind without adult direction in it's itinerary?

Thank you for listening.

Jonathan

Nope, no sand throwing here, and I hope you understand what I said about breakfast was in jest, as I'm sure what Paul said was.

Keith, Why wouldn't I be? You were my mentor. Remember? Ha! Where else can you go and have more fun than people playing in this big sandbox?

After all, look how much I learned from you after you went "wacko" using cattail fluff to cover a trap. I like imagination, and you own quite a bit of it, even though you come across as being a grouchy 'ol gruff once in awhile.

Jonathan