Here is a 4 banded North Carolina horn I recently finished. The horn was inspired by a NC horn pictured in the book on North Carolina schools of long rifles. The horn intrigued me in that even though it was a banded horn, it was engraved and I decided to do a banded horn and engrave in a similar style.
The horn is 14 1/4 inches along the outside curve not including the button finial at the base, and it is a little shy of 2 1/8 inches in diameter at the base. The base plug is turned plum, stained with Aqua Fortis and secured to the horn with 18 brass tacks. The tip is turned from horn and applied. Interestingly, this is the second tip I made for this horn. The first was a two piece applied tip with an antler collar and wood tip piece. This tip shattered when the horn was accidentally dropped less than 12 inches to a carpeted floor. I decided that a wood tip maybe wasn't a good idea and turned the horn tip.
The horn was stained with a walnut dye I made from boiled walnut husks. It came out a bit lighter than I intended so I applied some oil based dark walnut stain to darken it. The floral engraving in the middle two bays is based on the engraving on a NC horn that was dated 1803. The scallop engraving in the last bay is based on another original NC horn. All engraving was done with a knife.
Scott
