AmericanLongRifles Forums
General discussion => Contemporary Accoutrements => Topic started by: Frozen Run on June 16, 2025, 01:03:57 AM
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Here it is roughed out prior to going in the horn kiln:
(https://i.ibb.co/cHSyCSv/20250615-164842.jpg)
And the horn kiln. I call it the pig and one day I hope to paint it pink and give it a squiggly tail:
(https://i.ibb.co/yBYwytjw/20250615-174055.jpg)
It cooked the horn off in 2 minutes, it has got a bit of a learning curve to it. I finished heating it outside the kiln and I believe I have something salvageable. Won't know until tomorrow!
(https://i.ibb.co/xKv5w3MJ/20250615-174102.jpg)
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Excellent! Keep us updated!!
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Will do!
There may be a bag in here somewhere I believe? The strap may be Maryellan's though I can't say for certain.
(https://i.ibb.co/G4WW0xFB/20250615-195700.jpg)
Added some color:
(https://i.ibb.co/sJg1Jzmq/20250615-203352.jpg)
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I fit and secured the base plug and began rough shaping it. There was a large burnt out section near the base last night that I tried removing and doing something with that area, but ultimately it was a losing battle so I just hacked it off entirely.
Doing new things create new challenges to learn from. Here with my first flat(ish) horn it was fitting the base plug. With a round base it is pretty easy to do so: you shape it with a round cone, trace the base, cut it out, dress down the sides to fit the taper and you are done. On a flat horn, you use the base plug to shape it so it's a bit trickier walking it back and forth.
I also prepped the bag components for stitching.
(https://i.ibb.co/hJdVKfrb/20250616-114036.jpg)
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(https://i.ibb.co/CpRhPchg/20250618-012000.jpg)
I stitched the inner pocket and modified the woven strap. The elephant in the room here is the blatantly cockeyed pocket. I can live with sort of cockeyed, but that train left a week ago. I got about halfway through stitching it before I even noticed and then just decides the best thing to do would be to finish stitching the pocket as is and figure it out later. There is some excess width I left in the flap as well as a bullet hole that needs patched so I should be able to blend it out with everything else going wrong with the bag.
I bought the buckle 15 years ago waiting for the right project to come along and now I'm just waiting to find out from someone that it's not even remotely period, that it goes to latch down an awning that Kmart sold in the 1970s. Well, the joke would be on you then as this bag is going to PA eventually so in all likelihood that individual owns a 50 year old Kmart awning whose latch probably has been missing almost as long.
I did this really cool effect on the leather bits where it is darker around where it has been in contact with the brass buckle, but that effect got washed out by a too dark main color. You can still kind of see it, maybe I'll try buffing it back some tomorrow.
Also you may see two tiny needles I modified as anyone who dabbled in leatherwork will know they will run just shy of thread two stitches from finishing a section. These things have saved me a number of times already.
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I decided the best solution for the cattywompus pocket would be to pull the stitches out of the upper left, trim that section of the pocket down, and then run the stitches back up. I also refined the shape of the flap some more. I think this is now within the margin of error for a homespun bag?
(https://i.ibb.co/Cp9HKLzk/20250619-113906.jpg)
I need to run a line of stitches along the flap border to secure the liner, and I also need to figure out what to do about that bullet hole. I thought originally to just leave it alone, but that area would just turn into a liability as the fabric breaks down. Then I thought about stitching in an oversized patch and do my interpretation of the Mike Brooks painted Lehigh that I like to use sometimes for scale in pictures. I bought some angelus paints and I was about to contact Mike to get his permission for the design but my excitement over the idea cooled before doing that.
Then I thought I'd cut out a large fraktur bird from sheet brass, engrave it, and rivet it in to cover up the hole but first I thought that would look like I'm reaching really hard for something and it would lose the spirit of the project. Plus, it would likely make the bag uncomfortable to use. I'll probably just stitch in a patch and come up with some design to paint over it as I already purchased the paints. I don't know.
(https://i.ibb.co/TBxSD9vf/20250619-115044.jpg)
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I stitched the flap up on the bag last night and mocked up some ideas regarding the bullet hole, they all looked artificial so I decided the glass is full on this bag. I'm going to stitch the straps on, add some touch up color and call it good.
I also got back to working on the horn. I shaped the plug some more, worked on the tip, started dressing the sides down flat and got bored with how it was going so I added facets. 6 facets fit naturally, but what kind of person would I be to give my friend 6 facets? So I added one more, and then I think I drew in one or two more as it looked right, I'm not really sure.
I included a Mike Brooks painted Lehigh for scale.
(https://i.ibb.co/zhFfG1nB/20250620-113739.jpg)
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Plot twist! It turns out my friend Chris is a left side hardliner, Ken is indifferent. The horn part of this thread is now the Ken horn.
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Looks like your horn is coming along nicely.
Your bag looks comfortable, but it seems to me that covering that hole is something that probably needs to happen. Any sort of patch would work, and I know you've considered a lot of options already. Perhaps a D" shaped piece could be added to the flap, basically matching the outline of the flap as it is? Or perhaps slip a piece of thin leather under the hole, between the flap and the liner, and then stitch through the flap, patch, and liner?
I look forward to seeing more photos as you make progress.
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Thank you for the kind words! I believe you are correct about the bag, but I haven't figured out anything that I like yet. As it sits now, it is pretty aggressively stitched at the bottom of the hole before the border line of stitches runs over it. Plus with the liner it feels pretty solid.
I like pieces that tell a narrative so the idea of putting a large bullet hole was more attractive to me at the time than a plain piece of leather. The problem I'm learning after the fact is it's cool to have a narrative, but that story needs to make sense. I went into this project with the whole frugal and not waisting anything spirit of our forefathers, but the realization came too late that hides were probably common enough that they would have just cut around the bullet hole for the most part. Because what would be saved if you then have to spend the time fixing something you didn't need to?
So then I thought well maybe it was damage done years after the bag was made and this was just salvageing something still usable? But I couldn't think of anything that would cause that sort of damage or wear that wouldn't also have destroyed the rest of the bag so that idea fell through.
And then I had the idea of unless of course you had good reason to use that piece. That the original maker used that piece of leather because the hole didn't matter as it was going to be covered up in the end. Not with a patch, but with something else entirely...but to find out what, you'll need to tune in for the next installment of
Making Stuff For My Buddies: Chris, Ken, Wayne, and Hopefully Mike as Well.
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I guess people do sometimes get a little carried away with faux damage and repairs. Repairs can make a bag more interesting, but, speaking only about my own personal preference, I like to see repairs done well, as if the guy really expected the repair to last for the rest of the life of the bag. I think poorly done repairs are more likely to look staged.
While it doesn't make for a very interesting narrative, I can say from personal experience that mice will chew up a bag. One of my bags had the leather strap eaten about half-way through by mice. I guess I spilled some food or grease on it at some point and they found it tasty.
So I can easily imagine rodents chewing up the flap of a bag and it needing a repair. The mouse that chewed up my bag chewed up the edge of the strap for about 5 inches and made a half-circle hole in the edge about the size of a quarter, with obvious bite marks. I haven't repaired it yet, but when I do I will cover it. Nothing entertaining about seeing a mouse hole. I have also seen a couple of antique rifles that had some mouse damage.
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I completely agree with you. These are some of the things I'm trying to learn. One thing in particular I see sometimes, and have been guilty of myself, are crude stitches. The idea that because someone wasn't a trained leather worker or because they're living out in the sticks that their stitching is crude. I suspect in reality that everyone's stitching was extraordinary back then being such a fundamental and necessary skill?
I may have to steal your mouse damage idea as truthfully I have nothing...
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The most common needed repair is a new strap connection but that’s seldom part of what contemporary artists do when making an aged bag with some damage.
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Thank you, Rich. What color does the area where the strap connection and the bag mate turn over time? When that connection finally breaks, what is the imprint of where it once was? Is it really dark and musty or lighter than the surrounding bag?
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I've been working on a number of horns over the weekend and taking a lot of L's. At this point I don't know who's getting what horn or even which ones are even going to finish off into one.
(https://i.ibb.co/CpwrLT5b/20250624-230443.jpg)
1. I bought that horn last year, treated myself to something that wasn't a dog chew. It was before I took Clinton Byers' horn class so I got greedy with the tip, and drilled out the side. Through it in my box and just dug it out last weekend. Luckily it drilled out the side of the tip. So I have this neat tool a journeyman horner showed me how to make where you can steer the hole but I couldn't really use it that well so I drilled another hole that ended up popping out just above the first. So I drilled a third hole and that one hit its mark. Since the first two holes didn't enter the body thankfully, my plan is to glue in a 1/4 dowel through the tip wall to fill the hole and make the exposed bit of wood look like bug damage.
2. This originally raw horn looked like a pine cone before I dressed it down. I discovered it is very thick throughout except right there in the body which was paper thin after I removed the bark. I figured I'd practice flattening it out anyways and that's when it split in the thin area. I plan on using black acraglass to a piece of horn shard on the inside of the horn to close up the hole, then I'm using steel staples on the outside to sell the repair. I think it still has cool potential in it and worst case scenario I'll get some practice doing different things.
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3. This was that rude looking horn I unwittingly purchased at the fair last year that I tried dressing the tip down to make it less rude but it was super thin on one side so I was dressing it off in preparation for an applied tip but the super thin area just kept wisping away regardless of how much I was avoiding it and eventually ended walking it back to the body. At that point I probably should have just transitioned to a rum horn or something instead of a powder horn...instead, I chose to test its resistance to ball peen hammer blows. Needless to say it possesses almost zero resistance to hammers of any sort. I'll cut out the remaining good section in the middle and do something with it. I don't know what though. Yet atleast.
4. Another flat horn primer I'm making. This one is really thick. Rather than dressing it down prior to flattening, I decided to just try it as is. It took forever to flatten and looks like a giant asymmetrical tumor. Hopefully I can dress it off into something presentable.
5. This one is going ok. The base plug however has been a nightmare. I wanted to make one of those folksy cone plugs but I didn't have any pine big enough so I used some maple, but it really wasn't working and I'll probably have to scrap the plug atleast and maybe do a 2 piece pine plug.
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6. This horn has a narly looking step near the base. Haven't seen an original that maintained that step, but I fear it would be much too small if I lop it off? Maybe someone here can comment?
7. The horn that started this thread. I pulled the facets back but fear I pulled them back a tiny bit too much? I don't know but I'll build it out and see where it takes me.
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Looks like you have enough to keep you busy for a while!
Looks like you are using rasps and files. You may know this already, but just in case, when you are working on horn (and wood, too, for that matter), it's a good idea to stop using rasps well before you get near to your final dimension. The teeth of a rasp can bruise the horn (and wood). So stop using the rasp and files earlier than you might think is necessary, and from that point switch to scraping. That will help you avoid having rasp stripes in your final product. (I'm not talking about texture. I'm talking about parallel stripes where stains affect the bruised areas differently than the areas around them. A horn can be bruised and you not even see it until you apply a stain. Same for wood.) You can scrape with a card scraper, or a knife, but I think one of the best for horns is a sharp pair of scissors. (Glass will work, too, but I don't like using it. I've had it break and chip while using it.)
Scrapers on horn will usually leave some tool marks. In my opinion, for "user" horns, small lines or ripples are not something that need to be polished out. I scrape horns as nicely as I can, then I rub them vigorously with wads of the scrapings to burnish them, but I do not polish out all evidence of scraping. The antique horns I own all show some ripples or other tool marks--evidence of being scraped. I find that final scraping is usually smoothest if it is from tip toward the base, as that works with the grain of the horn.
Another tip that you may or may not know, is when you are ready to make and fit the small plugs (spout end), you can use the tang of a file to scrape the inside of the spout hole so as to get a good taper. That's a good taper for a spout hole, so that the spout plug has a fiction fit but doesn't get stuck in damp weather. You can also use a small knife to scrape the spout hole right around the mouth of the spout just a bit more, to make that last 1/4" or so slightly larger in diameter, so that the plug doesn't fit tightly there. That helps keep the plug from cracking the spout as the horn shrinks and swells in the seasons.
Maybe you know this stuff already, but I wanted to share it. Maybe it will be useful to somebody.
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Thank you, whetrock, that was a lot of helpful advice that I'm looking forward to trying out! I'll keep you updated on how it all works out as this thread progresses.
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My friend Phil has a different approach to the issue you mention. He files a slight relief in the stopper:
(https://i.ibb.co/mV3X1BdC/IMG-20250626-160854.jpg)
I'm sure they're both good methods, just different approaches.
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Frozen Run, Thanks for sharing that other technique. That's helpful. It's a clever solution.
I only have five antique horns here right now. I just checked them. The makers of two of them used the method I mentioned. The makers of the other three didn't. Five is not a very large sample, but it's still helpful to compare.
With the two that did use this technique, the lip of the horn is relatively fine. With the others it is relatively thick. I like the finer lip, myself. But both are "correct" as far as antiques go.
Only one of the horns I have here has its original spout plug. That one just has a simple tapered plug, with no relief carved into it. That's on one of the horns with a thicker lip. I just mention that to tell you what I have. I think Phil's technique is a good one.
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That is interesting finding out about the relief in the tip on those originals. Conversely, It's puzzling when you see or learn about original items and the maker was not concerned with or was unaware of simple preventative steps to common problems.
I wonder what were some of the more common repairs they used for a cracked tip?
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A sewing thimble works good and can be seen on some original horns. FWIW On that relief at the tip, it that horn is ever dropped and lands on the tip the bulbus finial will be broken off and the remaining wood will be the devil to get out.
Tim
PS: Nice work so far. TC
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A sewing thimble works good and can be seen on some original horns. FWIW On that relief at the tip, it that horn is ever dropped and lands on the tip the bulbus finial will be broken off and the remaining wood will be the devil to get out.
Tim
PS: Nice work so far. TC
Good point!
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Tim, I'm not sure if it matters or not, but Phil says that drawing of the relief is exaggerated? Are you saying both methods are not advised? Thank you.
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Provided the relief is not pinched, it seems to me that Phil's technique should be fine. The technique I suggested should be fine as well.
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Tim, I'm not sure if it matters or not, but Phil says that drawing of the relief is exaggerated? Are you saying both methods are not advised? Thank you.
I have always used just tapered pegs, never thought of the relief or heard of it. I'm sure horns go through many stoppers during years of use. I'd go with what you feel comfortable with doing.
Tim
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(https://i.ibb.co/vxQ1QHtf/20250629-235534.jpg)
1. Shaped it a little more and plugged the hole in the tip wall with a 5/16 hickory dowel. I had to go up to 5/16 because between the overlapping holes, 1/4 was too loose. I blew out a nasty shard of horn in the tip running the 5/16 bit through it. Whatever.
2. Shaped it a little more and installed the base plug. I was originally going to do a staple repair of the crack in the body, but decided to just glue a horn shard over it and do a leather wrap as it will be easier to do and will look better I believe. I've seen a leather wrap on some of Tim's horns which is where I got the idea. Then the base cracked a little as I was installing the plug so I guess it's getting staples as well.
3. This was the hammer experiment horn. I cut off the bad bits and will likely turn a tip for it.
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4. This is the horn i experimented with by flattening it before shaping it out. That was a bad idea. Besides it being much harder to flatten, it was very difficult to shape without being able to insert one of Tim's stakes. I shaped it a little and installed the base plug.
5. Shaped the base.
6. Shaped some and fit the base plug. I have this really greasy idea with this horn to do a 3 piece pine plug with faux stripes. 3 piece because to get pine that big I would have to buy posts which are all pressure treated from what I can tell and I didn't feel like breathing in the chemicals. I hope to disguise the fact it is 3 pieces.
7. Shaped this a bit and started engrailing it. I like doing stuff in layers since I know I will be distressing the item. It gives it depth. The engrailing is currently poor, even for a folk horn. It will need a lot of clean up. I started with a gouge but went to a dremel and will go back to a gouge. I really don't know what I'm doing here. In your mind it's so simple, scoop it out with the gouge. In practice, horn is unforgiving and dulls your tools quickly. I experimented with the dremel but I don't know if that is the solution?
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7. The engrailing was a mess, and I presented the good side to the camera... I messed around with it some, maybe if I knew what I was doing I could have fixed it? I just knocked it off with a rasp. The problem now is that the already too high up facets are now 50/50 with the body and 50/50 is boring so I just took the facets up as high as I could and I'll figure something out later.
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Frozen Run,
You are learning, and that's an important goal in itself!
Regarding the engrailing, are you struggling with the spacing, or with the cutting?
For the spacing, I usually just look at it from the end and put 2 pencil marks directly opposite each other. Rotate it a few times to check them, and adjust as necessary. Then turn the horn and put marks half way between those first marks. Again adjusting as necessary. Then add marks between those marks, and so forth, bisecting each time until the marks are evenly spaced and of the spacing I want.
It's also possible to wrap a piece of tape around it, mark the diameter on the tape, then take the tape off and stick it to something flat and slick, such as a counter top. Then measure off your spacing on the tape. When done, then pull the tape off the counter tip and put it back on the horn and transfer the marks.
You may want to add a line behind the engrailing, as well, to help you establish how deep you want each cut to go. This will mostly be determined by the shape of the gouge in relation to the spacing, but it can still be helpful to have a line to look at.
As for cutting, I do it with a gouge.
With a gouge, I take small bites, again and again, until I have finally cut it as deep as I want. I find it best to cut between the marks, leaving the marks until the very end. I go around and around the horn with tiny bites, working on consistency, taking small bites until I have cut out the area between the marks, then I stop. Maybe some guys just do it with big bites of the gouge, but I just find it easier to get good cuts and consistent spacing if I do it the way I explained. You have to adjust the angle of the decent so that it scoops out the material, rather than just diving in deep. Imagine what you would need if you were trying to carve a wooden spoon. Each dip in the engrailing is like 1/3 of a spoon-shaped depression. If you aren't used to controlling gouges like this, then you could practice on the edge on the end of a piece of hardwood.
Hope this helps.
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Regarding the butt plug and needing to glue pieces together, are you trying to have end grain showing? A lot of horns were made with end grain showing, but it's also perfectly fine for the plug to be cut out of a flat piece. Both types occur in antiques. So if you don't have a piece of pine big enough to use end grain, you could use also use a piece of spruce shelving board or something like that. Carving a circle out of a piece of flat material is a bit more difficult than carving it from end grain, but your rasps can make short work of it.
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Thank you for your help on the matter! My problem was both. I didn't lay the design out initially, I just had an idea and ran with it and it didn't work out at all. And also cutting out the engrailing. This horn is brutally hard. I'm not sure how much of that is the horn itself and how much is from cooking it off to flatten? But it is not soft like you see on a lot of polished horns.
I'm not really sure about the plug. I just had this really greasy idea and thought I'd try it out. It's either going to work out stunningly or it'll be a complete failure and I'll work on something else. I scored and colored the mating surfaces to help bind and hide the clear 2 part glue line respectively. I plan on drilling and gluing in a dowel for extra support. If the dowel accidentally pops out the side then I will dress it up to look like an inclusion. I'm also going to hollow out the plug somewhat.
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(https://i.ibb.co/JLYHddY/20250701-023129.jpg)
1. Shaped it out some more. Not sure if the facets are staying or going. It's kind of thin. The tip repair came out pretty good.
2. Repaired crack in the body with wood glue and horn shard. It's air tight. Going to do a leather wrap once it dries.
3. Discussed bone tip with my friend Phil.
4. This one was on its way to becoming an honest to goodness dandy. The plug fit really well, it did leave an obnoxious little gap between the rim of the base and the plug in one small spot which I probably could have just packed with wax as it was totally cosmetic...but instead I dressed it down and was going to finally add some staples to something, but the staples were really annoying so I just added some metal pins. Whatever. I also shaped it some more.
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5. Installed the base plug. It's going to be a high dome, a little scrimshaw on a slender horn. This one should be a home run.
6. Shaped it out some more. I ran a 1/2" dowel through the 3 piece base plug and completely blew out the top piece. Added more glue and went back in the vise.
7. This is the horn I rasped off my shody engrailing from yesterday. Problem is I have nothing to transition out of the facets with and the horn is too thin to run the facets up the whole length. I've been methodically removing ugly bits hoping to make something out of it. I'm thinking about just covering it in scrimshaw. I'll have to wait and see where this horn takes me.
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So I was in my workshop having one of those nights where you could do no wrong. I decided I wanted to dress horn #3 up a bit and flatten it. It was totally solid, but my draw knife was easily peeling off large strips of horn like you would pull the husks off of corn, without even trying. For context my draw knife is wicked dull, not something I'm proud of but important for the story. I dress it down a good bit, get the horn good and malleable, begin to flatten it, heat gun heating the horn and the jaws, juggling the shims, and the slightest bit of pressure and I hear the crack.
And not a tiny crack either, but one so long that if it was any longer it would have split the floor I was standing on. Not a problem, I think to myself, I'll just use one of these mythical staples that never actually come to fruition or solve anything. Reset, give it another go and it cracked on a different side and delaminated a third. Well I'm not one to give up easily but this accursed horn just wasn't meant to be so now I'm making a spoon. I've always wanted to make one and honestly 6 horns may be all I can juggle at one time?
I also cut out and distressed a D shaped piece of leather to patch my bag's flap.
Pictures are going to have to wait for the next update. It's late and I want popcorn.
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(https://i.ibb.co/B59bkxK3/20250704-005416.jpg)
Progress!
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Looking good!
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Thank you! I noticed after the picture I took that horn #6 revealed a tiny pin prick hole in the neck. I'm not sure how compromised the surrounding area is. I'm thinking about titebond 2 a horn shard over the area and then covering it up with either rawhide or a cord wrap like you see on ball bags. Horn work can be maddening at times, everything around the hole is like a quarter inch thick that thins out to almost nothing in that one spot.
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I talked to the future recipient of the bag, sent him a picture and gave him the option of as it is now or with a patch in the flap. He prefers how it looks now with the hole so that is what I'm going with.
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(https://i.ibb.co/3bK3N6m/20250714-001556.jpg)
1. Fit, installed, and shaped the base plug. Tweaked the facets a bit.
2. I had that crack near the base that I sealed with titebond 2. I figured nows my chance to finally do a staple repair. The base plug was already installed, so I cut barbs into the staple to hold it. Drilled my holes and began tapping it in, until it stopped. It wouldn't go any further and I can't pull it out. I added an eyelet in the base to obfuscate matters and pull your attention away from the staple. I also scrimshawed a border that I experimented coloring it with a sharpy. I'll have to go over it again and use ink this time as the sharpy didn't work out so well for me.
3. I acquired a 2nd spoon to study.
4. I scrimshawed the horn. It's awaiting color. This is the horn I'm making for Simeon as a gift for the excellent flint and steel he gave me last year.
5. I finished tweaking it for the most part, awaiting scrimshaw.
6. I shaped the cone out really nice and started drilling out a pilot for the screw and it blew out a nasty chunk of wood. The pilot was like 3/32 or something small and it just split the top of the cone. Oh well. I dressed it off and tweaked the horn, played around with some color on the base plug.
7. I squeezed everything I can on of this horn and am beginning to scrimshaw in some pennsylvania dutch designs to turn it into a polychrome horn. I want to experiment with inks and colors and this horn kind of has some dutch swagger going for it. Not a whole lot, but it's got some.
8. Perceptive viewers will have noticed an 8th horn project going on here. I used to know a guy who knew I was into horns and he found something at the flea market and gave it to me. The neck was likely plastic and missing and the body has two small holes in it to feed a piece of cord through. The body is honest to goodness horn though.
I was reading somewhere and saw pictures of an original with a wood plug filling bug damage and got the idea to try that on this horn. My friend Doran gifted me an antique horns with a lot of interesting ideas that I will try to incorporate into this one. I don't have high hopes for this project so I'm not ready to change the title of this thread just yet...
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(https://i.ibb.co/LhC97J8v/20250723-012105.jpg)
1. I didn't like how clunky and boring this horn was so I made some changes. You can see the dowel from the miss drill. I will probably need to extract that and change things around some.
8. I turned a tip from walnut. I didn't want to practice on horn being as expensive as it is. I copied somewhat a carved tip off a horn my budy Phil made. I also fit and installed the base plug. I cut a tiny rectangular hole near the rim and whittled the base plug back some so that a strip of leather can be fed through the side and tacked on the top of the plug. I'll make a leather stopper for it to help mitigate cumulative swelling.
9. I force myself on the GM at work and show him horn pictures. Long story short, I'm making him a horn for his office. It's going to have a naval scene on it where he's fighting a sea serpent.
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...
9. I force myself on the GM at work and show him horn pictures. Long story short, I'm making him a horn for his office. It's going to have a naval scene on it where he's fighting a sea serpent.
I look forward to seeing that!
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Thank you.
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(https://i.ibb.co/3YMBmcBn/20250725-013208.jpg)
4. I inked the scrimshaw, it still needs touched up. It reads:
SIMEON ENGLND
SMITH OF ALL SORTS
FIRLOCKS *HAWKS
KNIVE*SYTHES AND
SYTHING ACCOUTERMENTS
BLACKSMITHng
WHITESMITHng
GREYSMITHng
MOUNTAINSIDE
COBBLER->TUESDAYS
NATURALIST
VICTOR OF NO
FEWER THAN 3
FOOTRACES
BUT NO MORE THEN
FIVE FOOTRACES
MOONLITE FROG
CATCHER
LOVER OF SOUPS
HUMBLY,
HIS HORN.
7. Began scrimshawing. Still needs a lot of work.
8. Shaped it some.
9. Shaped this one some more.
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SIMEON ENGLND
SMITH OF ALL SORTS
FIRLOCKS *HAWKS
KNIVE*SYTHES AND
SYTHING ACCOUTERMENTS
BLACKSMITHng
WHITESMITHng
GREYSMITHng
MOUNTAINSIDE
COBBLER->TUESDAYS
NATURALIST
VICTOR OF NO
FEWER THAN 3
FOOTRACES
BUT NO MORE THEN
FIVE FOOTRACES
MOONLITE FROG
CATCHER
LOVER OF SOUPS
HUMBLY,
HIS HORN.
;D
Outstanding poetry! Will be a treasured heirloom, I'm sure!
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Will be a treasured heirloom, I'm sure!
That is my hope. Though as an unsolicited present from a nearly complete stranger I need to face the possibility that it may get tossed in the waste bin as well.
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(https://i.ibb.co/Vc1H2nTn/20250729-020633.jpg)
2. Played around with color some and stitched a wet piece of bark tan to cover the repair I made a while back.
4. Played around with color.
5. Colored it some and began scrimshawing. The opposite side had some of my best scrimshaw to date but I guess I didn't cut it in deep enough because I lost most of the other side with steel wool. Whatever.
6. Color, engrailed the ring, and installed a wood plug. I think I kissed the inside of the horn barely when drilling the spout. I tried packing a little wood glue a couple times and then later with 2 part epoxy but it wouldn't take. The area would get stressed and a tiny leak would form. I drilled it out and glued a wood plug in to simulate a period bug damage repair. I kept the plug proud because I like how it looks like a wort.
7. Played around with color.
9. Shaped it out some more and roughed in some basic scrimshaw.
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Some stuff I finished up:
(https://i.ibb.co/S4YXFBXM/20250731-000356.jpg)
(https://i.ibb.co/nNSGt3L7/20250731-000618.jpg)
(https://i.ibb.co/VcNBnYrk/20250731-000748.jpg)
(https://i.ibb.co/gF3qGP19/20250731-000805.jpg)
(https://i.ibb.co/zTHpLhLY/20250731-001033.jpg)
(https://i.ibb.co/v6FSn3W3/20250731-001112.jpg)
(https://i.ibb.co/C5y7vw68/20250731-001303.jpg)
(https://i.ibb.co/Q7NMJ439/20250731-001315.jpg)
(https://i.ibb.co/k6xrx0fY/20250731-001451.jpg)
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(https://i.ibb.co/3ycgCBgS/20250801-195215.jpg)
(https://i.ibb.co/yBdyP497/20250801-195230.jpg)
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The failed flattening attempt mentioned a number of posts back, I saved the carcass, I'm going to revive it as a ball horn. A ball horn does not need to be air tight, it can in fact have gaps and openings as large as slightly smaller than the size of the roundball you want to keep in there.
This is probably my biggest tip for any new horners out there: SAVE EVERYTHING!
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(https://i.ibb.co/JFdJsD1k/20250808-012011.jpg)
3a. Here is that failed flattening of the previously rude horn that I'm now turning into a ball horn. I dressed it down some. The mouth split a little when I was drilling out the mouth to 1/2". Whatever. I have the cracks glued up now but plan on more substantial repairs later on. My plan is to paint it blue.
3b. The spoon mold I started carving.
8. Fixed hole from previous owner. Started finishing the spout I turned.
9. Dressed it down some.
I found this older knife at the antique store for a couple dollars. I removed the handle and plan on turning it into a trade knife.
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(https://i.ibb.co/cSKZk2jF/20250813-031159.jpg)
3a. Continued shaping, then painted it blue.
8. Shaped it some.
9. Began engrailing and scrimshaw. Still needs touched up and adjusted in certain areas.
II. This is not my work but a belt pouch I purchased at a rendezvous. Unfortunately my one friend John insisted I make him a bag and that bag needs a donor face so here we go. For the sake of future discussion, I am retroactively labeling the initial bag in this discussion "I".
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(https://i.ibb.co/Ng0H3s8h/20250816-212603.jpg)
(https://i.ibb.co/W4q85Yzz/20250816-212634.jpg)
(https://i.ibb.co/d40qXbHC/20250816-212705.jpg) (https://ibb.co/PGZnJTVX)
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I’m a fan of the way that you age your work! Very interesting thread to follow, thank you
Tony
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Thank you for the kind words!
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I've been at a rendezvous the last couple of weekends so I haven't been doing much in my shop. I still thought it a good time to get some updates in.
(https://i.ibb.co/7tghY0Y7/20250903-011227.jpg)
1 and 8. Haven't really done much, threw some color on. Not really sure how exactly I'm going finish these out. They both have a lot of really cool potential so I don't want to waste it.
3a. Toned the blue down with hot dye and it cracked, fit and installed the base plug and it cracked, drove a staple in and it cracked, tried with a second staple and that cracked too. The linen wrap turned out well. The cork I bartered from a guy who had no interest in letting it go.
10. I bought this mounted rack off a trade blanket and the horns on it were tiny, and from the Philippines. My one friend practically begged me to make him a horn so my plan here is to see if I can squeeze two bad ideas hard enough to press them into one good idea.
III. A different friend of mine, the one I started this thread for, made the most wonderful spontoon pipe hawk and gave it to me so now I'm making him a waxed haversack and a flint and tool wallet. Growing up I heard coke can take the chrome off a bumper so I'm going to see if it'll take the chrome off that buckle.
I will start a separate thread for the spontoon pipe hawk.
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(https://i.ibb.co/cKbSN9qp/20250929-005806.jpg) (https://ibb.co/4wsnjLkD)
1. Just to recap on this horn, I had blown out the side when drilling the spout some time back but did not drill into the body thankfully, so I glued in a dowel to make the area look like bug damage and successfully redrilled the spout. The dowel repair is fine, but there was the tiniest of gaps at one end near the tip end that I pushed some glue in and it sealed up fine but it was bugging me pun intended so I just kept this horn on the back burner while I worked on other projects. In hindsight I regret not fixing the hole with pewter. I didn't know what to do with it because the plan was to make a generically PA dandy but all that was coming out was a lot of homespun swagger. So I decided to drill out the area I wasn't really happy with, plug it with a dowel with the plan to make a super greasy horn with some insane scrimshaw on it.
3a. Somewhere underneath there is a ball horn. Ball horn or ball flask? Someone please correct me. Is ball horn a correct term and/or can it be a ball flask if made out of horn instead of metal?
8. I dressed it down some more and pinned the walnut tip. The stopper will be a rolled up bit of leather like I saw Tim do on one of his horns once. I'd like to do some scrimshaw work on it, but I can't decide what. It's going to take advantage of the fact this horn is meant to represent one that was cut down from a larger horn. I have some fun ideas rolling around, but I don't know what yet.
10. I really did not like the direction this horn was going so I threw in the towel on the rings idea, I rasped them off and am making a screw tip. I cut the threads and screwed on the horn tip.
Absent from the picture as I forgot to include it is the chrome buckle I tried stripping with coke. The results of the experiment are a couple tiny flecks of chrome floating in the coke, my conclusion here is:
1. Coke will not strip chrome off a buckle.
or
2. The buckle is not chrome.
Whatever.
Also, you'll see a small pile of deer foreheads in the picture as I've been buying racks at flea markets and at a rendezvous. Does anyone know what I can do with them? I'd hate for them to go to waste. Thank you.
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(https://i.ibb.co/CpWxYVPV/20251004-180522.jpg)
(https://i.ibb.co/XkvQJKGs/20251004-180652.jpg)
1. I repaired the repaired tip, installed a staple, colored it more, and scrimshawed the horn. It's ready for further color and finish.
Instead of the staple, I wanted to curl a cut nail and pound that in which I've seen on originals. I decided not to though because I'm pretty far into the horn and didn't want to risk splitting the base plug. And because I was concerned it would be a bit much esthetically.
I wanted to make a map horn and I know who it's going to so I thought it be fun to make a map horn around the 1989 NES game Friday the 13th. I changed things around though to stay loosely in period. The date on it is July 13th 1792, which is the summertime Friday the 13th in that year. Instead of the fictional county of Wessex, I changed it to the fictional The Wessex Territory to make it sound less settled, stuff like that.
(https://i.ibb.co/gb6Qz6zK/20251004-181144.jpg) (https://ibb.co/205Rg5g4)
(https://i.ibb.co/vvdtg8Y4/20251004-181120.jpg)
8. Here is a horn modeled from a horn cut down from a larger horn. Originally this horn started off as a fragment, missing kneck, 2 holes drilled in the body with a shoelace, other issues. One hole I eliminated as it was very close to the base which was cracked up. The other hole I plugged with a dowel as was done in period. The tip is turned walnut, I didn't want to practice on bone as it's expensive. It turned out well so I just ran with it. Turned walnut is correct.
I talked to the future owner and he wanted the Square and Compass on it so I copied it from an original Mercer county horn somebody posted here. The initials on the horn are an older family member of his and I carved his initials in the base plug. I used different color ink on the scrimshaw to try and imply they were scrimshawed at different times.
The rings I shaped were from body horn and I don't believe I was able to shape them deep enough to be functional with the thickness I had to work with so I installed a drawer pull. I got the ring pull from an old molding plane. I start screwing it in and and the ring starts buckling so I just remove it thinking it was just a split ring. Well, it was a split ring resting on two dimples!
The darn thing isn't drilled straight through so I get out my cordless drill and drill for like 20 minutes, an impossible amount of time, an impossible mountain of brass shavings piling up on my shirt before I drilled through. And it pulled my drill through and the battery cracked that slot in the base rim that the strap was going to feed through. Oh well. You see it common on originals where there was a slot on the side of the horn and the base plug wallowed out some and then the strap would be nailed to the base plug. I don't know why the rigamarole of going through all that just to nail it to the base plug? Doesn't matter, I'll just add some more nails. This is ready for more color and finishing up.
The ruby stone is there as a flex.
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(https://i.ibb.co/60Dtz57k/20251006-010559.jpg)
11. I got both of these horns off one of those mounts you see at flea markets and thrift stores for 20 bucks. Wafer thin the entire length and almost no tip, I decided to make a couple of quick and dirty horns. The base was pretty tore up on this one so I sawed it off. The wacky thing about this horn is it has 1/8 dowel for pins instead of the usual tooth picks. I don't think I'll like it.
12. This one I thought I could save the base but it only caused it to split when I fit the base plug, so I backed it off some and packed the crack with glue. I had considered just cutting it off and refitting the plug, but this whole horn is pretty rough. If that stabilizes things then I'll do a barktan wrap.
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(https://i.ibb.co/d4czXM62/20251009-004700.jpg) (https://ibb.co/0yXd12ZM)
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(https://i.ibb.co/jZB5DFLf/20251009-005425.jpg)
(https://i.ibb.co/vxxSzVP4/20251009-005050.jpg)
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(https://i.ibb.co/wNdHH0h6/20251009-005819.jpg)
(https://i.ibb.co/8gJjYHfZ/20251009-005804.jpg)
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Grungy! Great job on grunge, color, patina - a very interesting horn.
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Well done, they look right.
Tim
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Thank you Rich and Tim!
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So......Donnie shows up at the Trades Fair with a horn for Phil Campbell. He shows it to me....it looks totally different from what is seen in the pictures. It has that 'look'....it has a feel of genuineness, it looks like some sort of time traveler with a heady story to tell. It just POW!.....it's makes one wonder what stories lurk in this work.
Good job Donnie, you've got a talent, keep on a going 👏
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The pictures aren't too shabby though.
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I'm far from needing that buckle I mentioned earlier so I've just left it in the coke where much to my surprise there is now a considerable layer of something floating in the coke. It appears that given enough time, coke will in fact strip mystery plating off a buckle. The only question that remains now is how does it taste!
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That and what will remain of the buckle ;D
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I've been keeping a pretty close eye on the buckle, I've also looked up buckle anatomy. The bar and prong are completely stripped of whatever was on it and is now completely black. The frame is being more resilient and is currently a hodgepodge of colors and textures.