How To Make A Horn Look Aged

[Frizzen]

What's the best and easy way to make a horn have that aged yellolish look?

[Mark Elliott]

I think this post is in the wrong place, but I will answer it anyway.   There are a couple of ways.  The one I use is to apply aqua fortis.   You apply and heat just like you do on a gun stock.    I apply once, heat, and then lightly steel wool.   Then I apply and heat a second time.   Make sure you get the horn hot.   Heat it until it starts to turn orange.    Don't stop at just yellow.   Your horn will need to have all the wax scraped off that was applied with your horn was polished.    It usually take a couple of tries on my part to get the horn completely clean.   Just steel wool off (not completely off) the color if it didn't take evenly.   By evenly, I mean you don't have areas where the aqua fortis obviously didn't take.   

If you want to age on top of that, I use oil based walnut stain and powdered graphite.

I hope this helps.

Mark E.

[jwh1947]

Or, you could give it to Art DeCamp up in Huntingdon, PA.  He works wonders with screw-tips and his prices are quite fair.  I have put his horns next to originals and have found that many aware and intelligent people can't tell the difference.  I proudly own eight and will  buy more.  Hey, Art, I could use a Dauphin Co. horn.  If you crank one out by the time of Dixon's, I'll take it sight unseen. 

[rich pierce]

i've boiled in onion skins and gotten a good result.  I personally prefer a dullish tan to brown look over the bright yellow/orange/reddish ones dyed with RIT dye.  Aquafortis is usually spotty for me but gives great color.

[B. Hey]

Has anyone had success with the "strong tea" process? Also, has anyone tried the "stain" made by soaking rusted iron in vinegar? So much to learn .. so little time .. and a fading memory to boot :-) Thanks ... Bill

[Pete G.]

The Rit treatment can be toned down a little with a rubbiing of Laural mountain stains. I used Lancaster Maple because I had a little left over. It will rub off of some of the high spots over a period of time, but that really just enhances the look.

[DaveL]

my 13 year old son was building a horn, his first, and we did aquafortis on his try piece but settled for the laurel mountain Lancaster maple because it did so well with the try piece that we thought we would give it a go.  Looks great but wasn't sure how long it will last. 
We came in from the work bench and I saw this post and was pleased to hear we weren't the first.  As fun as it is to do these things alone watching your kids do well and enjoy them has to be the best.

[BrownBear]

I come at it kinda "backwards," having learned the stunt in our brandings.  We always seem to come up with a few heifers from the sales with horns (though too small even for priming horns).  No answer for it but to take them off, which means using the big dehorning nippers, then cauterizing.  Lots of blood, plenty of which gets on the horns.  Any of those that don't get carried off by the dogs go into the bone yard.

I noticed some of these months later after a long period sitting in the sun, then being rained on, retained a really pleasing color wherever they had blood on them.  I 'sperimented with rubbing blood on another horn from the yard, then letting it sit a few days before washing and waxing.  It looks good enough that I'm going to try it on a build next time I get the chance.  Probably look funny carrying a finished horn to a branding, but that's the best source I know of.  Might do just as well with blood from a tub of beef liver from the market though.  Can't say for sure how well it will wear till I play with the idea more, but even if the color wears through here and there over time, I'm betting I'll like the results.  Not really "yellow" yet, but maybe that will happen years from now.  In the meantime, it sure looks good to my eye.  Sorry no pics.

[Sequatchie Rifle]

I find that using and handling them frequently in all types of weather works wonders!

[skillman]

I wondered when someone would bring this up. Everything was new omce and I don't think that anyone would rush to make it look old. I think that "weather" is the best way to age things. I'm not in a hurry.
Steve