I haven't posted anything for awhile, so I thought I'd better correct that. Here's an F&I horn that I have been working on for awhile, Here's a bit of history. I met a rancher from Eastern Oregon who raises Japanese cattle and I told him about my making powder horns. He said that he might have some horns lying about the ranch and he'd send me some. Well what I got was a matched pair of big horns plus a massive elk shed that was 'just lying around'. I had been eying the horns and thinking that they were perfect for a lobed horn. So I decided that the horn would go to the rancher as my thanks. The horn came along fairly rapidly, however as usual, I had to think on what to engrave. I wanted the owner's name in a car-touche', so that was the first thing I put on. I had also seen a nice floral pattern on an original F&I period horn that I liked, so I decided to break up the engraving on the body with that. After a lot of thought I decided to put a hunter taking a shot at a deer (the hunter is my modification of the "Pointed Tree" hunter), a couple 18th century sayings and a border around the body/throat junction and at the base. The horn was then stained with RIT dye; dark brown on the throat and lemon yellow with a pinch of black on the body. The base plug is clear fir, painted with Soldier Blue milk paint. The strap is from Kris Polizzi of Pennsylvnia and matches the base plug. I made leather tabs for the strap and stained them with vinegar dye.
I also made a 50 gr measure from a tip of the elk shed to go with the horn and strap. Needless to say the rancher (who didn't know about this little project) got a nice Christmas present. He called me up and said that he's afraid to take it out and use it, much less show it to his shooting buddies...
Scott
