What to do now - Cracked Horn

[G. Elsenbeck]

Yeah, I know, don't try too hard to 'round' an oval horn.....too often.  After I vowed to not get any oval horns I found this one in my inventory I tried to forget I had and decided to use some things on it.  After a couple of attempts and methods (hot oil and then boiled water) I got it to be acceptable then just left it alone since last September.  Finally picked it up again and decided what I was going to do with it.  I remember I was removing the sizer and taking a couple of more measurements and putting the sizer back it when I went to the lathe to turn a cherry plug.  It was on the last attempt that I thought it would be a good idea to give the sizer a nice 'rap' to keep it snug until I would get back to the horn.  Now there's only one bad thing that could happen,,,,,,yep, I cracked the lip of the horn.   :-[So much for putting it away for a later time.  Anyway, the way I figure there are either those horners that have cracked a horn and those that will.   
For now all I've done is apply some good hide glue on the inside, applied a 'circle clamp', inserted the plug and pegged.  Then I did set aside - again until now.  I did play with some new 'scratchin tools' from Mike Hawkins and did put a little scrim.  So far I guess I'll call this the Survivor. 
So now all you creative horner or designers here's your time to help decide what theme I'll do with this.  What's the latest thing I thought might 'hide' that insideous crack is take some formed veg tan leather for the base plug area.  We'll see if that gets used or not. 
Any want to chime in?  At least the subject should generate some likely chuckling amongst for the audience.  Maybe there's a category at Dixon's for the ugliest or 'what not to do' for horns. 
Gary

[Pete G.]

Seal the crack on the inside with epoxy. Finish it out, apply some wire staples across the crack and and antique it. I don't remember exactly where I saw it, but a while back someone had offered some horns with simulated repairs on them and had a whole bunch of guys wanting one. The living history guys love that kind of stuff.

[G. Elsenbeck]

Boy that didn't get long to hear from someone.  Pete, I bet if they like the 'simulated' reparis I'll bet they'll have an o........ with this one. LOL.
If I hadn't already put the plug in place......... shoulda, coulda, woulda.
Gary

[Cory Joe Stewart]

I know you hate it.  Looks like you were pretty far along when it happened. 
I agree with the staple idea, there have been several of those come up on the CLA webpage like that and they do look good.  With modern epoxy the staples don't have to work, they just look good. 

The leather is a great idea to.

As fine as that is though you may not need to do that, just epoxy.  I cracked one sometime back flattening it, but it was a real neat line so I just gave it a couple of layers of strong epoxy on the inside and left it at that.  I even worked it into the engraving design to hide it. 
NOW, I did tell the client what I had done.  Honesty is the best policy.  I told him that if it ever caused him a problem let me know and we will fix it right. 

If it makes you feel any better I am shipping a horn tomorrow for the second time because I left a letter off of some of the engraving .  DOH!

Coryjoe

[Brian]

There are some real horn experts on this site that can give you technical advice on what to do regarding the "repair".  I just wanted to say that's a great looking horn!  My guess is after you do the "period correct looking repair" it's going to turn out to be even nicer than what you had in mind when you started.  Please post a "finished" picture once it's done.

[Leprechaun]

Just give it to some guy named "Jimmy" and then you can say " It's Jimmy's cracked horn and I don't care".

[Frank Barker]

Gary......Just send that old thing down here to West Virginia and I'll get rid of it for you. I know you don't want it laying around the shop.........What are friends for anyway.                         Frank

[Berks Liberty]

Gary,

Since it is on the side of the horn I would do a map horn with it and put the crack within an area where a river would come down through it.  When you shade that area it will blend the crack in.  epoxy from the inside to seal it but if you don't want to go that far I'd just apply bees wax into the crack after you are done with the scrimshaw.  This way you don't have to apply a leather strap or staple it or make it look like it cracked.  Piece or art work that would still be able to be used in todays shooting world.  I think scrimshaw would cover that real nice.  Good Luck

Jason

[Ephraim]

I have an old horn that was repaired with rawhide I would use that instead of leather it will look better I think.
Ephraim

[rich pierce]

I repaired one with a brass patch, nails and cutler's resin- pine pitch, charcoal and beeswax.  It sold quickly on one of the trekking forums.  The idea was to simulate a field repair w/o removing the plug.  It is important to drill a hole at the end of the crack else it can extend.  About 1/8" will stop a crack; just make sure you're drilling at the end as a crack may extend deeper on the inside than the outside.





This shows how it cracked (same reason, one too many taps) and what needed to be covered.

[Mitch]

Rich, What did you apply to get that nice golden brown color to the finished horn?

[rich pierce]

I used onion-skin dye to color the horn.  It takes pretty well.  Take about a tight fistfull of dry brown onion skins, boil for an hour or so in enough water to cover the horn, and then strain.  Soak the horn in the hot juice (not boiling).  If your horn is already plugged etc sop it on there and wrap with a sopped towel in a large pan, flip it over, pour more of the liquor on there till it gets even and a little darker than you want.  Rub the surface junk off by buffing hard with a linen cloth.

The picture of the horn on the bottom is pre-stain.

As you can see it covers p-retty well and uniformly.

[T.C.Albert]

Now that the plug is pegged in your options are a bit limited for a true repair. I might carve and color the horn exactly like you would have were the crack not there...then cover the crack, sadly, carving and all with wrap of "thin" raw hide wide enough to cover the crack and part of the plug.Allow alot for shrinkage, you can trim it off later when its dry if there is too  much. The hide must be soaked wet in warm water. Stitch it in place with thin rawhide lace cut from the same raw hide and soaked wet as well. Deer or even goat works best...it will dry hard and kind of translucent and cover the crack with an obvious repair...which is okay.

You can buy a rawhide goat skin "drum" head cheap from a traditional music type supply shop....or try Moscow Fur and Hide...case skinning a squirrel and slipping it over the repair works too if the base of the horn is large enough...its alot of prep time dehairing the hide etc, but it does make a seamless repair...a gopher or chipmunk might work for a smaller horn....

This will give a traditional backwoods looking and functional repair...but honestly, that looks like a high class horn and the repair as described may look a bit incongrous unless you age the horn to match it a bit? If you think that may be so, a simple bead of pitch over the crack may look better? Below is a rawhide repair I had to do for similar reasons.


TCA

[J.D.]

Just give it to some guy named "Jimmy" and then you can say " It's Jimmy's cracked horn and I don't care".

Now that there's funny, I don't care who ya are. 

[G. Elsenbeck]

Well guys I received alot of good feedback as to treating the obvious crack.  My intial theme of the horn was going to be scrimmed in the manner of an F&I powder horn to match the carving thus far.  Incorporating the crack with some scrim was suggested and seems like a good idea.  Of course once all done I will revisit applying some rawhide as suggested by T.C..  Will depend how well or not the engraving goes.  I was also thinking of attaching the strap staple to the side of the horn that would straddle the top crack.  Again, not trying to hide, but rather incorporate it into the overall design.  After all, this will become a 'survivor' and if room, would like to scrimm a small area with a Rev War theme.  Kind of thinking of a father handing to his son the horn he used during an earlier F&I era.  We'll see. 
At a minimum, the horn will become a subject of conversation.  As it is now, it is air tight and nice and light that will hug the right hand side.    I'll keep you posted as progress is completed.  Looks like a little side project during the summer.  Thanks all your inputs.  They are appreciated.
Gary