Hi Folks,
Well, show and tell time. I just finished up (literally) a wonderful horn kit from Ron Hess. He is a super "encourager". I did the primitive scrimshaw...bringing new meaning to the word primitive.
The horn has a two-piece antler tip, a horn band at the base, and a turned curly maple base. The stopper is rosewood.
I used black tea, brown shoe polish, and black shoe polish (in that order) on the tip. The band is stained with black tea, and then coated with Valspar Antiquing Glaze "Moose". The base is aqua fortis, blushed, and finished in low gloss Tung Oil. The aqua fortis really blushed dark on the one application. I think it looks nice though, but more like black walnut than maple. The horn body is yellow and orange Rit Dye, rubbed back with 0000 and then dyed again. There are several iterations of lampblack added and removed due to scrimshaw failures, but they seemed to simply make the horn look older to my eye.
The scrimshaw image was unashamedly stolen from Blake Stevenson's schützen target hanging on the wall of the Vogler gun shop in Old Salem, NC. What a goofy looking buck. I loved it, and so copied it on the horn with alterations. Ron's wife Louise raided Ron's show and sent me scrap horn to practice on. Good thing too.
My failure on this horn was to get the scrim deep enough to hold lots of lampblack or ink. I can always use good advice from those who know this well. My "story" here is that the scrim is old and worn.....hah!
I am on the ongoing learning curve. Thank you Ron and Louise! Best wishes, and God Bless, Marc
