I busted a bison horn.

[Rolf]

Randy was kind enough to sell a nice and heavy black bison horn last year.I had planed to use it for a very fancy powderhorn with sterling silver fittings. The tip of the spout was going to be spiral carved with inlaid silver wire. The rest of the spout was going to be octagonal with four silver filigree panels. I also planed alot of fancy silverwork around the base and on the base plug. When filing the octagonal part of the spout, I went through the wall of the horn.

I have not started on the silver work, so it makes most sense to look for a new horn for this project. If anybody has a nice, heavy, black bison horn, 15-16"long with no deep scars, for sell, please let me know.

Best regards
Rolfkt

[Brian]

I admit I don't know a great deal about horns, but have you thought of trying to work around what happened?  For example, you said you wanted to put a lot of fancy metalwork on this horn.  True, you said "silver", but what about pewter?  Would it be possible to pour some kind of pewter inlay/band around that portion of the horn?  It might not be exactly what you had in mind for this horn, but you can always do another one with silver - and by using pewter in a few places on this one you might be able to salvage a lot of work and a nice horn.  You could pour a fairly thick band and then shape it either to the octagon, or round, or perhaps use it as a "transitional" band between the two sections?

Just a thought.  Like I said, I am certanly not very knowledgable on these things.  I do think you can pour pewter on a horn though.  Seems to me I saw that done somewhere.

Bounce it off Randy or Scott or Tim or one of the other horn experts.  They would know what you could get away with as regards pewter.

As far as another black bison horn goes, you might try contacting TOW.

Good luck with it.

[Tim Crosby]

 Without having the horn in hand I could not say for sure but I would think there is a work around. Since the base is not in you could patch the inside with another piece of horn that would fit up inside. Then make a metal band to cover the hole and work from there. Or you could cut the neck off at the break,work the thickness down and slide another horn up inside, it would take some work but may rescue the horn. Having seen your work before I am sure the band would not be a problem.
 Another idea would be to incorporate the hole into a design, say reshape it to an oval. Then make the same design on every other flat, cut them through the horn. Take another horn and cut it down so it will fit up inside the horn and backs the design. Fill any cracks with clay, put a small brass screw into the center of each design and through the piece inside the horn. Cut the screw off below the surface of the horn and pour pewter in the design. The screw will act as an anchor. Then file the pewter flush with the surface, like the hearts in the pic below. Hope this is of some help.
 
 
 Tim C.

 

[Brian]

See!  I knew those guys would think of something!   

Cool heart pattern Tim.

[Rolf]

Thanks for the suggestions. I've got a bison horn with ugly yellow bloches. I can use part of it to try and cover the hole from the inside, and cut oval holes in the panels and fill them with pewter.

But, if anybody has a good, heavy, black, bison horn to sell, please let me know.
I used about 4 ounces of silver on the first silver filigree bison horn I made. That one had a black walnut base plug. This one was going to have silver filigree base plug. I plan to use about 8 ounces(150-200$) worth of silver on this powderhorn and I need a good horn 15-16" long.  The largest horns TOTW sells is 13" and they pick them randomly out of a box. You never know if what you get is suitable for carving.

Best regards

Rolfkt

[Bruce]

     I have a bison horn with the base already squared off.  It measures 12 inches and has no scarring.  Interested?

                                                  BHB

[Rolf]

BHb, thanks for your offer, but it's a bit to short

Best regards

Rolfkt