Thank you, Top Jaw and i appreciate your honesty. I did ask for what ya'll think. I kinda knew what i wanted when i started the horn. Which was an 18th century theme, but with modern type art designs. The fact is, 98% of regular people will see this horn, as opposed to 2% of re-enactor types. So i figured what the heck, most of the regular people won't even know what a powder horn is,
let alone know whether the ethcings are PC or not..
As far as the clothing on the frontiersman, i got the idea to put him on the horn from the book, "The Frontiersmen" by Allan W. Eckert. Which is based on Simon Kenton born April 3rd 1755 and died April 29th 1836 at the age of 81 and the cover of the book has him adorned in a fur cap and buckskined war shirt and leggins with fringe and a frontier cabin, with the stumps left behind from building the cabin...
... I guess i just assumed that it would be within the relm of the 18th century.
Oh well, i'am learning...
Most importantly, you are mistaken about one thing. I can assure you the carvings and etchings were done with knives, files, rat tail files, carving blades, notching blades and engraving needles. I worked on this horn everday for 2 1/2 weeks straight & my hands have never hurt so much. If you look close, you'll see several of my slips and uneven lines and on the bold lines you mentioned, after having cut the lines, i went in behind them with the tip of a big sewing needle sized file tip and broadened them out. Slow work for sure, but it was worth it. The only thing modern that touched that horn was the electric drill i used to drill out the spout hole...
I hand carved the butt plug to fit and the knob that i installed just yesterday. Oooop's,
my hands were hurting too bad to carve out a spout plug, so i did use a violin peg for that...
Which made it look real good.
Thank you again, any and all advice and suggestions will always be welcomed.
Danny...