Horn Question

[LURCHWV@BJS]

  As some of you know my wife and I attended Dixon"s this year. We both had  a wonderful time and plan to attend next year. We bought some Horn to try our hand at it and We have a Q.    Should you get the big end of the horn into the rounded shape before you start anything else?

                   Rich

[bigbat]

I drill the tip first of all, then I roughly make the walls of the base uniform before I heat and shape the base.  I do this for several reasons.

[Cory Joe Stewart]

Dido for me, horn tip drilled, then everything else.   The reason I do it that way is because that is the part I mess up the most and I want to get beyond it.  I am not sure why bigbat does it first. 

Coryjoe

[wpalongrifle]

Rich, Where were you at 11:30 Saturday at Dixon's!!!! I gave a seminar on "hornwork for beginners"
         In an hour and half i went over the construction, forming, and turning butt and spout and rings applied to horns..discussed tooling and techniques i use.. Main reason for drilling spout hole before forming base of plug is to vent hot air from cooking in lard..I'll do the same seminar next year,same day same time same bat channel.    later, mike

[Jefferson58]

Rich:

I would also start by purchasing a copy of Scott and Cathy Sibley's excellent book, "Recreating the 18th. Century Powder Horn." It can be found online from a number of vendors and is an invaluable resource for beginning horn work. I learned tons from it, and still keep it on my workbench for reference. 

Hope this helps.

Jeff

[skillman]

Rich
Yes to all the other comments , I do the tip first because this is how I hold the horn as I work on it. I drill a quarter inch hole and use a shaft held in my vise in that hole to hold it.
Steve