Buffalo powder horns, boil it in oil?

[David R. Pennington]

Making my first buffalo powder horn and have it drilled and pretty well scraped. What I'm wondering is if I can soften the but end in hot oil like I would do for a cow horn and shape it to a turned plug. The buff horn is more grainy and fibrous and I don't want to ruin it after all that work scraping it. Anyone had experience here?

[G. Elsenbeck]

Yes.  How smooth and thin do you have it at the rim?

[Ahtuwisae]

Not sure where Gary is going here but most likely worried about your temperature as you heat the buff horn.  the thinner the horn here the lower the temp. 

I have a Buff horn completed this year and the horn at the base was less than 1/8 more so bordering on 1/32 thick.  this was due to scraping and scraping and scraping....to get the scaling off the buff horn.  When I formed the base I used lard heated to 250 degrees (100 degrees less than  i heat regular ol' cow horn) and use a 5 seconds in the oil/10 seconds out method to heat the buff horn.  The buff horn seems to heat much faster than the cow and being so thin I did not want to french-fry it .  about three 5 second dips and the buff horn was pliable enough for my form to fit.

Instead of letting it air cool the way I do cow horns.  I took it straight to the tap and doused the whole thing with cold water.  as I was using low temp heat and buff horn I wanted to "set" the shape.  seemed to work very well.

Hope I did not step on any toes here Gary...just relating my experiences.

Hope it helps
John

[G. Elsenbeck]

Not at all John.  Using oil I should have explained more, but thought I already explained that in another thread.  My bad.
Anyway, cow and bison horn are similar in characteristics and armed with that assumption I keep my oil in the 340 - 350 degree range.  I use a candy thermometer to get to that range that's the temperature I'm told is the range in order to get the horn to 'forget its memory', to put it simply. 
And the thinner the rim area is scraped the less time it will need to be dunked in the hot oil.  When I start seeing an even pattern of 'bubbles' rising to the surface I will take out the horn to test for pliability.  If okay I insert the sizer and let it cool, but if not then re-dunk for a few more seconds.  What ever you do, don't over do the time or you will get potato chips.   
Secondly, most/all the bison horns I've worked were not terribly 'oft round' to begin with so to get a plug or sizer to 'finished round' can be done easily with boiling water where the oft round bison wasn't going to seriously be in conflict (read cracking later) with the now 'round' butt plug.    If your bison horn isn't terribly deformed like this example then maybe the boiling water method, which is neater and cleaner, will fit your needs. 
Gary

[skillman]

The plastic point is the same no matter the thickness. Thinner horn just gets there quicker. If you don't go much over 325 you shouldn't have any problems no matter the thickness.

Steve

[David R. Pennington]

Thanks for all the helpful replies. Just got back in town. I don't have it finish scraped, just down to where it is not rough or scaley anymore, about 1/8" at the thinnest area on the rim. I thought I would go ahead and get it shaped and temporarily onto a plug to give it some support before I scraped it thinner. So far I like the look and I think I picked out a good one as I don't see any deep flaws or voids. Think I will file a couple bands about midway and then octagon up to spout.