“Building the Southern Banded Horn” By Scott and Cathy Sibley
(Reviewed for Muzzleloader Magazine by T.C. Albert)
The interest in southern banded powder horns has been growing, and so has the mystery of how they are made. No two are exactly alike, but all of them are made in a distinctive regional style that identifies them on sight, and if you love southern guns, you probably love these horns as well. And if you love these horns, then you are definitely going to want the new book “Building the Southern Banded Horn by Scott and Cathy Sibley.
This newly published book takes you through the tools and materials needed to make your own banded horn, and then moves right in to showing you how to get started. The Sibleys illustrate every process from beginning to end with a flowing series of full color numbered images showing Scott at work building one. Then, number by number, each photo is explained with concise, detailed, instructional text. Matching the photo to the instruction on every page is a breeze, which makes it easy to follow along and understand the entire process that Scott and Cathy use to make these wonderful horns.
The chapters on making the turned bands, the traditionally turned and applied antler tips, and the hollow turned hardwood base plugs alone will be enough to keep you interested and reading through this book page by page. And when you are done, you will have a very good idea of how to begin making your own southern banded horn. In fact, if you are like me, you will want to head out to the shop and get started right then and there, but slow down and read through the rest of the book before you do.
The last three chapters of this book are really going to grab your interest too, and I guarantee you will be thumbing and re-thumbing through them again and again. The first, “The Gary Ganas Collection of Sibley Horns” shows photo after full page color photo of contemporary banded horns made by the Sibleys and collected by Mr. Ganas. Some are just of the horn itself in full profile, but most show a fine Sibley banded horn grouped with a full set of beautiful accoutrements, often including rifles, hunting bags, priming horns, knives, measures, bullet molds, and pipe axes. If you are like me, you will find yourself drawn into and studying every little detail of these images.
Next is the “Howard Kendall Collection of Southern Banded Horns”, with the photography done by Darryl Pingleton. This collection is also photographed in full color, and the rare original banded horns are often paired with equally rare vintage accoutrements. And finally, “The Gadler-Chadwick Collection of Southern Horns” photographed by Ted Walton is shown as well. Again, this is all beautifully done in full page, detailed color photography that will have you intently studying these horns over and over.
To me, getting a copy of this book was like getting four great books in one. The first taught me how Scott and Cathy Sibley build their southern banded horns in a well-illustrated manner that will allow me to try it myself, and the next three will provide me with enough inspiration to keep me at it for years to come. I can honestly say, if you are a maker, collector, or student of southern banded horns, you are going to want to get a copy of this book.
You can order yours directly from Scott and Cathy by sending $29.95 plus $4.00 postage to them at:
Scott Sibley
1132 Rd. 7
Powell WY.
82435
“Building the Southern Banded Horn”
By: Scott and Cathy Sibley.
Published by: Scott and Cathy Sibley
Printed by: Modern Litho-Print co, Jefferson City MO.
Copyright: 2012
