Rob;
The early craftsmen that created many of those beautiful horns we dream about today, very often had a "heavy hand" as you say. This was simply because the tools of the time here of a courser type than used today. Many of the horn, and ivory, scrimshawed items in museums today look lightly engraved because they have a couple of hundred years of handling, and ware, that the new stuff doesn't have. In a couple of hundred years many of these high art pieces will be a blank slate for the same reason.
Ya did good.
Hungry Horse