I just finished Clinton Byers' 3 day SOAW horn class hosted by the Log Cabin Shop and I feel great! A big thank you to Liza and the Log Cabin Shop for hosting the event, there were a total of 5 different SOAW classes going on simultaneously and I heard they all had great success. This is in no small part to the excellent instructors Ian brings in to teach these classes and Clinton was no exception. He is a wealth of information, very approachable, and his teaching background I feel really helped tremendously with classroom management and lesson plan. There were four of us altogether with different backgrounds and skill sets and we were all able to create a finished powder horn, soup to nuts, starting with a polished horn blank and pine board. He plans on offering an advanced class in the future that will cover bone tipped and banded work so be on the look out for that:
https://www.southernohioartisanworkshops.com/Here is the horn I created, my second finished horn, great instructors yield great results:
It's a left side carry horn, this is the side that rubs against your side. Clint brought in a number of antique and modern horns to use as examples. One antique horn in particular immediately caught my eye, it was a small to medium sized very folksy day horn, and I used that to emulate into a larger sized horn. The facets on the original made the tip look square at first, there are these 2 very wide and disproportionate facets front and back and 2 much smaller facets on both the left and the right. The ring had an interesting carving that I also copied here: diagonal lines that wrap around it, and then a curvy squiggle that starts and terminates at the same diamond over it. I tried changing it up a bit but every time I did I lost the flavor of the original piece: when I added something it would become busy and when I left something out it looked empty. The ring I created is unapologetic, I sort of have an interest in really greasy things, like how the return on certain Southern guns' buttplate looks like a panting dog's tongue.
Here is the other side, the stopper swelled up a bit with finish so it needs dressed down a bit to fit. I really like the color layering on this side:
Here is the base plug where I carved my maker's mark into it. I didn't really see a spot to scrimshaw it into the horn body so I just carved it here. I like things hiding in plain sight, the last horn I did a scrimshaw doodle, this one I did a base plug carving. It's cute, and it works, but that's only because nobody knows me. I think by horn 5 at the latest that I will go to a tiny scrim mark near the base. I had this idea of two wallowed out holes showing the remnants of where a staple once was and having a screw as an attachment point for the sling.
Here is the class, hard at work on day 3, Clint is on the far right. We had work stations inside as well as benches outside. I chose the outside.
Here is our classes' horns. Guess which one is Clint's demo horn he was building along with us?
I joined the Honourable Company of Horners not too long ago when I took Kathy England's scrimshaw class. I wish I had become a member sooner, they have all been some of the kindest and most generous group of craftsmen and women that I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. That's the important part: you join a group because the people around you in that group build you up, having access to cool horns and mentors and knowledge is all secondary. Anytime you are not giving something then you are taking something.
https://www.hornguild.org/I other cool thing about muzzleloading is all of the complimentary skills. That horn is mainly Clinton's teaching, but in it is also what I learned about horns from Phil Campbell, and what I learned about finishing items from Eric von Aschwege, and what I learned about scrimshaw and engrailing from Kathy England, and the strap I make for it will be from Maryellen Pratt. Just to name a few. So when you create something, it is a combined experience from all of your past and present teachers and friends.
Please let me know what you think or if you have any questions! Thank you for reading.
