A Trio of Southern Horns

[Jefferson58]

Hi Folks:

While I am at it, here are a couple more efforts from the show scramble. There never seems to be enough time to get enough pieces done.

The top horn is a Virginia screw tip, taken from an original Southwest VA horn. It is about 14" around the curve, 2, 3/8" at the base. The tip was tuned from horn. The base is hard pine, turned in a VA pattern.

The middle one is a Virginia single-banded piece. It measures 15" around the curve, and over 2, 3/4" at the base. The applied tip is Redbud, and the base is fir. The tip is a little bit of an "interpretation," but the base is an accurate VA pattern.

The bottom horn is a North Carolina two-ring affair with an applied tip. It measures about 14, 1/2" around the curve, and 2, 3/8" at the base. The tip is copied from an original NC piece, turned from Redbud. The base is also an accurate NC design, turned from fir. I particularly liked the way the stain took on this base.

The finishing on all three was done with Aqua Fortis, oil-base wood stain, and other various and sundry substances.

See what you all think. Comments of all flavors are always welcome.

Thanks,

Jeff

[James Rogers]

Love the top one!

[Tim Crosby]

 Outstanding horns Jeff, Very nice work. Got a close up of the tip on the third one? You say that is Redbud? Looks good.

 Thanks, Tim C.

[Mark Elliott]

Jeff,

They are all great.   I love how you are always experimenting with different materials.   You raise the bar for all of us.

Mark E.

[Frank Barker]

Jeff.....They are all beautiful.   Frank

[Cory Joe Stewart]

I'm diggin these.

Coryjoe

[B. Hey]

Very interesting .. great work ... Thanks for sharing ... Bill

[g.pennell]

Neat horns!  I have a rather large holly tree that I'm going to have to remove from my lawn...I've heard holly is good turning stock...hmmm

Greg

[Jefferson58]

Thanks for the nice comments guys. I do appreciate it. These were all fun make, and I was pretty happy with the outcome.

Tim, to answer your question, following is a photo of the Redbud tip on the NC horn. I didn't even think about photographing it yesterday.



Greg, that Holly could be some nice stuff to work with. I understand it is very hard and dense. Good luck with it.

Thanks again,

Jeff

[smshea]

Those are Great!

[woodsrunner]

In reference to the Holly (Ilex opaca): not sure how stable it would be to humidity changes, but the old wood carvers around home when I was a kid favored Holly for carving out things with a pocket knife. Holly is supposed to carve like cheese. Any way you cut it, with the grain, across the grain or tangential to the grain it all cuts the same. I don't know that for sure. Just always heard it.

I wonder about wood used in buttplugs and turned applied tips. I'm not experienced in this, so please overlook my ignorance. What wood species were commonly used with original horns, especially Southern Horns? Redbud? I guess you mean the little bush that flowers very early in the spring with small purple flowers? Does this species have some unique grain or color characteristic that is desirable? Would old close grain virgin Southern Yellow Pine ever have been used to any extent?