A guy contacted me and he wanted a very simple F&I style horn. Plain butt plug, staple, fairly simple throat and spout, simple engrailing and not much scrimshaw; oh and he wanted it dyed.
As luck would have it the deal fell through at the point where I had made the horn but not installed the butt plug or done any scrimshaw on it.
Rather than being *#)*^~ about it, I've taken it as an opportunity to learn how to dye these things and an opportunity to do some scrimshaw work I'd been wanting to do for a while but was always otherwise occupied.
So with the able advice of Scott (oregonhorner) I dyed the throat and spout a very nice dark brown/black color. Before I began to engrave the horn I wrapped the throat in blue painters tape to protect it from getting dinged or nicked while I was engraving it.
Since this was originally supposed to be a F&I horn I decided to do scrimshaw with a Rogers Ranger's theme. Specifically I chose the "battle on snowshoes" in March 1758.
Think about it. How many times have you seen beautifully rendered map horns of the upstate NY region? How often are (were) horns done that commemorate a successful campaign?
I've decided to take a different tack and chronicle battles that were meaningful but where the "good guys" got their a$$e$ kicked. Such was the case with this battle. Rogers had to escape capture by sliding down the face of "Roger's rock" in what came to be known as "Roger's slide." He lost a bunch of men and even left some who had been separated from the company.
Anyway, here's what I've done so far. An image of a typical rogers ranger, albeit in warmer weather dress. He's on the inside curve of the horn. On the outside curve I am going to put either a map of the battle or a scene of the battle, I haven't yet decided. There will be other stuff on it too so stay tuned:
and more detail of him from top to bottom:
Once I have all the engraving done I am going to dye it and then install the butt plug.
I know, I know, it's neither PC or HC but I like it and I hope somebody else likes it enough to buy it when I'm done.
I'll post photos as things proceed.
As always, questions, suggestions, comments and critiques cheerfully entertained.
Thanks for looking.
Mark
