Ok so the last couple weeks after and before class everyday Ive been switching between leather work and horn work to try and teach myself something.
A friend gave me some old leather working tools and artificial sinew and a huge box of scrap leather.
I had a cheap 20 dollar horn that ive used for a while and decided to try my hand at scrimshaw. The "RULE BRITTANIA" was done with a patch knife and all the rest was done with a large leather awl.
The date on the other side is the battle of the plains of abraham and them my name Around the base. Got the tacks at the local hardware store and made the staple from some steel in the shop. The strap I made from some scrap leather I had. I tried to dye it with some fabric dye similar to rit dye but it turned it green, so i sanded it back enough to get the colour out and then stained it with walnut stain.
Here is a picture of it with my Haversack type bag with african red haarsbeast on it.
Next up is my first horn completely from scratch. I built this as a thank you for my football coach from highschool, he taught me alot and is one of the greatest men Ive ever known. He was also in the 82n airborne years ago and saw combat morethan once.
I cut it and scraped the outside down with the dull edge of an old hacksaw blade. Then I scrimed "82nd AIRBORNE" "ALL THE WAY" on one side and our team on the other "JOHN BARSBY BULLDOGS"
"GO! DAWGS! GO!"
Then finally his name around the base with the same tacks as my horn. The plug is made from an old gunstock and I cut it all with hand tools as I dont have any electric tools with me in QC. I inset a Challenge coin for the 82nd in the base. The horn was stained with rit dye when i finally found some.
The strap was made from 3 separate parts of leather with red leather lacing alternating on the main part.
Here is some pics of the horn with my first attempt at making a bag from small peices of scrap leather. Ill get some dark brown leather dye and finish the bag.
Let me know what ya'll think!
Cheers, McLean
