Poor mans reworked horn

[msellers]

Ok, so i was given a super poorly made horrible excuse for a powder horn. I decided to try my hand at reworking it as a poor mans folk style hunting horn. I heavily modified the existing base and reused the pour plug as was. Well, I rubbed it full of brown shoe polish first. I intentionally left it imperfect with rask marks, and some scraping marks. Then I milk painted the entire horn green, used a off yellow for the design. That I poorly painted by the way, but felt it was in keeping with the overall look of this horn. If you could have only seen what it started out as, guessing it must have been some sort of Southeast Asian buffalo or something. What do you all think of it?

[Notchy Bob]

I think it is a fine horn, and it should serve you well.  It appears to be tight and solidly constructed, and I like the somewhat rough surface texture, with toolmarks showing on the horn and base plug.  I like it!

The OP asked what we think about it, and I offer the following as my thoughts, and not as criticism.

Personally, I could live without the painted cervid figure.  No issues with the quality of the artwork... It's just that the horn would look better to my eye if left plain.

The placement of the artwork suggests the horn will be carried on the right.  I would have rotated the staple in the butt plug ninety degrees, to allow the horn to hang comfortably with a strap the width of the staple.  It'll work fine with a narrow thong the way it is, though.

A lot of people nowadays will look at the twist of this horn and tell you it is better suited to left-side carry.  This requires rotating the horn clockwise so the curve conforms to your hip.  However, I think a horn with this twist (likely from the right side of the ox's head) will hang more naturally on the wearer's right side, with the tip pointing up.  Just my preference.

Anyway, it's a fine horn!  You can use it proudly.

Best regards,

Notchy Bob

[msellers]

Notchy Bob,
Thank your for your opinion and insight. I can rework the plug some to rotate the staple 90, I hadn't thought about a wider strap attached.  The painted decoration is something I am still unsure on. The curve of the horn makes it hang either way honestly, guess I haven't studied enough to figure proper hang. I did design it to hang on the right side so if you fell, the stopper wasn't stabbing you in the ribs.
Thanks again,
Mike

[thecapgunkid]

Mike is a walking example of the value of re-working and re-purposing.  Nice.

[WadePatton]

It's great.

Today I started re-working the junky import wall-hanger horn I picked up cheap a long time ago.  Needed a pound or two of excess horn removed--and I was merrily working it down and then hit this crack.  That wouldn't stop.  Kept growing.  I'm done with it.  I'll start over with a better horn--undrilled!  or get a good used horn and make it work. Yours came out just dandy.