Another Banded Horn

[Tim Crosby]

 Here is another banded horn, it is 15 1/2" around the outside curve. The base is American Holly and is about 2 3/5" across. The three horn bands are held on with two steel pins each. The turned antler tip is about 2 1/4", it is held on with two steel pins. The plug is also of Holly. Holly is great to work with, very tight grained and VERY white. I put a little shoe polish on the base to give it a little color. As usuall comments/criticisms/suggestions are welcome. 

Tim C.

[rich pierce]

Man you are a busy guy.  Looks terrific.  The Holly is a nice touch.  Lilac is very hard and white after seasoning also.

[Manfred]

Great to begin with but they just keep getting better and better!
Manfred

[G. Elsenbeck]

Tim, you do keep turning out these great looking horns with impeccable turnings, base plugs and tips, with a nice mix of mediums.  I love the base plug in a beehive and the tip is the right size for the size of the horn.  Nicely proportion of both ends to the whole of the horn.  Personally, I might have placed the middle and lower bands a tad closer to the tip to effect a more evenly spacing of all three bands.  I didn't mean that to sound like a critique as much but, only my meager attempt to observe what my eyes were trying to say.  If that makes any sense. 
The color you selected nicely compliments the color of both the tip and base plug making the whole horn look liked it aged gracefully and well taken for.   As usual Tim, great job on another powder horn. 
With all the nice comments I've heard here and earlier I'm going to have to try using a piece of holly.  Rich, I didn't think of using lilac and now I'll have to keep an eye out for some of that too.  Good tip.
Gary

[seesbirds]

Tim,

I continue to be in awe of your turning skills .  Simply beautiful.

Mark Preston
www.shinintimespowderhorns.com

[Tim Crosby]

  Spacing of the bands is always a lot of playing around. Usually I clean the horn up, fit the tip and final scrape, then fit the bands. Finding/making just the right one can take some work. I have probably 150+/- precut but unshaped bands, Sometimes luck will have it that they fit just right or two or three will.  Sometimes if the band is thick enough it can be chucked up and the inside turned to get a better fit but there is no exact science, only cut and try. Sometimes a little more scraping on the horn will get it to fit. Once I find bands that will rough fit I boil them, put them on a sizer and turn them to the finished design. Once they are turned I boil them again and put them on the horn, at this point they may stretch a little and throw the spacing off.(If the is a better way I would like to hear it)
 I am in a learning mode with these horns some things work for me and I stay with them. others I will experiment with until I find the best way for me to do it.
 
 Thanks for the comments, Tim C.

[G. Elsenbeck]

Tim, I get myself in the same pickle  trying to match and even up the spacing all the time.  I keep most of my bands left on my slave sizers until I need them.  The only best way I can not trying all the bands I have available is to carefully measure the outside diameter of the horn where I want a band.  This isn't exact either as the horn most likely isn't perfectly round too.  I usually take two measurements and then take the average.  Then looking at what I have on slave sizers I will select the band I that I think will end up close to the size I need.  Or, if not, put more material on sizers and wait for another day.  Most of the time this process works fine for me and as you know, the spacing on the originals weren't  perfect either, but they were close and still had a nice symmetry.  And, I'm sure the early horners had the same problem we're experiencing today when we finally go to fit and place the bands as well.  It's still a learning process and I'm sure we'll both agree that there may not be one perfect way to do these as each horn will present something different. 

That reminds me l have to order some more ugly horns for band material. 
Happy horning.
Gary

[davec2]

Gary,

I'm not sure what you use to measure the diameter of your horns at the various locations, but I started using a pi tape several years ago in my aerospace work to measure thin walled items that are not round.  Perhaps you do this already, but for others reading this post, these tapes are a perfect way to get an accurate measurement on odd shaped objects.  They are available from several places and I have even seen them on e-bay (and they went for next to nothing because no one knew what they were for.

http://www.pitape.com/index.html

[G. Elsenbeck]

Dave, thats a great little item and will come in very handy.  For purposes of my getting a measure around the horn for selecting a turned band I wasn't so worried about absolute precision but, rather trying to get a 'ballpark' number in order to achieve some symmetry or somewhat even spacing of the bands or rings.  However, I definitely see a need for this new tool in other applications and will soon have one or two in my arsenal.  Thanks again for the heads up.
Gary

[Randy Hedden]

I have a couple of those tapes, but hardly ever use them.  They are left over from my machinist days.  On horns I use a dial caliper which is more precise as well as easier to use.  By the time I need to measure the outside of a horn it is essentially round and the calipers work just fine.

Randy Hedden 

[Jefferson58]

Tim:

I really like this horn too. Regardless of ring spacing, I think it is a great horn. I couldn't believe how many great horns you had stuffed in a bag at CLA. If I had more time, I would have loved to sit and look at them all. Looking at some originals in a friend's collection, I saw that they were often uneven. I think Art DeCamp told me the best thing last year at Conner Prairie when he said, "it's folk art folks, not Rembrandt." I try to keep that in mind when I get frustrated making my own.

Keep up the great work.

Jeff

[Larry Pletcher]

Tim:
I think Art DeCamp told me the best thing last year at Conner Prairie when he said, "it's folk art folks, not Rembrandt." I try to keep that in mind when I get frustrated making my own.
Keep up the great work.
Jeff

Hey Jeff, Does folk art include terradactyls?
Regards,
Pletch