When I was sixteen years old and didn't know how much I didn't know, I was determined that I'd build myself a flintlock rifle out of a second-hand CVA barrel and lock and an old plank of wood from the hay-barn. A family friend said I'd be needing a powder horn to go with my rifle and gave me a raw cow horn. I'd never yet seen an actual powder horn in person (or an actual flintlock rifle either for that matter!) but I was young and determined and figured I had the general idea. I scraped the worst of the "bark" off of (and out of) that horn, sawed off and drilled out the tip, and asked my high-school shop teacher to help me turn a walnut base-plug for it which I pinned in place with some 8-penny copper nails my granddad had. The walls of that horn were nearly 3/8" thick and the tip was big around as a nickel, but it held powder. That horn charged the first loads I ever fired from a flintlock plus all of my first flintlock hunts, a few local turkey shoots, and countless days of woods-walking and plinking. At some point I became self-conscious about using that ugly lump of a horn and I acquired something a little more presentable.
A few months ago I rediscovered that old horn in a box of junk packed away decades ago. I set it on the workbench and looked at it for a month or so and then one day I decided to take a horse-rasp to it and try my hand at making a proper horn of it.
I reworked but saved the old base-plug and copper pegs for sentimental reasons, thinned the walls till sunlight shines through, carved a base-button and a stopper from a big soup bone, and even tried my hand at a tiny bit of scrimshaw. I wanted to emulate a simple horn that a common man might have made himself with simple tools, so that's how I did it; after rough faceting with the horse-rasp I did all of the scraping, carving and some coarse engrailing using just my pocket knife and I used a sharpened nail for scratching the scrimshaw. I just worked on it a little each morning by the woodstove while my shop was warming up and I thoroughly enjoyed the process. I'd like to hear what you all think. I'll most likely attempt another horn at some point so all critiques and comments are welcome.
Thanks
John
