Tools for scratch carving a horn?

[Dutch Blacky]

I just made my first horn.
All the wood carving tools I got in my shop, were not very useful. Best seemed to be a sharp knife with a sharp top. But I am not very glad with it.

What do you use and recommand for scratch  carving a horn?

[Clark Badgett]

Are you talking about building or decorating a horn?

[Dutch Blacky]

My question is about decorating a horn.


In a blog (A Scrimshaw Art Journey: A Lumberjock’s “Short Version” of the Techniques for Decorating a Powder Horn by: Mark A. DeCou) I saw the following list of tools:

Carbide Round Point Machinist Scribe, for deep lines and curves
Exacto Blade with a long sharp point, used for small cutting lines
Sharpee Permanent Ink marker
Artists Permanent Ink Marker
Magnifying Lens Visor
I have also used,India Ink, printer’s ink Sharpened Needle
Variety of Dental Picks 
0000# Steel Wool

[Frozen Run]

Most of it is drawing out your design on the horn with a pencil, you will need some good books to study originals, one of my favorites is Dresslar's The Engraved Powder Horn. Then you cut in your lines over your drawing. You could use various xacto knives or a scribe. This guy makes really nice scribes:

https://www.etsy.com/shop/scrimshawtoolman

Some people will engrave the pattern on but that is a good bit more of a complicated process, also many originals were just cut in with a pocket knife so you could try that as well.

Then you will need to darken in your lines. You could use pencil lead, or an ultra fine tip sharpie, or use a toothpick to apply india ink. Just dip the toothpick a little into your jar and wipe the excess off on the rim.

The 0000 steel wool is used to buff the color off the high spots. The high spots can also be cleaned off with alcohol prep pads.

You could then finish it with johnson's paste wax or renaissance wax if you wanted to.

An optivisor is a generally useful tool. 

I would also recommend you check out Mark Elliot's excellent explanation for polychrome horns here:

https://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=69291.0
     

[Dutch Blacky]

Thank you very much.

I will try it.

[Clark Badgett]

I made a scribe out of piano wire that I crammed into a slim piece of dowel rod and then stoned the working end to a triangular point. Worked just fine for the crude nature I wanted.

[Tim Crosby]

 Not exactly an answer to your question but this may help the process. I cleaned it up but thanks to "PhotoBuck" some Pic are missing.

  Tim

  https://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=6915.msg65158#msg65158

 

[Mark Elliott]

These are what I use to engrave horns.   I have a homemade scribe with a tip made of music wire and an exacto knife with a #12 blade.   I need the extra large handle on the scribe with the very short tip because I lost some fine motor control in my hands with an illness many years ago that damaged my spinal cord.  So what  tools work for me may not work for someone else. The pin vise with a 1/16" drill bit is for making dots.  I have gotten so I prefer to use the scribe most of the time. The pencil is used to draw on the designs.  I use the brush and black drawing ink to fill in the lines.     I wipe off the excess ink with alcohol.   The horn needs to be scraped as smooth as you can get it first and the rubbed down with a light gray ScotchBrite pad.   I will sometimes go over the engraving with the ScotchBrite pad to know off some of the burrs.   

[Mike from OK]

I'm feeling somewhat inspired to try my hand at ruining one of my horns... Believe I'll start out with my cheapo flat horn and a simple design.

Mike

[dogcatcher]

This is a scrimshaw tutorial.  https://www.deviantart.com/inupiaqscrybe/art/Scrimshaw-Tutorial-106531424
When the site comes up, click on the skinny picture twice and it will enlarge. 

[Dutch Blacky]

Whow
Thanks again for this lot of informations.

Scrimshaw decoration of a horn is a lot more than making some more ore less raw scratches and lettering.

I was thinking of a hillbilly or a frontiersman sitting at the fire and bored. In my imagination  he is doing some decorative carving with his pocket knife.  
Maybe this might have been the beginning of the scrimshaw decoration of powder horns. Just to individualize someones own horn.
But this work is a lot more.

[davec2]

This is from an old post of mine 10 years ago now.......

I think you will find, if you try cutting with different tools, that many things will work for you.  Here is an assortment of tools I use for scrimshaw work on horn, bone, and ivory.  For many years, I did most of the work with a very large sail maker's needle (second from the right) stoned to very sharp triangular tip (it cuts easily in any direction.)  The other tools are used to make bolder or finer lines.  Conventional gravers, scribes, and surgical scalpels are all very useful, although some work better in horn than in whale or elephant ivory.  Try anything like these that is sharp.  You may find one thing that works better for you than another.  However, the 4th tool from the right is an aluminum handle with a collet arrangement at the tip to hold 3/32 " diameter dental burs.  It is easy to use and easy to replace the scribe end with various tools ....and can be had from jewelry supply houses.



Cutting done with a graver and scalpel on horn:



Cutting done with sail maker's needle on whale ivory:

[dogcatcher]

I bought a few of these https://www.ebay.com/itm/234377008903?hash=item3691f55707:g:S5kAAOSwMShh4Xuq 

Then I made wood handles and epoxied the above pin chucks into them.  I found HSS and Carbide rods, in small diameters at one of my local industrial supply houses.  Sharpening them like gravers for engraving. 

I also made wood handles for the Xacto knives.  Make sure you put a flat side on the wood handles, The flat keeps them from rolling off the table and stabbing you in the foot. 

Get some real fine diamond stropping paste to keep the points extra sharp.   

[T.C.Albert]

Might be useful?

Tim A.

[Marcruger]

Mr. Crisalli knows his way around engraving a horn!   :-)  Also adding elaborate and decorative metal work. 

[Dutch Blacky]

Watching this video, it seems to be so easy. 



But my drawing skills  apparently are  not that good   

[Bob Gerard]

I'm really primitive in my horn etching work, using just a sharpened nail stuck in a dowel. I file the nail tip to get a burr that makes the cuts. Then India ink in a small quill pen to fill the scratches. I usually paste wax over it when I am done.

[Frozen Run]

But my drawing skills  apparently are  not that good 

Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards

[Cory Joe Stewart]

I use a dowel rod with a sharpened nail or pin.

Cory Joe