Adjustments to my Conner Prairie screw-tip

[Larry Pletcher]

The last day of Conner Prairie class we dyed our horns.  I worked pretty hard to get the flaws out of the horn body - tool marks etc.  I was sorry to see many marks that I couldn't see until the dye brought them out.  I decided then to delay finishing the horn until I could get home and get all the tool marks out.  It would mean doing the dye job again, but I thought it would be worth the trouble.

After the horn body looked right, I decided that I could improve my sanding on the butt plug too. One thing lead to another and I repolished the tip too.  The tip had been dyed too, but had such a nice buttery carmel coloring, I decided not to re-dye it.

The horn now has the butt attached (5 nails) and the staples done.  As I finished the horn and butt plug I decided to try something that I had not heard anyone try.  I rubbed the horn and the butt with Bag Balm.  It is basically lanolin.  I thought lanolin might be good for both horn material as well as the endgrain cherry plug.  It seemed to give a nice soft sheen to the horn and the tip. 







My goal was to make a typical Lancaster screw-tip.   Art's class really was an huge education.   And, I feel better about my sanding and finishing job with a little elbow grease at home.

Regards,
Pletch

[G. Elsenbeck]

Pfletch, your extra effort shines through.  Excellent job.  And I may have to give Bag Balm a shot somewhere down the road.  I normally just use a couple coats of LMF sealer on the base plugs and when dry use a good paste wax all over the horn too. 
Love the photos and your comments were very educational as well.  Wish I could have been there with all you.   Art is a very good teacher not to mention one of the experts on screwtip horns. 
Gary

[Kelhammer]

Larry, if you are not happy with that horn, just send it my way.   What a great job!  I hope I can get a better look at that some day.  Andy

[brokenflint]

Pletch  nice work, isn't it a good feeling when you get something done to your satisfaction 

Broke

[Tim Crosby]

 Great job on the horn Pletch. To get unwanted scratches and marks out of a horn I usually wipe a coat of dark stain on it, let it sit for a while and wipe it off. Then go back and scrape off all of the stain, may take a couple of times but it will defiantly show the flaws.

 Tim C.

[Larry Pletcher]

Thanks for your comments.  Tim, suspect that your stain idea is a help.  In my case it was accidental, but it did show me the things I missed.  I thought I had tried enough light conditions to pick out the marks, but I sure saw a bunch after staining. 

I found a right angle worm gear that I installed on my wood lathe over the weekend.  It reduces rpm 30:1.  Using it in between the 4 step pulleys I should get down to a safe rpm to spin a horn.   I can do the other lathe operations without the worm gear, so I'll install the drive so that all I need to do is swap 2 belts between the drives.  They'll be some experimenting with pulley diameters, but I think it will work. 

Regards,
Pletch   

[seesbirds]

Pletch,

That's really nice work.  I watched Art make some screw tips at the HCH meeting last year and he can make that lathe work!  He's a great teacher too as is evidenced by what you've turned out.  I'm going to have to try that bag balm idea too.

Mark

[Beaverman]

Larry, great looking horn, well executed! Bag Balm would also work well on bison horn, keeping it moisturized so the upper layers of hair do not dry out and start to raise!

[Larry Pletcher]

OK, I think I need to quit playing around with this horn.  I've been trying ideas that came from the class and buying a tool or 2 that we had furnished there.

I wanted to try making another tip and found a decent piece of horn on a junk box in the shop.   It looked like it might have some decent color variations in it.  The tip came out  OK, but I found out I had to gind the end off the plug tap to thread close enough to fit the horn.  As I turned it down, I saw the nice color I was hoping might be burried inside.  So, now I have two tips that fit the horn.  As a final try, I turned a tapered plug from another scrap in the junk box.

Here is a pic of the horn, bag, and the new tip and plug.  The other tip is standing on the bag edge.


A close up of the original tip and the new plug.


here is the new tip and plug on the horn,bag.


Don't know which tip I'll use.
Regards,
Pletch

[chapmans]

Larry,
  I like the new one the best, so you can keep the first one and make a horn for the second one and give it to me!!
   Steve