My friend really likes the horn.
I like creating items that are both in the moment for the period and at the same time meaningful to the person in the present. He is a PA resident, loves hunting and fishing, and is religious. So here I scrimshawed Leviticus 3:16, it's important to hunters, Old Testament, and I pulled it from an old Swiss-German bible online so it has that existing in both worlds quality that I like. I think the most important thing to making an item believable is your ability to craft a narrative around it. You often see large amounts of lettering on the outside curve of the horn, here I chose to do it on the inside because it is not a proclamation to the world but a reminder to the owner. I can imagine someone from the 18th century looking down at their side and reading it so I positioned it as such when I was laying it out rather than in terms of optimal or most common location.
Here along the outside I scrimshawed a deer and a fish. I also did his initials but my thumb is carelessly covering up the other letter. The deer and fish I pulled off of horns from Clinton Byers and Kathy England, and originals.
Here is the neck staple I did at the last possible minute. I had been putting it off and putting it off and convincing myself it doesn't need it and I have pretty much the horn as you see it and it just needed a staple, functionally and aesthetically so I broke down and did it. There wasn't much meat in the tip and I think I could have squeezed a little more out of it but not much. There are two ways I know of doing one, though this is my first time attempting one, and fortunately Tim Crosby put out a really nice tutorial on neck staples and it worked out great I think.
The base plug.
I put my maker's mark in the scruff near the base, I just realized I don't have a picture of that and that I can't just take another picture of it because it's gone. That's an odd feeling.
I'm happy that he's happy, and I learned a lot of new things doing this.
