DORNS HORN (Attention Doran, Do Not Open!!!)

[Tim Crosby]

 With that rod in the neck idea be careful, as you thin the neck and tip it is easy to crack it. BTDT

    Tim

[Frozen Run]

This is normally the point where I don't post anything until the recipient sees their horn first, but it turns out Ken Gahagan is actually a pretty big fan of mine and if there's one thing I know that is you need to keep the magician fed. None of these are finished yet.




I sort of hate reoccurring devices, another blown out base, but I've been buying people's trash horns for years now and am only able to work with what I've got. A raggedy section around the base and I'm not willing to shorten it any further than what it is. So I cut out the trashy bits and embellish the imperfections.

[Frozen Run]

The horns are pretty much finished, need to make a small homespun bag for Brent's horn. Saddle stitched 5 ply waxed linen thread with crude front panel repair. I beat the brakes off this thing last night flipping it rightside out so I'm confident my stitches will hold.

[Frozen Run]

Bag work is difficult. Had to skive a belt strap into a bag strap, did poorly but learned a bit, got better at it, and came out with some interesting decorative elements. Also learned the challenges of working with pelts.

[Frozen Run]

I think I squeezed everything I'm able to out of Doran's horn and am calling it done. I talked to him about it and he says I can post pictures, that he doesn't want to see them, and he won't peek. I thought it would be fun for him to look through this thread with everyone's comments once he does receive the horn. Please let me know what you think, love it, hate it, whatever's on your mind or at the very least say hi to my good friend Doran.













He's always staring at you but his demeanor changes as you shift the horn around. I think it's neat.

[Tim Crosby]

 I like that one, nice work all around.

  Tim

[Frozen Run]

Thank you, Tim!

[Frozen Run]

I dressed the color down a bit on the tacks. They're less shiney now.

[B.Barker]

That one turned out nice. I really like that face on the butt. Looks like a horn made by someone on the frontier.

[Frozen Run]

Thank you, Brian! I try to capture the living in the moment look that you achieve in your work. The base plug was a bit serendipitous. I wanted to create one of those whimsical faces you often see in the "O" in folky scrimshaw which I'm able to capture fairly well.

I used a pocket knife to capture the look better, but the eyeballs and eyebrows so important to the look of it appeared uncanny in relief. So I switched up to that face you put on your most recent powder measure but I couldn't pull the look off of that either. So by this point I was getting really low on workable wood so I very gingerly carved away in small bits until I was able to go "yeah, this looks like something." And called it good.

[Frozen Run]

My other friend received his horn today and is really happy with it. It's a folky colonial with verbose presentation gift horn scrimshaw on it. The finish is designed, in the spirit of the horn, to look like something handled much but used little.

[Frozen Run]

I finished stitching up Brent's bag tonight and am relieved by that.

[Frozen Run]

I think I'm done with Dave's horn. I warned him not to open this thread until he receives it. Please let me know what you think.

Dave Rase had mentioned he liked the horn I made in Clint's class so I decided to make him one as a gift. I used the things he liked about it and stepped it up just a notch. I gave him 2 rings instead of just 1:



Up here you can see what may be a flying saucer? It seems like they're always carved into old things according to that one show. Here, I imagined an 18th century Dave obsessed about the thing he saw in the woods.



Here I carved the OIA into the base.



My dated maker's mark mixed in with all that neat character:

[Frozen Run]

Brent's bag and horn all finished up. If I had feathers or tassels I probably would have tied them in somehow. But I don't.

[Frozen Run]

Back to Brent's horn, I like creating items that exist in 2 worlds. Zimbabwe, Australia, and the United States are all important to him as part of his blacksmithing career, so I referenced that by scrimshawing animals indigenous to those areas on his horn. Now the Brent from 200 years ago would never had seen most of those animals, but he may have heard about them or read about them in a book or seen a painting somewhere. So the details are probably a bit fuzzy when he went to scrimshaw them and he may not be too familiar on the correct spelling. Here's a giraffe for example with stripes.



Then you take that concept and add Forrest Galante into the iceberg and you have this dingo that's actually a thalmycine.



I've had this idea for a joke that I've wanted to do for a while now but couldn't find a project where it didn't look forced until now. So I was going to scrimshaw a squirrel and write squirrel, then somewhere else on the horn 2 squirrels and write squirrels, and somewhere else scrimshaw 3 squirrels and write squirrelses. Well, that takes up a lot of real estate so I figured just the punchline of 3 squirrelses would work and worst case scenario it would stand on its own. I just couldn't find a place to do it until this horn where I'm naming off all these animals. The squirrelses are running away from a croc hiding at the base.

[Frozen Run]

It's actually spelled thylacine, see how easy it is to get details wrong and I have a smart phone!

[David Rase]

I received the horn from Frozen Run in Tuesdays mail.  What a great horn.  I gave it a quick once over in the morning when I initially received the package then headed out to my shop to put in a few hours.  Later that evening I had 5 of my regular Tuesday evening open workshop gang over.  I shared the horn with them and also gave it a more critical eye.  I noted a lot of little folksy details once I got to looking.  I am going to pair this horn up with my iron mounted Frank House .29 caliber pea shooter that I have owned for over 20 years.  I have not decided on a bag yet,  I have an open top bag I made, not greasy enough, a Jeff Cline bag, a little too large for this horn, a Ken Scott bag, very small and simple I am considering, or I might just have to come up with a new bag.  we will see.  I can say the stopper fit is perfect, not too tight, not to lose, but secure.  If you like aged horns, Donnie knocked the finish this one out of the park. 
Thank you my friend, David 
And by the way, as promised, I never peeked at this thread until I received the horn. lol

[Frozen Run]

Dave, I'm glad you like it and honored you think highly enough of it to pair it with one of Frank's rifles.

Dave had donated a number of his outstanding gun building tools to a class I had taken in April in which I had won a pair of his pipe clamps. So when he complimented me on the horn I made in Clint's class I figured one good deed deserves another!

[johnfolchetti]

I got my horn from Donnie last week. It was a huge surprise and  I absolutely love it. When I get back to NC its going hunting with me.
Thanks Donnie!

[Frozen Run]

Glad you like it, John!