Ageing a Powder Horn

[rb8941]

Sorry if this has been covered 100 times.

I'm trying to "age" a powder horn by soaking it in tea. It's been in a strong tea solution for about 24 hours but it doesn't appear to be developing a patina at all. My question is twofold:
1. Is tea the best thing to use to stain a horn to create an aged patina?
2. If it is, how long do you have to leave the horn in the tea solution? Days? Weeks?

Thanks as always for your help.
Rick

 

[Robert Scheffler]

You could use RIT fabric dye or a product that is called "old Bones" or "Old Thunder". It is best to heat the horn and the solution first. That will open the pores of the horn first so that the stain doesn't just sit on the surface but gets down into the horn.

 

[Cutfingers]

Try some light brown leather dye on a small piece of horn to see how you like the color. I did this and my entire horn and it turned out fantastic.

 

[blacksmithman64]

RIT berries are the best IMHO. Boil the dye and just keep dipping the horn in until you get the color you want. Old Bones might be good for bones, but its not good for horn, it will rub off in about a month. Potassium Permanganate (old bones) is an oxidizer-its like putting a coat of rust on your horn, and horn being smooth...not porous like bone...not gonna stick. Onion skins are also an option, I've not tried it, but Soggy, sorry GENERAL Soggy :haha: has with good results!

 

[Black Hand]

Aqua fortis & heat is supposed to age horn.

 

[ladysmithtrading]

The tea has got to be hot!!!!!!! Ive used nestea instant tea with lemon, UNSWEETENED, have it boiling and submerge the horn in it, check about every minute , once it starts to colot it will turn dark pretty quick, the acid in the lemon will help penetrate the pores of the horn, leather dye will color a horn just fine, but over time the sun will bleach the color out of the horn fairly quickly, Ive had it happen!

 

[rb8941]

The tea has got to be hot!!!!!!! Ive used nestea instant tea with lemon, UNSWEETENED, have it boiling and submerge the horn in it, check about every minute , once it starts to colot it will turn dark pretty quick, the acid in the lemon will help penetrate the pores of the horn

Thanks for the tip about the hot tea and lemon. It worked perfectly (BTW do you have a tip on how to handle a wife who isn't too pleased that her biggest stewpot was used to prepare boiled powder horn with all the trimmings?)

And thanks to everyone who took the time to respond to my post.

Rick

 

[Black Hand]

....(BTW do you have a tip on how to handle a wife who isn't too pleased that her biggest stewpot was used to prepare boiled powder horn with all the trimmings?)

Buy yourself a cheap enamel-ware pot just for your projects. Goes a long way to keeping the wife happy. Even better if you have an outside heat source so that the kitchen doesn't get messy...

 

[Captain outwater]

Well, the first thing to remember that 200 or 300 years ago, they had BRAND NEW HORNS, so it is not necessary to 'age' one.

 

[blacksmithman64]

actually outwater, most horns that came from a professional horn shop were artificially colored. :thumbsup: :v

 

[soggy]

As Stumbling Wolf has said ;" Onion skins and apple cider vinegar will give you a nice mellow aged look. I've also used tea on a couple of horns but went back to the onion skins; it just seemed to give me the colour that I was looking for, and was a bit faster.
Gather up a bunch (about the size of a tennis ball) of the outter dried onion skins. Most any produce dept will gladly give 'em to you, cause they fall off anyway. Add a cup of apple cider vinegar to a gallon of water. Bring it to a boil, then shut off the heat and submerge the horn. Check every 30-45 seconds, and when you get the desired look you're done. :grin: :grin: Do this in the basement and when the odour works it's way upstairs the wife will think you're making pickles.........
Here's one I done a couple of winters ago.....

 

[Bryanbrown]

The Crown issues powder horns were also stained, with a copper solution giving them a strong greenish cast. The copper (sulfate as I recall) was to keep bugs from eating the horns.

Bryan K. Brown www.gunsmithy.com www.jaegerkorps.org
[email protected]
[email protected]

Alle künst ist umsunst wenn ein Engle auf dem Zundlocke brünst.

 

[ladysmithtrading]

You used mamas best stew pot :shocked2: :shake: :shake: :shake: :shake: what were you thinking????????? That Sir I do not know other than breaking down and buying her a new one, now you have a nice pot to do more horns, boil walnut hulls, and melt wax in, your on your own on that one my friend!

 

[trent/OH]

You either have to think fast or have a story already at hand. This would have saved buying her a new pot....
Dear, do you mean to tell me that in all your life, you've never heard of boiling tea and a horn to kill those cursed salmonella bacteria that are hurting people, especially kids, all over the country?
What? Well the horn of course raises the boiling point of the water, so that when it DOES boil at about 240 degrees the bacteria are not just killed, but destroyed! British and Chinese peanuts and pistachios aren't in the news, are they? You're welcome sweety.

 

[dlpowell]

Everybody has their own recipe. I use medium brown leather dye. Take a cloth with more stain on it and use it to wipe off the horn. You'll have to do this 3 or 4 four times to get the brown to a nice light aged level. The harder and finer quality horns will stain quite nice. The softer horns will stain very heavy. Be sure to scrape your horns real good before doing any of these steps.