antiquing powder horns

[No Powder]

Gentlemen I'm not saying that that all old horns were not stained. What I am saying is many of the horns I see at Rendezvous are being made to look old, like something handed down for a hundred years. Finished or unfinished these horns were tools made and used at that time, not rare antiques. Many of the horns found, (probably not on display) were plain some hardly polished, maybe just the roughness removed. They were worn slick with use and the patina was gained from the oils in our hands, and the dirt and staines picked up from everyday use. Didn't mean to start a big halabaloo, just wanted to make a point.
Many folks look in books and museums and want what they have to look as aged as what they see, not thinking that their cloths and other thing should look as they did back then, not as they do with 200+ years of history on them.
No Powder

 

[tg]

That is a good point, to a point,the same is said for gun barrels, furniture and many items, the one thing we really do not know though is how much different did a 200year old piece look 190 years ago than it does today? You can look at a trade gun from a museum that saw little wear and one that was used moderately to heavily and one that was dug from a research site and all would be 200 years old and look quite different.... just some thoughts.