Buffalo Horns

[Brasilikilt]

I got my 10 buffalo horns in the mail today. The horns are raw and have a thick flaky layer on the outside. It took me a long time with the belt sander and hand scraping to get the horn to the point where I started to make it look somewhat presentable.
What's the best way to get this roughness of the horn? Is there any trick the old timers used?

At this rate I should have a horn or 2 near completion before too long. I figured I would carve some flats on the throats, use walnut for base plugs and fasten them with brass dome tacks.

I'm thinking these would be a great horn to go with a Hawken, or Plains rifle....what do you all think?

I'm also going to try some flat horns......wish me luck as I've never done that style before!

Thanks

Iain

 

[mikelange]

I've also bought horns (cow horns, not buffalo) "in the rough" so to speak. I haven't put a lot of study into how original horns were smoothed, but the little I've read indicates that scraping was the method used. I acquired a set of worn-out electric planer blades -- very heavy steel, very hard, very sharp -- that, with the ends wrapped with duct tape to protect my pinkies, do a fantastic job of popping off the scales you mentioned and taking the horn down to a point it can be worked with lighter, curved scrapers, files, sandpaper, and whatever other method you use to achieve the final shape and detailing.

I've found, after about ten or a dozen horns, that a heavy-duty, very sharp scraping tool of some sort takes the horn down to smooth faster than a belt sander or grinder (sandpaper and grinding wheels both gum up too fast), with less danger of going too far and "venting" the side of the horn before you realize it. Plus, I've found that being covered in horn dust after the use of power tools is a quick and easy way to find out what it's like to live outside until the smell dissipates.

My wife isn't fond of the smells of heated oak, solvents, oil finishes, or epoxy, either, and I donate my deer hides to a local taxidermist -- I don't want to even imagine the reaction if I were to take up tanning hides in the back yard.

 

[AZ-Robert]

I've found, after about ten or a dozen horns, that a heavy-duty, very sharp scraping tool of some sort takes the horn down to smooth faster than a belt sander or grinder (sandpaper and grinding wheels both gum up too fast), with less danger of going too far and "venting" the side of the horn before you realize it.

Ditto. The fiber in the buffalo horns makes the difference even greater. Scraping is the way to go, with resort to a rasp or file to change the shape here and there.

The brass domed tacks look great against the jet black horn. In addition to walnut, you might also consider using pine that has been dyed black (fabric dye) ... mix it up double strength (or more) and coat the wood with bee's wax when done and it will match the horn in color and luster.

I think buffalo horns are a perfect match for plains style rifles.

Who supplied your raw horns?

 

[Harddog]

I think buffalo horns are a perfect match for plains style rifles.

Don't forget that buffalo horns were also used in the east during the 18th century. Done up in eastern styles, they make very nice horns to go with that Pennsylvania longrifle.

Randy Hedden

 

[Brasilikilt]

Hey guys

These horns are tough, Talk about death from a million scrapes!
I got one scraped down nearly to completion, well actually I alternated between the belt sander, section of broken machete blade and a little hunting knife.
I had a good thought about making a horn scraper from that machete blade.......kind of a draw knife with a single bevel, slightly concave edge, should work well!
Something I noticed is that no matter how much I scrape off, I can't seem to get rid of some of those little white lines!

Anyways, I got my horns from a guy off E-bay, PM me if you want his user ID

I also had a mind to use pine for the base plugs as well! It's just that I have a couple nice pieces of walnut, so why not use them if they'll work and look good?
I was surprised to see Track of the Wolf selling similar horns for $150!! I wouldn't mind making that kind of dough!

Thanks for all your help!

Iain

 

[mikelange]

I've used walnut, maple, cherry, pine -- pretty much anything that ended up laying on the floor of the shop in a good-sized chunk. Walnut will also stain up to almost black. Minwax makes an "ebony" stain that will do the trick, if you don't mind using off-the-shelf non-PC products. You have to let the stain soak for awhile on the harder woods or they won't penetrate well.

By white streaks, do you mean very fine white lines, as if someone had peeled a single fiber off the length of the horn? If so, not to worry. Those will vanish as you work the horn down to its final polished state. The rough scraping you're doing now is equivalent to sanding wood with coarse paper -- there will be marks and "fuzzies" left behind, but these go away as you work the material down with progressively smoother abrasives.

By the way, I've found that the sanding flaps they sell, for chucking into drills, work great for smoothing the horn down, taking any scrape marks, sharp edges, etc out. It's a good idea to buy fine-grit ones (Wally World sells them) and wear them down a little (as well as break them into sanding a curved surface) against a piece of metal pipe or similar hard, curved surface, but I've had good luck with them. A used-up one, with most of the actual sanding flaps gone or worn to nubs and only the scrubby-pad material left that cushions the sandpaper flaps, also works well for a dull, even polish after you've finished the actual sanding/scraping.

 

[nuttbush]

I have been working on a set of Buffalo powder horns also. I actually got them from a Buffalo skull that I won on e-bay. I mounted the skull on the wall without the horn covers, so I though I would try my hand at using them for powderhorns. I also tried several ways to get it worked and smoothed down. Talk about stink when you start sanding. I carved them, sanded them, then steel wooled them and finally ended up with a fairly nice finish. I was told you can use paste wax on them for a final finish, (any advice on this). I thought that this type horn would be for out West, Mountain man era. Would it actually be accurate for an early Eastern impression, say 1750-1800. Thanks.

 

[AZ-Robert]

Paste wax will certainly do the trick, but before you do that you may want to try burnishing them. I used the back of old spoon... it removes the last bit of "chalky" look from sanding or steel-wooling. A short cut is to use a buffing wheel and a bit of compound, but that will leave it very glossy, probably too shiney for your taste... that glossy look won't last long, though, if you use it regularly.

Once you get the look you want, put your paste wax on.

 

[weeping wolf]

Pick up an old woodworkers drawknife. I have 2 of them and they work just fine. You can usually find them in just about every antique shop that has tools. Happy scraping!

 

[Brasilikilt]

I actually do have an old draw knife, the problem is keeping the horn still. In a vise, I'm aftraid the horn will crack, even if I wrap it in something to protect it.
I made a horn scraper which could be sharper, but has been working well for me. I'll post pics later

This advice is really helpful.......thanks everyone

Iain

 

Buffalo horns are good for Powder horns in the 18thc. eastern frontier as well. I carry mine whether I am doing east or west. I beleive it was Nicholas Cresswell that had a buff horn and I have seen others in collections with early finger woven sashes as the strap. One even had silver mounted around the base.
Buffalo horns tend to dry out if you don't keep linseed oil on the outside surface. It will keep your horn healthier if you give it a rub with linseed oil once in a while. I do mine when it starts looking dull.

 

[mikelange]

I've found that I have the best luck scraping from tip to base -- far less tendency to tear or crack the horn beneath the scale and crud I'm trying to remove. The reason this matters, in terms of trying to keep the horn still while I scrape, is that it enables me to do this: take a short section of old broomstick or similar-sized dowel (preferably one with a rounded end, hence my reference to a broomstick), long enough to go as far as it will up the body of the horn and still leave about six inches or so sticking out. Bevel one side of the rounded end. With the bevel positioned against the outer curve of the horn as it's sliding in, jam the stick in tight. The horn is plenty durable (or odds are it won't hold up in use, anyway, assuming it even survives the scraping and shaping process), so you can force the stick in pretty much as tight as you need it to be. Clamp the protruding section of the stick into a vise, with the horn pointing away from you, adjust to find the angle you're most comfortable with, and commence scraping. Rotate the stick and horn together, re-clamping in the vise, as needed.

Get real fancy and wrap the stick, at the base of the horn, with enough duct tape to actually fit snugly in the base, if you need more stability or to support the walls of the horn where they're thinnest.

The above works very well for me, all the way through the final sanding and polishing stage, including the shaping and detailing with files and gouges.

 

[crockett]

Alfred Jacob Miller shows just about all the mountain men with powder horns made from buffalo. From his art, most look like they had a slight knob at the tip to hold the strap and the butt plug is rather flat with square edges and a wood finial. There doesn't appear to be any large brass tacks- as is often seen on currently made buffalo powder horns. Hanson(MFT) in his Mt Man sketch book has a buffalo powder horn with a more rounded base plug and a staple and a tip with paneled sides.
So....where did the big brass tacks come from? Does anyone have any information on if such is or isn't PC?(Mt Man era)
One word of advise...buffalo sofdtens in boiling water and you can jam the base plug in too far. When the horn dries and shrinks you have a noticable bump around the inside rim of the horn, so try to fit dry- as much as possible- and don't drive the plug in too far. The buffalo is different from cow horn.
One of the national mags had an article a while back about the correct finish being scraped (with glass- I think). You can put a mirror polish on the horn but then it looks more like cheap plastic than buffalo- IMO.
Spend plenty of time in research to build as close to PC as possible and share your findins with usd- good luck.

 

[Norskie]

Where would they have gotten glass to scrape with? Knife edge is more likely.

 

Busted beer bottles or rum bottles maybe even broken window panes would be a good source of glass scraper supply. Another source for a scraper is flint chards even old tools can be turned into scrapers of metal. Many of the buffalo powder horns were made in Missouri for the western trade instead of being made around a campfire at night while drinkin' and lyin' to each other up on the Seedskadee. There is a good article on trade goods in the "Book of Buckskinning" series that mentions these buff horns being made in Missouri. If I remember it right, it was written by Charles Hanson.

 

[crockett]

Where would they have gotten glass to scrape with? Knife edge is more likely.

That's a good point, in fact I don't know who made powder horns from buffalo or where they were made. The cow horns of the eastern longhunter(I am told) were made by horners who did little else and it was these horners who used the glass. In the West I doubt a buffalo powder horn could be made on the trail, the base plug would be very crude, far more so than the few surviving examples. Horns could have been made in St. Louis or at some of the larger trading posts that kept carpenters, etc on staff. I would be interested to know if anyone has the answer.

 

[quote So....where did the big brass tacks come from? Does anyone have any information on if such is or isn't PC?(Mt Man era)[/quote]

from "The Museum of the Fur Trade Quarterly" Vol 18, Nos 1 & 2, Spring-Summer 1982

.....in the 1770's. Lawrence Ermatinger,one of the Montreal entrepreneurs in the trade to Michilimackinack and the Northwest, sent these orders to Thomas Bridge, in London:
October 1773 - 20M (M = thousand) flemish (aka brass) tacks, 500 in a paper.
October 1774 - 40M (M = thousand) flemish tacks to be packed up in papers of 100

1837 - 20,000 brass tacks for annuities to the Yankton and Santee Sioux'
1839 - "Inventory of Stock at Fort Clark, the Property of Sioux Outfit 1838, transferred to Upper Missouri Outfit 1839." Included "2M Brass tacks."
1843 - An outfit sent from Fort Platte to David Adams on the South Fork of the Platte included "l M Brass tacks.
1864 - Invoice to the Upper Missouri Outfit via Steamer Yellowstone includes 50M Brass tacks.7
1868 - The Peace Commission purchased "l 2M one doz. Papers Brass Tacks" from George H. Kimball & Co. at Fort Phil Kearney."
1878 - Bureau of Indian Affairs purchased "One Hundred and sixty six (166) papers" of "Brass head tacks." (This is extremely significant because it is the first reference to tacks with brass heads.)

There are also records in the Hudson's Bay Company Archives of shipments of brass tacks to York Factory and Fort Edmonton in the 1860's. George Belden included brass tacks in his list of traders' goods "generally sought for by the savages" in the 1860's. Margaret Carrington noted "brass nails" among the goods being sold in the Ward & Bullockstore at Fort Laramie in 1866.
Examples of Indian items decorated with brass tacks can be found in early paintings and photographs and in many private and museum collections. Tacked pieces in the Museum of the Fur Trade collections include two Sioux knife sheaths, a J. Henry flintlock trade rifle, a captured Leman rifle and captured W. Chance Northwest gun, Tryon Northwest gun from Minnesota, percussion trade gun taken during the Riel Rebellion, Cheyenne and Shoshoni pipe tomahawk stems, Brule Sioux flat pipe stem, Northern Plains Indian elk horn whip handle, Osage "gun-stock" club and a fine carved and painted Osage cradle board.

Notes on Usage: In general terms the tacks were used sparingly pre-1850 (when compared to the later periods when they often literally covered belts and other gear). Therefore the cost isn't as critical if one chooses to use the cast/square shank tacks.

2) Steel vs brass shanks: The best data I have is that steel shank tacks didn't appear until the 1870's - see the 1878 note above and a steel shank tack was found at Adobe Walls, TX with a date of 1874.

Currently the ONLY supplier of solid cast brass (actually bronze), square shank tacks is the Trunk Shoppe[url] www.thetrunkshoppe.com[/url]. They are not cheap - starting price is $0.45 each - but they are well worth it when one wants to be historically correct to the nth degree. A word of caution: the cast tacks are SOFT - so one must pre-drill (I use an awl and punch a hole). The rough square shanks hold very well.

On the other hand the steel shank are much less expensive and are generally accepted at most events without raising eyebrows.

One can tell the difference by looking though - steel shank tacks will often have a small dimple in the center of the head after being hammered on - this dimple is where the harder steel shank pushes up against the softer brass head.

 

[crockett]

Thanks Gray Wolf, nice to know for sure brass tacks are PC. I made a mistake on that glass used for scraping. The information was in Muzzleloader a few issues back,namely the Roland Cadle interview. Glass was used (I Think) to scrape to shape but the article I was thinking about used sandstone to smooth down the horn after is was filed and scraped (Files are a PC trade item). Wood ash was then rubbed in for a final finish. It seems to me that such a finish could easily have been done with any horn made at a trading post etc. In any event, it appears a lot if not all of the actual horns were not polished to a mirror finish.

 

[Gr8whytenorth]

I was just getting ready to post a question about the same thing, I bought a couple of buffablo horns on ebay, and then read about the scraping, but when I started, I wasn't sure if what I was doing was correct, but after reading all these posts, looks like to me, you really need to get some good ole elbow grease and a good scraper.
I do have one question though, when scraping this rough horn, can you scrape too hard? Also, will I be able to tell when I'm down to the point on the horn that makes it workable and ready to finish off? Sorry if any of this was already asked, total newbie to making my first horn, but very interested in the art of it.
Thanks :hatsoff:

 

[crockett]

IMHO the greatest danger is putting a ding in the horn and then trying to scrape/file it out. You can put a flashlight inside the horn to help tell how thin you are getting. Because buffalo horn is more fiberous than cowhorn, I would NOT scrape it so thin as to be transparent, just take off the rough outside "bark" and stop. Also spend lots of time sanding the open end perfectly flat to get a nice fit on the plug.