Building a Powder Horn

[CuNosecap]

BTW Gerry (Lucky), I am trying to make plans to be at the Guilford Courthouse event this weekend and hoping to swing by your hooch for a visit. I am about 1 1/2 hrs drive east of Greensboro.

 

[James Kopp]

ANY TIPS FOR LINIED UP A WOODEN CAP TO A HORN...ALL BE IT A SMALL PRIMING HORN, anything is appreciated....

 

[LME]

Your scrim looks very nice, just like many of the originals I’ve handled. I also like the color of the horn. Your horn looks a lot better than most for a first attempt. I really like it!

I would lay odds that 90% of the horns used back in the day looked like his. The nice horns were the sunday best and not used very much I would think? The horn was a tool and looks had to be a secondary thought.

 

[oldwood]

If your horn is polished with the pointed end ready to drill the stopper hole , Drill it for 1/4 '' , insert a 1/4 "dowel in the hole , put the dowel in a vise. Now you can rotate the horn on the dowel , and easily file rings around the pointed end of the horn. When rings are filed and decorated , then drill the stopper hole to the proper size. A tapered repairman's reamer will taper the hole ready for a tapered plug.........Easy Peasy.......... Crazy Crow on line Catalog , has the fancy fiddle peg stoppers w/ tapered end to match a repairman's reamer taper.

 

[Jaeger]

This is my first horn and my first attempt at scrimshaw, so please be gentle.

My performance is crude and the scrim is cartoonish, but I learned a lot from the process, including a number of things I will do different with my next attempts.
I was encouraged by the inspiration provided by PathfinderNC and others. The builds shown on this site are amazing and the posting made me want to give it a try. Thank you to all the builders who have posted.
And thanks to Gerry (Lucky) at Powderhorns and More, for making raw materials so easily available. Without our fine vendors, many of us could not make things happen. BTW, I ordered more product from Gerry for my next go.

You may think your scrimshawing looks amateurish, but to me it says AUTHENTIC. A lot of old historical horns were inscribed by everyday people, so they have a "folk art" quality to them. Many old horns I have seen have very crude and amateurish-looking pictures and maps drawn on them. I think your horn looks GREAT!

 

[CuNosecap]

Thanks Jaeger and LME. I appreciate the gracious comments. I think my horn turned out OK and will try to do better with the next one, learning along the way. My first rifle, my first Rococco carving, all look different than my latest.
Just trying to have a little fun along the way.

 

[Wncman]

I haven't even completed my first horn yet, but I wanted to share/ask. I see most people use rit.
I used Revlon bright red hair dye in a tube. Before I knew about rit, I figured hair and horn are pretty much the same. Has anyone tried this before? I got great results. It's about toothpaste consistency. I mixed it with a bit of peroxide into more of a yogurt consistency and painted it onto my horn. Wrapped it in saran wrap for 30 mins and the result was a vibrant red. Abomination, I know, but it is what I was going for. I probably have enough to do 20 or 30 more horns at least.

I was making progress with the horn, until I turned the beehive bung and discovered my wood had beetle damage and found signs of an active infestation. That derailed my horn project. I've been treating everything in my garage/shop (which is a lot of lumber, bench, cabinets, jigs, wooden planes, saws, chisel handles, mallets, ....) but I hope to get back to it in the next few weeks.

Well lets see some pictures

 

[PathfinderNC]

BTW Gerry (Lucky), I am trying to make plans to be at the Guilford Courthouse event this weekend and hoping to swing by your hooch for a visit. I am about 1 1/2 hrs drive east of Greensboro.

I will be at Guilford Courthouse also - 2nd NC Regiment

 

[S.Kenton]

I would lay odds that 90% of the horns used back in the day looked like his. The nice horns were the sunday best and not used very much I would think? The horn was a tool and looks had to be a secondary thought.

I would not bet against you on that!

 

[Kev308]

This little horn has been sitting in pieces for quite some time now. I finally got motivated to finish it up. The plug was stained and set with wood pegs. The body was stained with fiebings leather dye.

 

[Banjoman]

What is the purpose of polishing the outside of a horn other than looks? I bought a horn from Tandy the other day and actually like the satin finish unpolished. I do not plan on scrimshawing it.

 

[mikesto44]

The more folksy the horn the better I like them.

 

[oldwood]

Outstanding horns.

 

[James Kopp]

This little horn has been sitting in pieces for quite some time now. I finally got motivated to finish it up. The plug was stained and set with wood pegs. The body was stained with fiebings leather dye. View attachment 303444View attachment 303445

Looks great... Did you turn the plug yourself? or did you buy it some where.....

 

[WonkyEye]

Hey HAM, concerning the horn and hair dye, you are correct that both hair and nail (horn in this case) are made of keratin. Therefore one would expect good results with hair dye.
My only concern is cost. Unless you have the right color laying around why try to beat Rit at 2-3 dollars per box? I can't imagine anything in the cosmetics counter being $3! Certainly not where my wife shops!

Yeah, I think this was about $10. The results are better than I expected, it's still an abomination and looks like it was made by a 2nd grader, but it's ok this one is trial and error. The horn started it's life as a discounted reject from crazy cow that was about $8 if I recall. I scraped off the finish, filed the end to give it a bit more interesting shape. I haven't done anything with it for almost 2 months, then a few days ago turned a walnut tip for it and just created the cap from beech today. I have the base of walnut glued up, I need to get it on the lathe and finished up.
Edit: it's glossy because I just wiped the whole thing down with oil, I took the pic while waiting for it to soak in so I could buff it off

 

[2Moons]

I’m working on a flat horn I got from Powderhorns( super company! Thanks Gerry!) and was wonder Where to place staple at. In the wood or on top of both horn ad wood plug. What would be more authentic?

 

[SDSmlf]

This is my first horn and my first attempt at scrimshaw, so please be gentle.

My performance is crude and the scrim is cartoonish, but I learned a lot from the process, including a number of things I will do different with my next attempts.
I was encouraged by the inspiration provided by PathfinderNC and others. The builds shown on this site are amazing and the posting made me want to give it a try. Thank you to all the builders who have posted.
And thanks to Gerry (Lucky) at Powderhorns and More, for making raw materials so easily available. Without our fine vendors, many of us could not make things happen. BTW, I ordered more product from Gerry for my next go.

Looks good and I like how it has that ‘original’ folk art rather than an artistic look to it. Much more impressive than the scrimshaw posted by the OP on this thread so far.

 

[oldwood]

When I first started in m/ling , I was trying to understand the logic of original frontier powder horns. Many , or most perhaps , were made as utilitarian horns w/out lathe turned plugs. I have a couple original horns w/o lathe turned plugs , so I lean towards this type construction. I enjoy carving a plug to fit a horn as is , from the raw , frontier style. I also like easy.....1. clean up the horn surface outside and inside. 2. True up the end w/ the big hole , so it's flat , and perpendicular to the horn body. 3. Put the end of the horn with the big hole on the wood you will make the plug from. Draw w/ pencil around the outside of the horn. Cut this circle out and file it to fit the big opening in the horn. Once the plug fits , put it in place w/ epoxie glue. use square nails , boot nails , or small wooden pegs inserted in the horn and further into the horn plug to give the horn an old look. Bee's wax can be used to rub into any gaps around the plug where it is glued in place. Next , cut the point of the small end of the horn off allowing about an inch flat on the small end. Drill a 1/4th " hole through to the hollow inside of the horn , where the powder horn stopper will be . Now a 1/4" dowel can be inserted into the hole where the horn stopper plug will eventually inserted. The dowel can be held in a vise , while the horn body can be turned on the dowel like an axil , allowing fileing work on the outside of the horn neck. Crazy Crow catalog has fiddle peg stoppers w/ tapered bodies , while a standard repairmen's tapered reamer will put an almost perfect taper in the plug hole. A hardware store electric wire staple can be hammered into a square sided staple to hold the back of the over shoulder strap , while the strap on the small end of the horn could fit into a grouve filed in place using the 1/4" dowel held in a vise , as a rotating axil. It's an easily made powder horn , made the same as any frontier horn was made w/o use of a lathe.

 

[CuNosecap]

Looks good and I like how it has that ‘original’ folk art rather than an artistic look to it. Much more impressive than the scrimshaw posted by the OP on this thread so far.

Thank you SDS for that nice compliment. But I will still strive to improve, always reaching forward but probably never attaining the abilities of the likes of Lucky or PathfinderNC or others.
Rick

 

[WonkyEye]

This little horn has been sitting in pieces for quite some time now. I finally got motivated to finish it up. The plug was stained and set with wood pegs. The body was stained with fiebings leather dye. View attachment 303444View attachment 303445

That looks really nice. How do you fix the band to a horn like that