Finished a horn today... (plenty of pics..)

[DGeraths]

Hey there,

I thought I would post a few shots of a powderhorn I finished today. Normally I am having to make them and then send them off to clients, but today I finished one for me! Yeah!!

The horn that this was made from I considered at one point, not even salvageable. I got it for free when I was walking past a second hand store. They were closing shop for good and had a bunch of stuff sitting in front of the shop with a "free" sign on them. Old beanbags, a broken chair, some clothes... and an beat up old cow horn that someone had obviously tried to make into a powderhorn for a school project or something.
It wasn't carved or anything but covered in horrible "Indian style" drawings that someone had done with a sharpie... Yikes. :shake:

I figured since it was free, perhaps I should take it home and try to use it for something.

It sat in the studio all this summer... getting stain spilled on it; spiderwebs and sawdust covered it at one point... Then a couple of days ago I had a few spare minutes while waiting for some resin to cure, so I took it over to the workbench and started cutting it down (the horn was HUGE, a good 20 inches long or so).

That evening I sat and carved on it a bit and found to my surprise that there could be a pretty nice horn hiding underneath the paint and sharpie drawings...

After a day or so of sanding, shaping, carving and scrimshawing... Here are a few shots of the finished product. (I really wish I would have taken a photo of the horn before I started on it...)

It measures about 12" inches long and 3" in diameter at the base.

 

[thomas]

Great looking horn & workmanship! :hatsoff:

Thomas

 

[cavscout]

just a question,, how much do you charge for a horn like that,, it sure is nice.

 

[Bob J]

What a beautiful, authentic-looking powderhorn! :hatsoff: The strap is nice, too. Thanks for posting the photos.

 

[Old40Rod]

What wonderful stuff are you using for the throat stain? My leather dye doesn't come close to that richness!

 

[DGeraths]

What wonderful stuff are you using for the throat stain? My leather dye doesn't come close to that richness!

To dye the neck, there is really only one way to do it, which is pretty much the same way that it was done two centuries ago.

You have to get some dye, in this case, Rit Dye works very good. Get some dark brown and black. Bring the brown dye and a pitch of black (and the water it is mixed in) to a slow boil. Then soak the end you want dark in the dye for 15 minutes or so.

After that is done, scrape away the areas that you want white again.

It is just that simple. :hatsoff:

 

[scott k]

Nice looking horn and a great job on it :thumbsup:
Great price to boot. shur wish I could find a 20" horn for free
Lehigh...

 

[AZ-Robert]

I like the engrailing - nicely unique. And that is a nice strap; did you purchase that and, if so, from whom?

Came out very nicely.

 

[DGeraths]

Here is a pic of the tiny companion priming horn that I finished about an hour ago. Six inches from stem to stern.

It will be attached to the shooting bag via a small braided leather strap.

 

[DGeraths]

And that is a nice strap; did you purchase that and, if so, from whom?

The woven part of the strap I picked up on EBay and then I fitted the pigskin ends and straps for the horn.

 

[AZ-Robert]

Pretty good work on that primer, too. Nice use of that peg as an attachment point back there. Looks like a chip carved butt plug - smooth work. What kind of wood? What did you use to stain / dye it?

 

[DGeraths]

The wood plug on the primer is eastern cherry. The whole horn was slow boiled in dark brown dye for about 10 minutes and then lightly polished with #000 steel wool.

Both the front and rear peg are ebony. The rear one is fixed to the horn.

 

[dlemaster]

DGeraths
Very nice horns. I noticed in another thread that you said you use crushed black powder to color the scrimshaw. May I ask what you use as a binder to keep it in the engraving?
I have always used india ink in the scrimshawed lines on my horns and it has worked out well.

Regards, Dave

 

[rich pierce]

Darn nice work. Looks "right", not too perfect in the scrimshaw, as if perhaps the horn was decorated by the guy who carried it. The shaping of the necks, etc. on these horns is outstanding. If you ever want some drawings of originals, I have about a dozen that I can send you that are from upper NY state. The drawings were made in the 1930's by my great uncle.

 

[onefeather]

nice horn you really got talent

 

[DGeraths]

Thanks,

Twenty five years (and counting) in the museum exhibit/replica business has it's advantages. A nice shop with well worn tools, a library of research material and a lot of tricks of the trade under my cap.

:hatsoff:

 

[DGeraths]

Darn nice work. Looks "right", not too perfect in the scrimshaw, as if perhaps the horn was decorated by the guy who carried it. The shaping of the necks, etc. on these horns is outstanding.

Thanks, that is exactly the look I wanted. To many horns out there are to perfect. Don't get me wrong, there are some horners out there that create absolute works of art! But they are so perfect that they don't look real.

On a few spots on my scrimshaw I made sure and let the knife overshoot a line here, or leave a scratch there... I sanded some areas of the horn smoother than others so that the aging dye would change shade on different parts of the horn. Every single authentic horn from that time has these slight flaws in the work. It may not be obvious to the casual observer, but your subconscious eye catches those subtle little details. That is why some replicas looks "off", it is because they lack the same characteristics of the original. The differences might be practically invisible, but your subconscious will pick up on it.

Years ago when I was making some Lakota artifact replicas for a museum I ran into that problem. The replicas look very good, but they didn't cross the finish line in regards to looking "real". It was not until I remade them with subtle little flaws here and there that they really came into focus.

The important part of replicating something like this horn for reenacting is to remember not to age it to the same degree as an original. One must remember that this is supposed to look a few years old, not centuries.

 

[fatboy]

Darn nice horn's you have made!!. I need to make another or so just gotta sit down and do it. :redthumb:

 

[AZ-Robert]

Okay, so you have a new-to-you gun, now you have a couple of horns to hold your powder... the next steps are:

-get some powder to go in those horns;
-get some .62 lead balls (I think that was a 20ga);
-take the gun somewhere you can put a target 50 yards away;
-tape a 3x5 card to the target;
-use the gun to put three holes in the card;
-mail the card to Claude.

Don't wait for pheasant season to shoot that gun. Break it in doing something that REALLY counts.

 

:applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause:
Nice piece of work, or is that art... That is just wonder full for sure... That's awsome my friend Thank for shar'en this work of art with us... Loyalist Dawg :thumbsup: