fyrfyter43
45 Cal.
- Joined
- Aug 27, 2008
- Messages
- 769
- Reaction score
- 4
I've been home for the past few months recovering from surgery, so I decided an engraved horn would be a nice project to keep from going stir crazy. I've made other, very basic horns before, but I've never done one with any engraving or other decoration.
I learned quite a bit making this horn. My first scrimshaw attempts were pretty sloppy. I realized I was trying to cut WAY too deep, making the tool skip around. And the Exacto knife I was using really wanted to dig in. I ordered a scribe from Coulter Precision and lightened up on the pressure, with great results. I also learned just how important it is to clean up even the shallowest of scratches before doing any engraving. If you look closely, you can see a few scratches that I missed. There are also some tool marks on the neck that I missed. Not perfect, but overall I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.
The butt plug is a scrap piece of maple I had laying around from another project. The horn was dyed with Rit dye, and to color the engraving I used a mixture of gunpowder and water.
A couple shots before dying to show off the scratchin':
And the finished horn:
The strap is from The Weaving Welshman. It's one of his Woolton straps with beeswax. Lynn called me shortly after I ordered the strap and offered to add the beeswax. He said he has only used beeswax on a Woolton strap once before, but he really liked the way it turned out. I have to say, I really like it too!
I learned quite a bit making this horn. My first scrimshaw attempts were pretty sloppy. I realized I was trying to cut WAY too deep, making the tool skip around. And the Exacto knife I was using really wanted to dig in. I ordered a scribe from Coulter Precision and lightened up on the pressure, with great results. I also learned just how important it is to clean up even the shallowest of scratches before doing any engraving. If you look closely, you can see a few scratches that I missed. There are also some tool marks on the neck that I missed. Not perfect, but overall I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.
The butt plug is a scrap piece of maple I had laying around from another project. The horn was dyed with Rit dye, and to color the engraving I used a mixture of gunpowder and water.
A couple shots before dying to show off the scratchin':
And the finished horn:
The strap is from The Weaving Welshman. It's one of his Woolton straps with beeswax. Lynn called me shortly after I ordered the strap and offered to add the beeswax. He said he has only used beeswax on a Woolton strap once before, but he really liked the way it turned out. I have to say, I really like it too!
