First post, first horn

[Brasilikilt]

Hey there!

The quality of your work is obvious. I can tell that you really thought this project out and took the time needed to produce what turned out to be a really nice horn.
Keep it up and you'll gradually make a lot of top notch gear for your kit.

As for base plugs, you might try a 50/50 mix of melted (bee or candle)wax and boiled linseed oil. Add a small amount of leather dye or furniture stain if you want, but I find that you don't really need it.

Use a cotton rag and smear a liberal amount on your base plug. Heat it up on a stove, or with a heat gun until it sizzles and gets sucked into the wood pores.
Keep wiping on the mix and heating until the wood is good and soaked. This gives a nice authentic appearance to the wood, adds moisture resistance, and really helps seal the plug and horn together to keep it air tight.
This has worked really well for me, hopefully it will for you as well.

 

[OldJoe212]

Nice work... Lately, I've been turning my baseplugs out of walnut. I have a tap and die set for wood in both 1" and 1/2". 1" for powder horns and 1/2" for priming. I make the screws out of some applewood from a blown down tree. Turns good and makes for solid threads. My plugs are from a softer wood that I soak in linseed oil for a few days. Being a softer, oiled wood, it squeezes in better and is waterproof.

There was an earlier comment about not putting on skrim yet. Good comment. Don't fill it up just to fill it up. Only add something that means something to you.

Keep up the good work. Joe

 

[Mockingbird]

I figure I would add some more pictures of my progress. For the base plug I took the one from the kit and shaped it down using hand tools ( I didn't really care for the mushroom shape and it didn't overhang evenly all the way arround). I was able to get the joint to the wood pretty darn tight there is only the slightest gap that I can't seem to get perfectly flush. Before I reshaped the "mushroom", I oil boiled it to round it. The plug fit is probably 85% air tight, with a small leak along one side when blowing into it. Could this be because of the roughness of the horn interior?
As far as the staples go I think I am going to use the one at the bottom that I made out of a hanger pounded square (as suggested) IIRC the plug from the kit is maple.

 

[Brasilikilt]

Hey there

First off, the plug piece is excessively large. You could use a piece half it's current height, and still have enough wood to do the job.

Roughness on the inside of your horn very well could be causing the leak. Maple is hard and doesn't compress or conform as easily to the horn's irregularities as a softwood.
There's a reason why people used pine again and again when building their horns back in the day.

 

[Brasilikilt]

Hey there

First off, the plug piece is excessively large. You could use a piece half it's current height, and still have enough wood to do the job.

Roughness on the inside of your horn very well could be causing the leak. Maple is hard and doesn't compress or conform as easily to the horn's irregularities as softwood does.
Softwood is also much lighter and easier to shape than maple and other hardwoods. An indication as to why pine was such a popular choice when people built their horns back in the day.
You might consider experimenting with a piece of common 3/4" pine board....You can always save the maple plug for a later project.

 

[MSW]

I agree that the plug is too tall - about half of what you have would look better (in my opinion).

now here's my confession: I use epoxy to put my butt plugs onto the horn. ... you need not do this if you are concerned about the whole hc / pc thing, but since I'm not, I do it ... there are various mixes which are hc/pc, and do essentially the same thing, but not quite as well as epoxy.

Once applied and sealed, I've never had a horn leak, and I've never had one come off or get loose.

I like your staples - I would go with the largest one, but again, that's just my opinion.

your horn looks great, and I would still recommend against any scrim at the current time.

just one guy's opinion - free and doubtless well worth the price!

 

[Mockingbird]

I got a piece of furniture grade white pine this afternoon, I think I will go back to the drawing board an make a more simple domed plug. Still not too sure about the big staple. It just seems so much bigger than most of the historical examples I have seen...I might try an find a slightly thicker hanger ( like the ones used for a suit at the dry cleaners) and see if that is a nice in between size. Again thank you everyone for the great advice. I hope I can return the favor some day.

 

[MSW]

to return the favor is simple: teach a little kid how to do this stuff. (your technique is solid, judging from your work, and I think the end result is very good) it is one of my deepest regrets that neither of my daughters have shown any interest in building anything like this ... perhaps a son- in- law or grandchild in the future ...

at any rate, ya done good!

make good smoke!

 

[Mockingbird]

So, after much distraction and delay I am finally back into this. I have the pine plug fitting pretty darn tight only a few tiny air leaks when blown into stoutly from the spout end of the horn. So I have a few more questions. First for those who use bee's wax to seal how do you go about it? I would imagine melt it and pour into the spout end. Second I will stain the plug once I have it secure and filed down to shape, but other than the bee's wax is there anything that would need to be done to treat the inside of the plug before pinning it in?

 

[omarick1948]

First off, your first base plug was fine. There are many examples of originals with that type of plug. Take a look at the horns that I just posted in this section. Those designs were taken from original powder horns. As to your tiny air leaks. If they are only tiny leaks and you have the plug already attached permanently, go ahead and finish your horn and usually the finish will seal the leaks or just melt a little bee's wax on the seem and rub it in the seem with your thumb.

I have used many different concoctions for sealing and gluing in the base plugs from bee's wax to Camel squirt, and for the last ten years or so, I found out that a quality yellow carpenters wood glue is superior to ANY of the other things I've tried. Put the glue on liberally around the inside of the horn base and slip your base plug in and give it a little twist. Stand the horn on it's base with tip up and let dry overnight. Any excess glue will run down the interior sides of the horn and insure a nice gasket like seal.

Rick