Brasilikilt asked to see this beast, so rather than contaminate his thread I've put this in isolation.
Here is a horn I made in 1990 (MCMXC in Roman Numerals) that went wrong in every possible fashion. It started well enough: a steer horn from Tandy, scrimshawed with a #3 sailmaker's needle, inked with blackpowder dissolved in water, the pine plug is held with cat-claw tree thorns. Then, disaster. I tried to fit the round plug by heating the horn in water. After a few sessions I tried a short-cut and microwaved it for a few seconds. The, I tried a few more. BANG! A pocket of moisture must have boiled and it blew a quarter sized balloon out of the side of the horn. ACK!! The dated box is a spliced in patch ( it is actually lap-jointed on all sides and rivited in with strips cut from a penny and peened flush!)
The scrimshaw turned out all right, but it was so huge (holds a pound and a half) it is like wearing a canoe in the woods. I put it in a wall drawer that backs on an attic crawl space. Next time I fished it out some critters had gnawed through most of the hor thickness (must not like the taste of powder). Now, It's a wall hanger . . . inside a closet. :shake:
Here are a couple family horns of unknown history. My 95 year old great aunt had them in 1966 when she passed away and I ended up with them. The lower horn has a 3/8" nose and was full of lead shot from #6 to #2 mixed. The original had podwer in it, but by the time I was ten it had evaporated. Mostly in backyard experiments.
Here is a horn I made in 1990 (MCMXC in Roman Numerals) that went wrong in every possible fashion. It started well enough: a steer horn from Tandy, scrimshawed with a #3 sailmaker's needle, inked with blackpowder dissolved in water, the pine plug is held with cat-claw tree thorns. Then, disaster. I tried to fit the round plug by heating the horn in water. After a few sessions I tried a short-cut and microwaved it for a few seconds. The, I tried a few more. BANG! A pocket of moisture must have boiled and it blew a quarter sized balloon out of the side of the horn. ACK!! The dated box is a spliced in patch ( it is actually lap-jointed on all sides and rivited in with strips cut from a penny and peened flush!)
The scrimshaw turned out all right, but it was so huge (holds a pound and a half) it is like wearing a canoe in the woods. I put it in a wall drawer that backs on an attic crawl space. Next time I fished it out some critters had gnawed through most of the hor thickness (must not like the taste of powder). Now, It's a wall hanger . . . inside a closet. :shake:
Here are a couple family horns of unknown history. My 95 year old great aunt had them in 1966 when she passed away and I ended up with them. The lower horn has a 3/8" nose and was full of lead shot from #6 to #2 mixed. The original had podwer in it, but by the time I was ten it had evaporated. Mostly in backyard experiments.
