Horn Finish

[tx50cal]

I am about to start a horn. I know that I will sand it slightly and finish the sanding with 0000 steel wool, but is that the last step? Do I need to put on some type of oil finish after that? I was thinking about tru oil but washn't sure. Any suggestion are appeciated. Thanks.
Rob

 

[Elnathan]

You don't have to put a finish on it - I have varnish on one of mine to keep the dye on, but that is the only reason I can think of to put any sort of finish except for protecting the engraving, which probably isn't necessary. I do believe that some of the old scrimshawed horns were shellacked to protect the engraving (I presume...)One thing I have found is that the varnish scratches easily, which might be a consideration.

Incidently, unless you have a really exceptional horn, you will end up reshaping the horn to get the lines to flow properly - which means you will be sanding it A LOT. Or, once you are done with your rasp, you can use your pocket knife to scrape it with. A scraper cuts as fast as 60 grit and leaves a surface like 220 grit, which you can polish further with wet-and-dry if you like. I'm partial to the scraped finish myself...

Oh, and if you have a drawknife handy you can use that for shaping before the rasp. Works really well - I love my draw knife.

 

[2172]

Rob, I use a coat of Johnson's paste wax before I start scrimshawing, and when that's done, I follow with another coat of wax. Very occasionally, I'll dye a horn before any waxing, but so far don't like my results..Hank

 

[omarick1948]

You didn't mention if you plan to Schrimshaw (engrave) your horn or not. Depending on the horn. I like to scrape a horn as smooth as I can and then MAYBE sad it with 600 grit or finer sand paper. and powderd pumice. Then buff it with #0000 steel wool. I like to rub each of my horns with several coats of a mixture of bee's wax, Canuba wax and PURE Tung oil. The Tung oil helps set any dying I've did and the waxes keep the horn from drying out too much and cracking in the future. I don't like high or low speed electric buffers, as I mentioned somewhere else on this thread, mainly because I don't care for the high polish "Plastic" look and I really don't believe the "Ol Honers generally put a high polish on their horns. Once you have learned to use a good set of cabinet scrapers on horn. You will all put throw sand paper out the window!

Good luck on your horn,
Rick Froehlich

 

[AeroncaTAL]

I usually sand with 300 grit,then buff with 0000 steel wool. I dye the horn with RIT dye, buff again with the steel wool then just rub in beeswax. Course I'm still learning this art... :grin:
Scott