horn help

[tundrawolf]

im working on my first horn ,but ive a question how are most horns filled ? through the spout ? ive seen some with threaded plugs but is that correct for a fur trade era horn ?also where can i buy strap staples ? thanks everyone

 

[Harddog]

im working on my first horn ,but ive a question how are most horns filled ? through the spout ? ive seen some with threaded plugs but is that correct for a fur trade era horn ?also where can i buy strap staples ? thanks everyone

TW,

You've got it, most horns were filled through the spout. Make your own strap staples from coat hanger material or any other steel wire stock that is about the right size. Most strap staples were just round wire like material. I don't know where the idea came from that they were twisted square stock. Probably a modern thing.

Randy Hedden

 

[longshot47]

Brazing rod or certain types of square cut masonry/flooring nails can also be worked into shape as staples [have to heat those nails].
~Longshot

 

[blacksmithman64]

A majority of horns were filled through the spout.A leather funnel was used in the appalachians, simply a round piece of leather about 4" in diameter wih a hole in the middle and held between thumb and forefinger.You squish it a little into a funnel shape over the spout hole.Small horn funnels were used too along with wood and brass.Cabinet pulls were popular for base plug strap attachment,and I'm working on some forged threaded knobs I ran across in a museum book somewhere that dated 1780's off a military horn.The button style brass knob would be ok, I would avoid the acorn style simply because I have never seen an original. Backwoods horns almost always had a staple,and if it was blacksmith made,it was probably twisted.Blacksmiths in them days didn't leave anything plain if they could help it.

 

[RonT]

I outsmarted myself on a horn and installed a steel 5/16" "T" nut in the base plug. I had a 5/16" steel allthread in the knob and only had to unscrew the threaded knob to fill. I came to my senses and locktited the thing togeather before I got a friction ingnition when reassembleing the plug. Sometimes the "old way" is the best way.
R

 

[crockett]

By "fur trade" I take it you meant mountain man- not the buck skinners or long hunters "from Kentucky". There are two choices, cow and buffalo. On the cow horn you can probably just copy any style of the day (staple or wood finial on the base plug). Alfred Jacob Miller, who painted the mountain men usually depicted some sort of finial but I can't tell if it is wood or brass. The museum of the fur trade has a buffalo horn with a staple in the base plug. I would say on the buffalo horns you want to keep them fairly plain, not all sorts of carving, etc, in fact the same would also hold for a cow horn used in the west, plain is probably more pc.
If you want, you could also put another staple in the throat area, if the horn there is too thin to carve any rings, etc.

 

[boar]

A good source is the staples they use to nail strapping to the lumber on loads. Might have to make them smaller, depends on size of strap they used. Dilly