Horn Trouble

[paco97]

Im working on my first horn and I just finished dying the neck. After the horn cooled down, I looked it over and a portion of the neck looks like it warped while boiling. I dyed it for 25 minutes. Can this be fixed, or will I have to put up with the warping?

 

[gamick]

This months issue of Muzzle Blast has an article on the ins and outs of shaping a horn. If you know someone that is a member borrow their issue,it's a pretty good read. :v

 

[rebuse]

25 min.? seems a little long to me. I might keep the nozzle in for about 5 min at the most, and that gives me a nice dark/rich brown. That's a full bottle of RIT (liqyid) dark brown in about 2 gallons of water brought to a boil. And the body is only in for 1 min at the max. I use one full bottle of liquid RIT Tan and one full packet of grainulated sunset orange RIT in about 2 gallons of water brought to a boil. and I havn't had any problems with warping.

Preacher :thumbsup:

 

[Harddog]

Without seeing the horn I can't say for sure, but it is possible that part of the horn in the affected area has delaminated. Horns grow in layers and sometimes when excess or prolonged heat is applied to them a layer will kind of "bubble up" from the other layers. You see this sometimes on horns that have been polished before you get them. They are polished on a big buffing wheel which produces heat which in turn can affect the horn layers by causing delamination of the layers of horn.

I know of no cure for delamination after it has occured except to try and rescrape the affected area back down to size and hope that you don't break through the outer layer of horn.

BTW, a delamination might be almost impossible to see if the throat is stained very dark.

Randy Hedden