Made another one, 1st Buffalo horn

[Brasilikilt]

Hey everyone

I just finished a horn this morning and thought since many of you were kind enough to give me a lot of helpful advice, I figured you all might like to check out the results.

As some of you may notice, I left some natural gouges in the horn, mostly because it gives it an authentic look, and scraping the horn enough to remove them would result in too thin a horn which I'm afraid would probably not withstand honest use.
And let's face it, most of us prefer our gear to look as though it's been knocked around the mountains for a few years :grin:

I used copper wire to pin the base plug which I think looks great! a lot better than the domed "brass" tacks I had bought. :shake:

As usual, the horn is super air tight, with the pine base plug having a heat-applied saturation of linseed oil and wax, which repels water as if some Jedi witchdoctor cast an anti-moisture force field around it.

Anyways.........let me know what you all think.

Take care
Iain

 

Looks like a Missouri trade horn to me. Have you filled it up yet to see how much of a pound will fit in there?

 

[BLAHMAN]

Looks good....I actually like them knicks and dings in the horn.....character marks, that's the technical word for them. :thumbsup:

 

[mbw907]

That is a really nice powderhorn. Great job! :winking: :thumbsup:

 

[BigRoy3]

Looks excellent. I've made a few buffalo horns myself. They're my favorite over cow horn. :thumbsup:

 

[Goldhunter]

Looks GREAT! :hatsoff: :hatsoff: I think I need to try building a Buff horn. The more I see them, the more I like!

 

[Norskie]

I like the pine base plug, what did you stain it with? I really like the twisted staple. Have you ever fastened a plug on with long thorns, like from a thornapple? Works real well.

 

[Brasilikilt]

Greetings

I'm glad you all like the horn! After all you are the kind of people who I hope will be buying them

To answer your questions, no I haven't filled it with powder, but did pour some into the horn to make sure it has a good flow. I don't think I even have a full pound of powder :redface:

Pine is a good wood for the base plugs as it is soft and easy to work with.
I have a method I use to stain/age the base plug, for a while I thought it was my little secret, but I bet people have been doing it for years.
I do a half and half walnut stain linseed oil mix soaked into a rag and rub onto the base plug as I heat it with a mini torch, letting the oil bubble and the walnut stain start flaming for a few seconds. I repeat this process several times until I get the desired look.
After that I light a candle and drip wax all over the base plug and heat it again with the mini torch letting the wax smoke and sizzle a little bit while wiping it with the walnut/linseed rag
I repeat this process until water crawls away from the base plug

If any of you try it, let me know how it works

I haven't used thorns for the base plug, but I'm willing to try just about anything the looks nice and is PC. I don't know of any thorn apple that grows around here, but with a little looking I'm sure I can find something that will work.


Iain

 

[Riku]

Looking fine yes indeed! :thumbsup: [url] http://cows-finland.org/kuvagalleria/thumbnails.php?album=topn&cat=10004[/url]

 

[shmrck1]

Simple but elligant...Very Nice!
snake-eyes :bow: :hatsoff:

 

[barebackjack]

Nice work!

How much thinner did you find the buff horns to be compared to cow? Ive got a couple layin around, and have heard they are usually much thinner walled.

Im just finishing preping my first horn, a small priming horn from a 7-8" horn. How much do you take off during filing and sanding?, or, how thin are the walls when you are finished?

Also, how do you make and finish your base plugs? And how do you finish the entire horn? I want to bring the color contrast out between the black and white, but dont want it to be shiny.

Thanks for any help, nice work on all your horns so far!!!

Boone

 

[Gr8whytenorth]

I'm glad I looked around here today, I've been working on a my first horn, a buffalo horn and have been wondering how much to take off and then with the natural gouges and such I was beginning to worry a little if I took those all the way out, would I go through the horn walls completely, I do like your aged natural look on the horn and have given me ideas and an ease to my worries about whether I could do this or not!!

:hatsoff:
JR

 

[jelder24]

I have used locust thorns on several occasions and love them.

 

[crockett]

Not only does the horn look great but most important it is really a PC looking item. It captures the essence of what a buffalo powder horn was- really good job.