polishing a powder horn.

[Travis Gregory]

I have been working off and on shaping a powder horn. I finally have it shaped the way I want it and now I want to finish it out. What is the best way to polish out the horn? How did they do it back in the day before buffing wheels and sandpaper?

 

[omarick1948]

In one word, Scrapers!... Wood working scrapers, piece of glass, knife blades etc. A utility knife blade makes a fine scraper! __ I have never seen a high polished original powder horn. Most Hornsmith's I know, including myself like to file or scrape the nicks and tool marks off the horn and hand sand with sandpaper in grits of about 220 and eventually going down through the finer grits to 400. Then vigorously hand buffing with #0000 steel wool, before dying or any final finish!

I like a smooth satin finish on my horns and high machine polishing makes a horn look to much like plastic!

WFM,
Rick

 

[user 922]

If you're planning on doing any scrimshaw work on the horn avoid a highly polished finish. The tool is much harder to control as it wants to skate over the buffed surface. Sand it per Horner's advice, do any decoration and finish it with paste wax or shoe polish if you want to adjust the color a little.

 

[MSW]

what Rick said ... he's a pretty smart fellow ... if you have an overwhelming desire for shine, try some paste wax (i use Butcher's bowling alley wax) which will give you a sheen but avoid (IMO) the plastic look).

 

[crockett]

You can use really fine sand paper (#1500 grit) and then toothpaste and get a glossy finish but this isn't really what you want, to me at least the horn starts to look "fake" as if it was made of shiny plastic. I believe the horners at the time used glass scrapers that left a small amount of lines in the finish however this is the PC way as I understand it.

 

[gus13]

If you want the absolute PC/HC way, yes just scrape it to finish. you'd be surprised how nice a look you can get just scraping. personally I do exactly what Horner75 says, 220 and pregressively finer till I'm at #0000 steel wool.

 

[Black Hand]

If one insists on buffing: scrape, sand, buff then cut the shine with 0000 steel wool.

 

[OLD CROW]

My daughter, may the manito bless her heart,. gave me a buffalo skull and a couple extra horns was wondering how to polish them,then i logged in here. as always here was the answer. great site and great bunch of folks thanks

 

[matt denison]

In one word, Scrapers!... Wood working scrapers, piece of glass, knife blades etc. A utility knife blade makes a fine scraper! __ I have never seen a high polished original powder horn. Most Hornsmith's I know, including myself like to file or scrape the nicks and tool marks off the horn and hand sand with sandpaper in grits of about 220 and eventually going down through the finer grits to 400. Then vigorously hand buffing with #0000 steel wool, before dying or any final finish!

I like a smooth satin finish on my horns and high machine polishing makes a horn look to much like plastic!

WFM,
Rick

I decided to make a copy of a buffalo horn that i took pictures of at the Museum of the Fur Trade. I wanted it to be as close as possible to what a fronteirsman (Mountain man) would carry 175 years ago. I used a horn that wasn't perfectly round, made a two piece plug, used a homemade staple and even coppied the hangers to hold the strap just like the original. I SCRAPED it rather than sand and polish it so it wouldn't look like something extruded from plastic in China. I wear that horn proudly BUT Several times well meaing people who don't think I know any better have given me advice how to "make it nicer" by sanding and polishing it. I have also been told "if you realy want a nice horn go see so-and-so." I just nod my head and say thanks. Then there ae the real guys who admire it and ask me how I did it so they can copy it.

 

[Rick Son]

Eye protection and a dust mask when scraping or sanding,on a cow horn and antler anyway.I didn't and it did,and i won't do that no more! :shocked2: