powder horns

[onefeather]

i have a horn that i made that i have scraped down untill you can see through it and i have heard of other makers makein some and have heard of it back in the day. i think that the long hunters fronteirsmen and almost anyone on the fronteir who lived by the rifle would want to know exactly how much powder they have because that could mean the diffeance between life and death and meat or no meat (i saw meat because at any season there is plenty of food all you have to know is what it is and how to get it)dont get me wrong i like scrimshaw it is a artform and is hard work and takes talent but i think and have heard that on the ever changing fronteir it was not a good horn untill you could see the grains in it. my first horn was black and i can see through it just fine . just wrote this to share my knowledge and my opinion and mabey inspire someone else . bye :m2c:

 

[flintlockmdj]

I agree with all that you said but it seams to me that a horn that is scraped extreemly thin would be more prone to crack or have other structural issues.

 

[hornbuilder]

one feather :{>

this comment is not meant in any way to argue what you have stated , just a different opinion :results:
i would think that if you carried a horn any length of time, that soon you would be able to tell how much powder is in that horn by the weight on ones shoulder without having to hold it up to the light to see whats inside :imo:
that horn being that thin is very fragile, not sure that i would sacrafice beauty for no powder if i broke it.
some horns are transluent without being thin, just a difference in horn. again this is only my opinion . not meant to create a problem in any shape or form :thanks:

 

[onefeather]

i have hit it with my gun banged on big rocks more times than i can remember and hit it with all kings of other things and it never cracked but i still think its what you like but back then it would be easy to trade for another horn or just get one because back then alot of america's economy was off of cow horns as much as beaver or deer hides or wood

 

[onefeather]

i agree but about the weight i cant argue that
:RO:

 

[longshot47]

One Feather-
Gotta agree. Many, if not most, of the original horns I've handled were remarkably light for their size -scrimmed or not; while many contemporary, owner-made horns seem suprisingly heavy.
I've got my doubts about the durability issue as a reason for a thick walled horn.
Scrape more -travel light.
....Longshot

 

[E.Boyd]

The ability to see how much powder is in a horn has as much to do with the color as how thin it is. White & black are hard to see through, tans & lt.brown,greens are best.

I still like to scrape them thin though.

Ernie , Cadiz Ky.

 

[onefeather]

mine is black and i can see through it fine

 

[FearNot]

See through it? Why? I would think living on the froniter you'd fill it every chance you had so you wouldn't be caught out in the woods with an empty horn. Seeing how much is in it wouldn't be much help - sure won't fill it any. :m2c:

Having said that, I also have heard about thin scraping a horn so you can tell. Just don't see much call for it.

 

[Stumpkiller]

I was always afraid to get one that thin. I shake it end-to-end and can tell about how full or empty it is.

 

[onefeather]

all im saying is that if you were on the fronteir you wouldnt always have powder or even home made powder always and im sure they refilled it as often as they could to but in the mddle of a battle or ambush chances are your not gonna waste ammo if you have been on the fronteir for a while then you would now not to waste powder even if it was life or death . you may have shook your horn and thought you hade enough but buy the next shot you may have enough to prime your gun but not get hardley any for a main charge and im sure it was easyier to get another horn then powder in fact i know so because a very big part of our economy then was off of horns :imo: :m2c: :says:and i dont think your gonna waste time and reload your horn in the middle of a battle

 

[2172]

On a couple of horns, I got a pair of opposing spots thin enough to see the powder level when held up to the sun..I figure a couple of dime-sized spots weren't going to weaken the horn too much..and I put them near the base, so I could hold the horn up, spout down, and see if there was enough powder to block out the sun or not (full or not)...I'm about to start a new horn, and might do this again...I'd sort of forgotten about it..Hank

 

[onefeather]

back then i dont think there would have been as much sun as we think the trees then were a good 100 feet tall or more and they shaded alot because they say back then saplings had to grow fast and straight to get to sun light so i dont think they could have just put it up to the sun but for nowadays any horn would do fine :imo:

 

[Erastus]

?

 

[hornbuilder]

i agree ?????"?

 

Guys, we are in a second or third growth of forest. The tree tops would have almost touched all the way to the Mississippi back then. The landscape isn't the same. Our most beautiful spots would have looked strange to someone that lived previous to our grandparents. Beats Europe, they lost thier first growth around 900 AD to 1100 AD. I mean from the Atlantic to like Kiev it was gone. "Robin Hood was stealing when he started a campfire" is no lie. A guy would have been prosecuted for gathering wood to warm his family. I don't think our settlers would have minded a shake of the horn to estimate the amount of powder. :imo:

 

[onefeather]

i was in the woods talking to a freind and we got on the subject that if a fronteirsmen came back to our tim the biggest trees we know would have been saplins to them lol :front: i dont think i would waste my life or others by a shake of a horn no matter how long i would have had it if you shake it you might think you have enough for two shots so you go ahead and fire one and start to reload and not even have enough to load your main charge so i dont think i would have risked my life with a shake of the horn :m2c:

 

[2172]

I agree on the size of the trees back when..every so often I come across the rotted out at ground level stump of something cut down 100 years ago, and can see it would have been 4 feet or so across. That said, when the sun was up, it wasn't night[url] time...in[/url] the deepest forest, you could figure out where the brightest light was coming from..if you held the horn in that direction, you could discern the shadow of the contents, or the lack of it...I've never seen an original that had a "window" my only comment was that I had made a viewing spot in a couple of horns, and liked it...I just don't accept that the early settlers spent their days in deep gloom...Hank

 

[onefeather]

i dont think it was that dark only that your not gonna have as much light as nowadays

 

[Stumpkiller]

But that was before all the pollution of the Industrial Revolution and present day, so the sun appeared brighter. ::

And not just the sun. :haha:

I've seen paintings of Revolutionary War battles and the trees are pretty well gone from the fields. By the time of the Mountain Man the Adirondacks were about cleared bare for lumber and tan bark.

Why do you think the pioneers went West? Land to clear. First thing you do is chop down trees for the barn, then you clear a patch for the crops, then the house.

Deer can't survive in mature forests where there is no browse & undergrowth, so the hunters were in the swamps, meadows, glens, fens, bogs, glades and edges, anyway.