powder horns

[Gemoke]

I`m a sucker for a nice powder horn, and I got to wondering why that most of the time when someone shows us their horn or has one for sale there always died some sort yellow and brown weren`t any just left natural. If you to want add age to your horn why not just use it.

 

[jbwilliams3]

Often what we think is color as a result of age on an original horn, is really the result of dye. Some folks dye their horns in order to emulate an aged look. Others dye their horns yellowish, orange, etc. because original horns were sometimes dyed these colors.

 

[rich pierce]

The "aging thing" is a big debate among folks in the hobby. Some get all wrapped up about it. Bottom line is personal preference. To some folks, white horns look stark. I often use amber horns and they have a good look from the get-go w/o doing anything. I have found it takes 30 years to get some natural aging color on a horn. But maybe my horns don't get out enough.

By contrast, here's an aged horn I made recently just for fun.
Sometimes I like a horn to tell a story. This horn is meant to represent an owner-made horn. All done with common hand tools and no abrasives except some pumice on a wet rag. The fella used a compass to inscribe the crude arcs at the base, using the nail holes as the center of the arcs. He patterned the spout end after a bottle top, and chip-carved the butt plug quickly.

I colored it with aquafortis to simulate the aging colors a horn will take. This was an amber horn running to brown at the end, and is thin enough to see the powder level.

 

[Capt. Fred]

That's a real nice, simple horn Rich. I think you achieved your goal perfectly. :thumbsup:

I'm one of those that likes the amber,gold, mellow yellow, whatever you want to call it, tone that older horns take on. It is just a personal preference for me. I like that look and don't feel like waiting for it to occur naturally. I think this is one of those "taste" things that has no right or wrong answer.

 

[Gemoke]

Now that one looks natural even though you used alittle color. some of the ones I`ve seen are so yellow they just look wrong. nice job Rich :thumbsup:

 

[ohio ramrod]

Aging a horn naturally takes years. Even though this is a hobby for people not in a hurry. (If you are in a hurry, shoot modern automatics. )Most of us don't want to wait years to get a horn to "look right " :hmm:

 

[chance]

Nice horn!!

 

Gemoke,
I have a number of original horns that have had no dye put on them, just good old time. They run the range of color from pale yellowish tan to green. None of them have anything like a uniform color, it seems to change with the grain of the horn.
Mark

 

[bedbugbilly]

Rich - that is one HANDSOME horn! I love your philosophy of the making of it. It's simplistic yet very personal to the "person" who constructed it. I also love the chip carving on the plug!

I had a number of original horns in my collection at one time - nothing real fancy but a few "common" horns from the early 1800s through probably the late 1800s. Someone mentioned "green" - I had one that was very "green" in color - and it appeared that it was dyed.

I've made a number of horns over the years but the last few I constructed were more "traditional". No machine tools - scraping the horn and working it with hand tools - pretty much what would have been available for the time period. On several I used "Old Bones" that gave it the "aged" look. They turned out good but then I got to questioning whether I wanted them to look 200 years old or, if I was wanting them to possibly look ten years old - the way they would have looked if the year was 1820 and the horn was made in 1810 (as an example). I think that that is something we all struggle with and like anything else, it ends up being a "personal preference". I don't do a lot of "primitive" or re-enacting anymore but I've always had a preference for "plain" things - as an example, say a Bean rifle over a finely inlaid Kentucky. I'vd done a lot of leatherwork as far as hunting pouches, holsters, etc. but I even found myself "drifting" away from leather hunting pouches to ones made out of old, ratty canvas or pillow-ticking, etc. - something that "Ma" might have stitched up for me to use as a "possibless bag" out of material that was available. Might sound weird but I have to believe that a lot of "poor boy" pouches were made like that but because of the materials, not many survived. I even experimented with making some and coating them with various things - tar based materials, etc. much like some of the early haversacks were made. I finally ended up using black latex paint on pillow-ticking and then tumbling it in a dryer after the paint dried to give it a "worn" look.

I've rambled on enough but I'd love to hear more from others on what you use to dye horns, your thoughts on making them look "aged", etc. Many thanks!

 

[hawkthrower]

Rich, I would tend to agree with you on the aging ,not aging question. I only recently started trying to get a more aged look to my horns and I am still not sure whether I actually like the result or not. I do like alot of the horns I see done that way but I am not sure enough of myself to try and get some of the colors that the pros get.
Ron

 

[lonehunter]

Very nice horn, Rich!
I like it a lot! :v

 

[rich pierce]

Thanks, guys, it was a fun project. I may do a finer one with a cherry or walnut plug that would take sharp carving. Pine doesn't hold up so well to the knife or V chisel.

I also use boiled onion skins to color horns and like the results better than what I see of some RIT dyed horns. Here's one from a few years ago.

 

[Walks Alone]

Since most of the horns we made in the 70's & 80's were to be scrimshawed, we mostly used horns that were as white as we could find. Here's a couple from that era that I still have. The larger (11" horn) was originally made for my uncle in the mid 70's and is a map of his favorite hunting grounds in N Utah, SW Wyoming and SE Idaho along with a banner with his initials on it. Since he died in the early 90's I have used it to carry my 2F powder. The smaller (9" horn) has carried my 3F powder since 1984, has a couple of Desert Bighorn rams with a map of some of the fur trade rendezvous sites in Wyoming and Utah. This picture was taken maybe 10 years ago, so they hadn't aged much in the up to 25 years back then. They still haven't. Doesn't matter though, the scrim was/is more important to me than the color.

 

[jbg]

Aging a horn naturally takes years. Even though this is a hobby for people not in a hurry. (If you are in a hurry, shoot modern automatics. )Most of us don't want to wait years to get a horn to "look right " :hmm:

How does carrying a horn that looks aged make it look right unless one wants to pass it off as something it isn't, an antique? Someone carrying a horn in, say 1757, wasn't carrying a horn that looked 250 years old.

 

[LaBonte]

The idea that all horns were left in the white is one of those mis-conceptions. As was noted above many (if not most) original horns were dyed and not left white - they often used metal salts for dying since it kills/keeps bugs away.
The Mad Monk has done the research and offers advice here.... http://shoot7.tripod.com/madmonk.html
And it does not have to take years and years to color naturally - in the below picture the upper horn is and original dated 1791 and again 1825. The small horn I made in 1973 and was left in the white based on the knowledge of the day yet it started turning yellow in just a few short years after much heavy day to day usage (not just weekends or during hunting season) here in the west. As you can see both are close in color even though one is 182 years older than the other.
How hard and how much as well as where something is used has a lot to do with how fast that something ages - as you can see it does not have to take 250 years to age a horn - to think/state otherwise is plain and simply a misconception:

On the other hand some horns can and do stay whiter as pictured above - why? Your guess is as good as mine..

 

[BrownBear]

Terrific points and examples, LaBonte. Thanks.

 

[omarick1948]

Here is two photo's of the same powder horn I made. One left natural and the other color dyed and slightly distressed(aged). I like them either way, but lean towards dyed,depending on the raw horns natural color!

Rick

 

[rich pierce]

Fine work and I like the warmer color.

 

[hawkthrower]

I agree with Rich The warmer color is very nice and that is a great looking horn.
Ron

 

[jbg]

Gorgeous work. I wish I had contacted you when I was looking for a horn!