two questions

first:
i got a bison horn i'm in the process of maknig a powder horn from. is there a way to smooth bison horn other than sandpaper or is it jsut the old fationed elbow grease?

second:
does anyone know where i could buy, or learn to make a mold for making rifle balls?

thanks

Son

 

[Robert Egler]

Several places sell ball moulds. Dixie Gun Works, Track of the Wolf are just two that have online stores. Or did I misunderstand your question?

There are some great powderhorn makers on the forum, I'm sure they can give you lot of advice there.

 

[Harddog]

You can use files and rasps to remove the initial roughness of the horn. Then scrape the horn with a sharp knife or cabinet scraper. Always scrape from the tip toward the butt. Once you have the horn scraped and filed smooth then you can use sandpaper to get the quality of finish you desire. I personally don't use sandpaper, but finely scrape my horns to final finish.

Some guys use belt sanders to take all the roughness off the horn, but you need to be careful that you don't take to much off the horn.

Even with scraping and filing it does take a lot of old fashioned elbow grease.

Randy Hedden

 

[billk]

Use a painter's scrape.

 

[AeroncaTAL]

What Randy said. I'm working on a buff horn now and it just takes elbow grease...
Scott

 

[ladysmithtrading]

yep, like all the above with one more thing, try not to breath the horn dust, not very condusive to healthy lungs or nasal passages

 

[omarick1948]

AND A GOOD CLOTHES PIN ON THE NOSE!...MAN,SOME OF THOSE BUFF HORNS CAN BE RANK WHEN FILED OR SANDED!

 

[ameling]

I love and have used a Stanley Sureform for that initial smoothing on the few horns I have worked on. Those little teeth sure remove a lot of horn in a little time. But that is also a potential problem. It is way too easy to take of too much material with it. So I use it to remove the rough ridges, then I switch to a coarse file. After that I have moved on to SCRAPING. Yeah, all the "elbow grease" work! But I tended to just use my woodworking drawknife - kept purpendicular to the horn so that it just scraped instead of carved.

Just my humble thoughts to share. Take them as such.

Mikey - yee ol' grumpy German blacksmith out in the Hinterlands

 

[brubincam]

-----I use a sharp pocket knife-----

 

[Harddog]

yep, like all the above with one more thing, try not to breath the horn dust, not very condusive to healthy lungs or nasal passages

Wearing a mask is something that I just take for granted that everbody would already do. Guess I shouldn't do that?

I wear a face mask that covers my mouth and nose and I also wear a pair of safety goggles. Horn dust, or wood dust for that matter, that gets in your eyes can be quite uncomfortable.

When working on guns, especially black walnut, I wear the mask and goggles. The dust and fine chips from black walnut can and has killed horses when the their stalls were covered with walnut wood chips. I have never heard of a human dieing from walnut dust, but why take chances? Besides, black walnut wood stinks when you are working it.

Randy Hedden