Thread: Drinking Horns

I am a craftsman at heart. I have made several pieces of furniture from small end tables and coffee tables to a full size dining table. I have also done the odd water fountain and lathe work making bowls and such. Now I'm interested in trying my hand at making a drinking horn complete with sterling silver collar and scrimshaw work. My question is this, does anyone on here have any experience in scrimshaw work on horn or on making drinking horns? Any help is appreciated!

I have no experience, but that sounds AWESOME.

Man, all you craftsmen are making me jealous :/

Using and working with horn

lots here

Originally Posted by medic484

Using and working with horn

lots here

Awesome! Thanks!

Originally Posted by Lumberjack

I am a craftsman at heart. I have made several pieces of furniture from small end tables and coffee tables to a full size dining table. I have also done the odd water fountain and lathe work making bowls and such. Now I'm interested in trying my hand at making a drinking horn complete with sterling silver collar and scrimshaw work. My question is this, does anyone on here have any experience in scrimshaw work on horn or on making drinking horns? Any help is appreciated!

I have made a couple of powder horns, with a little scrimshaw, pretty primative effort. I used a sharpened nail as an awl to scratch in any decoration, then I rubbed it with stove black which seems to have lasted well over the last 25 years or more. I had to put my pet cow down a few days ago, I kept her horns and will make a drinking horn from one of them. I have been thinking on how to have a silver rim made and mounted on it.

Cheers

Ok, I feel behind for not knowing this, but how do you hollow out the horns?

Or are they already hollow, just really hard? They aren't, right?

I feel like I should know this >.<

They're bone on the inside with a layer of cartilage between the bone and the horn. I'm only at the beginning stages of working with horn that I had to saw off of a recently slaughtered cow skull.




I've only read up to this point, but there are different ways to separate the bone from the horn. In the day, raw horn was soaked for months in troughs of water where the cartilage layer would disintegrate over time allowing the bone to be pulled from the horn. Apparently this method is effective but nasty. I'm opting for boiling mine one horn at a time very carefully which accomplishes the same goal.

Chris L

Originally Posted by ShavedZombie

Ok, I feel behind for not knowing this, but how do you hollow out the horns?

Or are they already hollow, just really hard? They aren't, right?

I feel like I should know this >.<

Originally Posted by ChrisL

They're bone on the inside with a layer of cartilage between the bone and the horn. I'm only at the beginning stages of working with horn that I had to saw off of a recently slaughtered cow skull.




I've only read up to this point, but there are different ways to separate the bone from the horn. In the day, raw horn was soaked for months in troughs of water where the cartilage layer would disintegrate over time allowing the bone to be pulled from the horn. Apparently this method is effective but nasty. I'm opting for boiling mine one horn at a time very carefully which accomplishes the same goal.

Chris L

And pictures too... Lovely... No offense intended, I just have a weak stomach for recently live animals...

Thanks for the tutorial, but I think I'll leave this hobby to you guys

Originally Posted by ShavedZombie

And pictures too... Lovely... No offense intended, I just have a weak stomach for recently live animals...

Thanks for the tutorial, but I think I'll leave this hobby to you guys

And yet you have that...err...how did you put it? Lovely...thats it. You have that lovely avatar.

No intent to offend on my part. I can say that cow was certainly not killed for its horns and it was raised on a small farm by a farmer that takes pride in his small herd (approx 15 head). The farmer told me of the cow, when he handed me the head/horns, that we "was a good boy" and I can say that he was serious in his sentiment and I'm very appreciative that I got them from him.

Chris L