Thread: Some thoughts about horn.

Lets not forget that most if not all old horn scales were formed by heating and clamping in a vice, At the heats used thermoplastic horn nearly melts, some old descriptions of the clamps mention horn dripping down the sides, so on occasion it did become liquid.

In order to stop the clamps rusting and prevent the horn sticking, copious amounts of talllow were used. This is an animal fat and for all I know it mixed with the horn if the horn was liquid enough.

Once the clamps are cooled, a lengthy process in some instances seeing as how descriptions say a hole was dug and a set or rack of clamps was buried in it, the horn blanks were removed, trimmed and oiled with neatsfoot oil.

They were then polished, using tripoli powder in oil, cleaned, oile again, put into pairs and sent to the settr-in, who installed tbe blade, No doubt a final coat of oily or waxy matter was applied before wrapping in waxed paper znd sealing in coffin boxes ready for sale.

Thats a lot of fat, oil and wax protecting the scale.

I don't know but strongly suspect that warping is a kind of reversion to the horns natural state: a tapered, curving, conical form forced flat by beat.

Regards,
Neil

Originally Posted by Neil Miller

Lets not forget that most if not all old horn scales were formed by heating and clamping in a vice, At the heats used thermoplastic horn nearly melts, some old descriptions of the clamps mention horn dripping down the sides, so on occasion it did become liquid.

In order to stop the clamps rusting and prevent the horn sticking, copious amounts of talllow were used. This is an animal fat and for all I know it mixed with the horn if the horn was liquid enough.

Once the clamps are cooled, a lengthy process in some instances seeing as how descriptions say a hole was dug and a set or rack of clamps was buried in it, the horn blanks were removed, trimmed and oiled with neatsfoot oil.

They were then polished, using tripoli powder in oil, cleaned, oile again, put into pairs and sent to the settr-in, who installed tbe blade, No doubt a final coat of oily or waxy matter was applied before wrapping in waxed paper znd sealing in coffin boxes ready for sale.

Thats a lot of fat, oil and wax protecting the scale.

I don't know but strongly suspect that warping is a kind of reversion to the horns natural state: a tapered, curving, conical form forced flat by beat.

Regards,
Neil

Interesting,have actually tried to melt horn to use as a filler on worm holes without success.
Being Keritan, it burns instead of melts.

That reminds me Pixel - I missed out a step. You need to get it hot first - boiling in water does not work - water does not get hot enough. So it was boiled in oil. Yet more oil! And boiled in it!

It will burn if the heat is on the dry side, You can bend it by softening it in hot water, but it will not 'flow'.

The fact that plenty of early drinking vessels were made by horn 'melted' at the edges is testament to the fact that it can, was and is done. We are talking about flat bottomed horns here, not the scooped-out variety.

If you heat horn locally for long enough it will dehydrate, even if boiled in water to soften it, then it will scorch and never get plastic. You can use dry heat, but you have to be very practiced at it and keep the horn on the move over a grill perhaps, or play a hot air stripper over it. Smell the stinking burnt-nails smell? They you have scorched it and better call it a day.

Hot oil (or hot lard) is the way to go, and 320 degrees is the temperature to aim at (in oil - 'dry' heating in an oven at 300 degrees will do it) - higher than that and the horn will turn plastic in the oil and melt into it.

Arthur Church's book 'Some Minor Arts as Practiced in England' 1894 has some good info as does 'The Living Crafts', a delightful little book published by Bernard Hughes in 1971. The Horners bible, should there be such a thing, is undoubtedly Taylor Wilmot's 'The Sheffield Horn Industry' published in 1927.

And finally yes, horn - like our finger and toe nails, is composed of keratin.

Regards,
Neil