Originally Posted by
Neil Miller
Certainly worth a try - old horn gets a bit fibrous and 'wooly' in the top layer due to scuffs, abrasion, drying out, etc. This helps to scatter light and make the horn look much lighter. Lightly sanding it, buffing it with tripoli powder in oil (or going up to very fine grades of paper if you can't get tripoli) and letting a film of neats foot oil sit on the scales (or filling up a thin jar with neatsfoot, opening the blade and submerging the scales in the oil) will make it look darker, shinier and more like it did when first made into scales.
Regards,
Neil