Apply neetsfoot. They all look great! I cannot help but think you have a great job going.
The neetsfoot oil is paramount as-finishing anything horn, IMO.
It will eventually dry and patina, except evenly, despite repairs. JMO
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I have tried a few things to get horn to look aged. The satin finish produced by a 000 steel wool finish certainly helps get the grin and texture to look antique. However trying to recapture the color fade and that very fine silver color is tough. I have tried taking the finished scales and soaking them in oven cleaner, I have boiled them in household bleach, soaked them in peroxide and soaked them in hair bleach. All for a variety of lengths of time starting short and getting upwards of a week. The oven cleaner does produce some very nice colors, but not what I was looking for. I have yet to find satisfactory result, but I will continue to try when I get back to my many many projects that are just hanging. My next attempt will be to bake them at 400 until they really have a good sweat going on and are a little rubbery, and then trying the hair bleach and the oven cleaner. Hopefully one of us will find a way to get that beautiful color.
Dag-nabbitt! Perhaps I will find time to dig up before and afters of neetsfooting some old horn and letting it age for several years.
Oh! THAT would take TIME! :banghead:
[emoji2] thank you! I soaked this at a scales in neat's-foot oil for 3 days and then scrub them with steel wool to clean them. They have a really nice metallic look to them. On my piece of buffalo horn I'm trying to do it speedy so I sanded it down with 60 Grit then jump to steel wool which made the grain pop out really well but once I added neat's-foot oil that grain disappeared real quickly. Now I'm going to try to soak it in neat's-foot oil for a few days and see if the horn softens up at all so that way when I run over it with the steel wool it will reach between the grain.
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This friggin bevel is taking foreverrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...
http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...0d3e6bcba6.jpg
There was some pitting near the edge. Took a chance. Set the bevel.. found a big chip. Ground a bevels width worth of steel off the edge to get past it.. just got a sticky edge again. 4 hours so far. This puppy better shave.. Har!
I need to go to bed.
Yep..peel the tape, wipe it off.
Tomorrow will go much easier.[emoji56]