Thread: New horn scales.... the process.

The "you told me so" was my little commentary on people wanting to disregard the methods I was recommending to them based on my experiences working with horn in favor of methods that I had already stated would produce mixed results at best.
I didn't start this thread to brag about what I can do or so people could say WOW COOL WORK.
I wrote it as a resource for anyone who wants to get some horn to try out.
I'm trying to save people the trouble and the wasted material/time/energy.

If someone wants to waste time and energy that is their prerogative.
It's mine to poke fun at them.


I will be working with some translucent cow horn in the next couple of weeks and will take lots more pics from beginning till end.

BACK TO IDEAS

I have considered the oil and plan to try it sometime very soon.
I have lots of scraps to try it with.

I'm not sure what sort of oil I will use, suppose I will start with corn and if it works ok I might try neats foot or lard.

As far as temp control, any of your various $25 counter top fryers should do just fine, even without a thermometer.

The microwave is a disaster.
Horn comes out burnt, popped, warped due to uneven heating and generally is useless.

I say "popped" because if the horn has ANY moisture content it will pop like popcorn.

To remove moisture content I suppose you could put it in the oven and bake it.............hey ..... wait a minute!!

I'm also considering a perm, like for hair, to soften the horn chemically.
I tried soaking in ammonia to soften and it did make it soft but when it dried it returned to original shape.


MORE TO COME !!!!

Originally Posted by gratewhitehuntr

The "you told me so" was my little commentary on people wanting to disregard the methods I was recommending to them based on my experiences

I'm trying to save people the trouble and the wasted material/time/energy.

If someone wants to waste time and energy that is their prerogative.
It's mine to poke fun at them.

Disregarding? Wasting time and energy? Did I said something to hurt your feelings???

What, you think you have discovered a way to put carbon in the steel without heating it? This "super duper secret horn flattening method" is as old as the human desire to flatten horn, and it's widely known around the world...

btw, as a data point for your experiments, horn's melting point is at 350F, and nowadays, horn is heated in oil bath and flattened in a press.

Nenad

Blah, blah, blah, enough bickering.

What I want to see is the 'pressed horn' with sayings or images pressed into the side....

THEN we can replace or make some nice classic looking horn scales!

Come on guys, hop to it!



C utz

Thanks for the information GW! there are a few of us around here who don't know this information and appreciate the chance to learn something new!!

Mark Avery

just for the record, GW has NEVER claimed this as his 'secret' method - that was just something that KD5 threw in there to add a little humor because GW was explaining the method in the chatroom, and not a whole lot of people were there to hear it - we were all fascinated to hear GW explain his method (and, just for the record, I doubt they've been using the front wheel of their car for the last hundred years or so! - good one, Shaun! )

-whatever

-Lou

Originally Posted by C utz

Blah, blah, blah, enough bickering.

What I want to see is the 'pressed horn' with sayings or images pressed into the side....

THEN we can replace or make some nice classic looking horn scales!

Come on guys, hop to it!



C utz

In the chatroom chat, I asked Shaun specifically about that (IIRC, I asked about putting a vintage dime on the horn prior to pressing) He seemed a little skeptical - thought the design on the dime was too subtle -but, maybe if you had a big, bold, high-relief name/design/whatever, something like that might work.

G-dub? ....any thoughts?

-whatever

-Lou

There's a train that goes by my work a couple times per day and is great at crushing pennies. You think it could flatten a horn?

Originally Posted by scarface

In the chatroom chat, I asked Shaun specifically about that (IIRC, I asked about putting a vintage dime on the horn prior to pressing) He seemed a little skeptical - thought the design on the dime was too subtle -but, maybe if you had a big, bold, high-relief name/design/whatever, something like that might work.

G-dub? ....any thoughts?

-whatever

-Lou

Anyone know how to make a dye-stamp??
The dime idea is a good one, but I can see how it might be too shallow. There has to be something...I think I saw some metal letter stamps at the craftshop. I'm not sure if that would bear the weight of a car though....who knows

Sometimes there are old razor 'printing blocks' on eBay....I wonder if one of those, or something similar could be used as a stamp. It just needs to be strong enough to press into the horn (and then there is that confounded 'car weight' issue I'm going to ignore).

Perhaps a 'reverse-etched' piece of metal?

It'd be nice to see 'pressed horn scales' make a showing again.....

C utz

...............

Originally Posted by scarface

just for the record, GW has NEVER claimed this as his 'secret' method - that was just something that KD5 threw in there to add a little humor because GW was explaining the method in the chatroom, and not a whole lot of people were there to hear it - we were all fascinated to hear GW explain his method (and, just for the record, I doubt they've been using the front wheel of their car for the last hundred years or so! - good one, Shaun! )

-whatever

-Lou

Yeah man, take a chill pill. Harry was just goofing around about the "secret" thing.

I just suggested the car because it's the heaviest thing that nearly everyone has. Not everyone had TAD you know. (tool acquisition disorder)

Originally Posted by superfly

Disregarding? Wasting time and energy? Did I said something to hurt your feelings???

What, you think you have discovered a way to put carbon in the steel without heating it? This "super duper secret horn flattening method" is as old as the human desire to flatten horn, and it's widely known around the world...

btw, as a data point for your experiments, horn's melting point is at 350F, and nowadays, horn is heated in oil bath and flattened in a press.

Nenad

Nope, not at all. That was directed at the Aussie. Like I said, if someone wants to waste time then be my guest.

Maybe you think it isn't wasting time? I talked to Joe C about this topic and he said he would try working with some. He said he had been boiling to flatten and didn't see a need for baking. I boiled some and pressed it flat and sent it off.
Next day I came home and the piece I had kept was nice and round and clean(from boiling).
I came to find out that he was working with commercially produced, very nearly flat horn from http://www.masecraftsupply.com/
Big difference between taking a 1/8 curve and a 3 inch curve out!!
I had to flatten more, thru baking, and send it to him. That's what I call a waste of time.

Thanks for the info on melting point and about the oil, like I said, I have been wondering for a while about that.

One major issue with pressing a dime or any other coin into a bit of horn is the reversal of the image/text.
Unless you have a dime with a reversed image, and I doubt you want to use that for horn, it's no good.

I have individual letter/number stamps but I'm not sure how pretty it would turn out and would be limited on size selections.
Perhaps heating the stamps and using a stencil would work out well.



I have used a bench vise and a c-clamp with varied results. the biggest problems are 1) getting and even distribution of force 2) being able to bring the clamping force to bear before the horn cools too much.

More to come !


(like anyone cares)


if I didn't have bad luck....

G.W.