5 Attachment(s)
New horn scales.... the process.
I made a deal with Harry or kd5tmu as you may know him for a custom pen in exchange for a razor that has his name on it.
I decided along the way that I wanted to try to do something really nice for the scales and since I had some bison laying about it was a likely cantidate.
He had also said that his razors are all white. Now we want to give the black razors a chance too don't we?
Somewhere I have pics of flattening the horn but we can deal with that another day.
I started with a whole horn, what you see is a half that has been pressed flat.
I'll deal with working with whole horn another day.
Part of the reason I am listing this is to make sure people can deal with horn scale blanks. I sent some of this to Joe C and he said e had trouble, so I wanted to check it out.
1) grind flat.... it's really thick stuff !!!
2) mark out section that looks flaw free
3 cut out
4) sand major grooves left by coarse paper out
5) polish to look for flaws ie. major grain, chuncks missing
6) make template
7) trace it out
Tomorrow, cutting out and shaping scales.
Maybe even some pinning !!!:tu
super super super super super super ssecret method
ok, first get a slab of concrete, a driveway, sideway, or maybe patio will work
next you need a piece of 2x6x2, a board that is at least as wide as a slice of bread, a couple feet long and won't flex or bend AT ALL, you'll see why
I have been boiling but have recently fond out it may be possible to skip this step
I''l get back to you on that this week, have more to try it with
boil if you like but the main important step is to bake horn at around 300 degrees F, do your own conversion but watch you don't go too hot or it will burn
I'm wetting it with neats foot oil to soften/condition/aid in heat absorbtion
as the horn is baking I take it out about every 6 mins and set it on a hard surface, curve down, and lean about half my weight on it
I'm looking for it to flatten at least half way, you'll start to see a major change and will know when
I bake it about 5 more mins after I see a big change in hardness YMMV take it out and check
if you burn it the whole house will reek of burned ass
for at least 2 days so be careful
THE NEXT STEPS MUST BE DONE AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE
COLD HORN WILL NOT BEND AND STAY FLAT, IT WILL COME BACK TO ROUND
next take your hot horn outside and place on concrete slab CURVE UP
place board on horn like you were making a ramp and the horn is the elevator
drive front tire of car up "ramp" to flatten horn
if the horn is not yet perfectly flat, as soon as you can so it is still hot, turn wheels back and forth to sort of grind it flat :D
shut off car
wait at least an hour, 3 is better, more than 3 doesn't seem to matter
sand, cut shape, pin and enjoy !! :y
if you have a hydraulic press
then obviously that is a better solution than a car
If not then the car is the easiest way I know to get at least 1000 pounds to flatten a horn.
I have been tring to put my press back together so I can do this on a semi production basis and offer half horn blanks and save people the trouble.