Thread: 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 !!!

Those will look great. This place seems to be full of talent lol

Well, here it is. It's not quite perfect but after all it is my first pinning.

Made my own pins too !!
And wedge and scales. !!

Excellent job!!

I have one cow horn I would like to make scales out of. I was thinking of boiling it for an hour or so, and press between two slabs of wood to flatten it.

How did you flatten yours??


Nenad

The scales look great. Shaun uses a super secret flattening method that he divulged in the Chat a few weeks ago. It's so top secret I can't tell you, but if he wants to, he can.

Keep up the good scale work!

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

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 !!

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.

Thanx for the detailed explanation of the process....

I know that the best method is to bake the horn, but I have read somewhere that boiling also works, so I will try and replicate the results with a pot of boiling water, two slabs of wood, and a C clamp

Thank you again,

Nenad

do what you want

if the horn is round now it will go back to round with just boiling and pressing


I sent some to Joe C and he said the same thing but still ended up baking it.

Just come back and post a "you told me so" as a tribute to my superior hornworking prowess !!!

Good luck.

BTW I'm sure in a few more weeks I will be able to post better info. Like exact temp to be heated to, whether or not a "perm" will work to do it chemically, info on dying the horn(I want RED) and anything else I learn along the way.

As I have said, I will be making cow horn and bison horn blanks available round end of the month, maybe middle of next.
They will be flat and sanded to a reasonable thickness already though !!

Originally Posted by gratewhitehuntr

Just come back and post a "you told me so" as a tribute to my superior hornworking prowess !!!

Now Im sure there is a dirty, smutty and derogatory comment ther somewhere but it wont come from me...

Has steaming been considered? Or like I guessed it simply doesnt get hot enough with a home steaming rig? (300DegF = 149DegC)

A microwave may also be possible for heating, but again you have the issue of temperature control and the uneven nature of the heating in a microwave.

IF you have a LARGE ammount of suitable oil a heated oil bath may be possible? (NOTE: MUST CHECK IGNITION TEMP BEFORE ATTEMPTING THIS!) Oh and use a sugar thermometer to check the temp...

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 !!!!