Thread: Inlays in horn

Hey I've been thinking about inlays a bit and have a couple questions..

I read somewhere about heating horn and inlay to press it into the horn instead of cutting a space out for the inlay.

So I took a look at some of my scales and it does indeed seem as though this or a combination of the two were used to attach the inlays.

Anybody here do that or have?

If you look closely it looks like the inlay (on some) was pressed in with heat, looks slightly melted..

I dont know anything about it but, id guess that the fibers in the horn would need to be cut/scored before you could really press it in. I will watch this one. Sounds enteresting. Thats for bringing it up Mike T.

sounds interesting. i would think it might take a lot of pressure?

The fibers that a good point, leads me to assume that if they did use heat, then it would be in conjunction with cutting.. e.g. Cutting the recession, and then heating up the horn and the inlay and pressing it in..

Perhaps it would make a really good bond if the edges of the horn were pressed down while still pliable to "grab" on to the inlay edges..?

I'm sure someone aound here has to have some experience with that.
Seems so many secrets were lost from long ago.

Of course this could only be done with metal inlay pieces. And thin inlay pieces too like little charms that are mianly hollow. But then you might warp or damage the shape of the charm using heat and pressing.

Sorry about that, I should have specified "metal" inlays.

The topic of inlays has been somewhat skipping across my mind like a stone on a pond for a while now.
Most of the designing I do takes place in my mind before I draw out and then execute any sort of work.
There are some ideas that are forming in regard to inlays, and I want to get a more clear idea of how it was done.

One concept is creating a "structural" adhesion without the need for any glue or pins.. and I'm wondering if that was what they achieved... ?
Would probably only work with a scale material that can melt, I think.

Mike

Can't see heat and pressing inlay in. Wouldn't the inlay material crack. Thought maybe heat and metal die to make impression.

How about carving a recess with undercut perimeter to key the inlay into the scale, then pour melted pewter into the recess? The melting point of pewter is 338-447F. Paper burns at 451F, I'm assuming horn would burn near or beyond that point, but I'm not sure. If so carve away in the horn, pour pewter in, then sand pewter flush and polish. This is all speculation, never tried it myself but worth a try.

Shrinkage is a real issue. With wood if you use a thin enough veneer it will do whatever the substrate does without buckling or cracking. That being said the few razors I have that have inlay in horn use thin metal with tabs on the back, they also appear to be inletted into the horn. All the ones I have have buckled from the horn shrinking but the scales haven’t seemed to warp near as bad as the one geezer had a pic of.

I would use a sharp exacto knife and inlet the inlay flush and use tabs to hold it as opposed to epoxy with the idea that the horn will shrink. The other option is to use old horn scales that have already shrunk, they should be more stable. Keep them hydrated with nearsfoot should move too much on you.

I have a set that need to be restored on a faux frameback. If I get to it before you do I’ll make sure to report back.

You may be able to "brand it" in. About the only thing I haven't tried with horn. You can bend and shape horn with a hair dryer. I tried some heating methods with and without oil in toaster oven but what a mess that turned into. Made horn bacon and that ended that experiment. The funk took 2 years to leave the garage and had to hazmat the oven :<0) Soaking does make horn soft like it does your finger nails but not sure that would help pressing a thin plate into it. I would just cut it in if I were to do it. You don'y see a lot of detail in those old inlays that I recall. Diamonds shapes and such are easy enough to cut out.