Originally Posted by
outback
An old clothes iron is your best friend for flattening old, dry, twisted and curling horn.
I always sand, fill bug bites, and dye, before any soaking in oil. If I'm going to use dye, CA repairs are done last, as CA won't accept dye.
I think what you have, is a bit of delamination in the rings. Sometimes they won't come out with sanding, their just that deep. They are what they are, old.!
BTW....they look great.! For being 100+ years old.
FYI....I never sand past 600 grt., and always finish with 000 or 0000, steel wool. I steel wool them again, after they come out of oil. Then decide weather to leave them a matte finish, or polish to a high shine. Which can be done by hand, if u have no buffer.
For large bug bites, or missing pieces, I've found that mixing burnt wooden matches ground to a powder, or wood dust with a structural epoxy, makes great seamless repairs, that will except dye. Then it can be coated with CA, then sanded and polished to match the rest of the scale.
Honey horn has to be attacked in another manner, to black horn. Repairs do best from the inside of the scales, by grinding out the delamination, and leaving the outer layer ( fingernail thickness ) then filling with the T-88. Over time, the T-88 will yellow, and blend into the existing horn.
Epoxies won't polish, so I use a thin coat of CA to create a shine. Like the clear coat that protects the paint on your vehicles.