Thread: Lines in Black Horn

Hi folks,

So, I salvaged a set of very old black horn scales from a junker and went about touching them up to use on some unknown future project. This is my first experience with horn but I felt pretty confident reading through the various discussions of it on here. I didn't think about before pictures, but obviously wish I had now. When I got them, one had almost a twist in it with the edges curled up, both bowed heavily in one direction, and they both had bites out of them.

I began by boiling and pressing them to get them as flat as possible and then soaked them in neatsfoot oil for well over a week. Then I took it handsanding. I made them more narrow to sand out the bites and then thinned them out on both outside and inside to remove any curl that was left; the scales were quite thick to begin with so I had lots of material to work with as I sanded down.

I've now handsanded them to 3000 and re-pinned the one end with the original bone wedge (ignore the old broken tang I use for mock-ups). The problem I'm having is that there are little white lines throughout the scales, both on the edges and at several points on the sides. These were apparent when I first began but I assumed they were just scratches that would sand out -- they are definitely not scratches. Is this normal? Anything to be concerned with? Or, just leave them as they are as part of the deal with using natural (and very old!) materials. Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers, folks!