Thread: Flattening Horn blanks from Masecraft

I recently received some horn blanks from Masecraft. When they sent them they were rubber banded to each other so that they would flatten each other out I believe. They all still have quite a warp to them. How do you deal with this?

hold them over boiling water, or press and stick in the oven @ 240 for 20 min

I bake them in a clamped contraption @ 220 deg or so for 15-20 min as mainaman suggested.

if they are too extremely warped, I don't use them at all.

I was talking to Max in chat one day..he said he throws out almost half of the horn he orders from Masecraft..

I bought some horn from Tandy leather supply and the owner who works with horn, said to manipulate horn use steam or boil it only for short while then press it or bake it like Mainman said. I also found a website, Type in Google " working with horn" and you will find it. Theres a pretty good tutorial on working with horn too.

I'll give it a shot with the dry heat. Wow, a 50% toss out rate to begin with. Horn is looking to be more and more costly by the second I'll see if I can give it a go if I get some time tonight. My brother in law and sister in law finally moved out yesterday so I've been busy cleaning up the guest bathroom and setting up my den

Personally, I've only had to toss 2 blanks out of around 40-50 from Masecraft. Might just be good luck. I have a couple questionable pieces from a recent order from them, so, that number might go up
ing

I just ordered like $254 worth of horn and a few other materials from them...and you know how we usually get all sorts of freebies from them? Well... this time I got nothing.. lol....wonder if they quit that practice... or.... maybe.... they know they got me as a customer so no more freebies? lol

Is the warping the main reason or maybe the feathering that happens along their cuts or blemishes? I ask because mine dont seem to be warped more than say a quarter of an inch. I do have however feathering or slight delamination happening along the edges about a quarter of an inch in from the sides as well as one piece that has a gouge in the middle.

Here's my take on the matter son take it for what it's worth.

Initially when you receive an order of horn slabs it's a miss and hit thing. Some can be extremely warped, others can be dead on flat. I personally have an extremely high QC so I usually end up tossing many just because I can smell trouble down the road. I've lost to much time trying to fix hopeless cases.

If or when a horn slab has an extreme warp you can bake, fry :-), steam, use every trick in the book, you name it, it will eventually warp again or get back to its initial warped condition. So either live with it and try to work with or around it, or just toss it. Horn has it's own stubborn way but when the stars are all aligned it's drop dead gorgeous.

I appreciate you chiming in as well and totally understand where you are coming from. It seems as though sometimes, for whatever reason, horn takes on a mind of it's own. Working horn is a complete art in itself. Horn is by far my favorite scale material. You guys make it look so absolutely gorgeous.

I can think of only two materials that would keep the scale warping to an absolute minimum. Laminated wood layers and solid rock. Rock is probably not practical so that leaves multiple layers of laminated wood. A piece of wood can have any number of finishes applied to it and a plain piece of medium hardwood can be stained and speckled to look like exotic wood. This is where your imagination comes in.

The average scale thickness is between .125" and .150". 3 layers of .045 thickness will yield a nice piece of .135" thick scale and you are assured of next to no warpage. Wood is a good choice

As long as this wood is laminated with modern epoxies, the chances of warping is next to nothing. The point is that laminated wood scales give one very much warping insurance coupled with the many choices of finish. I think wood is a good choice for scales. Give it some thought...................