Thread: Does Horn Need to be Treated?

before I use horn for scales I soak it in neats foot oil for a little bit, it works great.

It sounds like you are treating and preparing raw horn? If so, more than a soak in neetsfoot is needed.

As I remember, something like boil, carve out all the center gooey stuff, split it, lay it flat and stuff.

*****edit****
here's a prior thread with pics of someone who did it

http://straightrazorpalace.com/works...beginning.html

If I remember right, it's quite a chore & stinky...

I have worked with horn extensively and it is a very interesting medium. Here is what I can tell you:

Horn is made of keratin, the same stuff as your finger nails. Antler on the other hand is made of bone, they are not the same.
If you get a horn that has been cut off of a cow with a saw it will have a bone core to it and that will have to be removed from the horn itself and that can be a pain especially if they have been laying around and dried out. You can boil them and screw a large screw into the bone and then secure the screw into a vice to help you pull out the bone core. It is usually not easy and a little beating will help loosen the core.

I like buying a nice pre-sanded horn from someplace like Tandy Leather. It saves tons of time and most of the prep work is already done. The outside has had all of the scaly rough part sanded away leaving a nicer outside finish to start with. I always like to see the horn before I buy them because like people's nails, some are brittle (this is where the neatsfoot oil will help) and some are pliable(helps here too). You can usually tell by flexing the horn just a little which it will be. Certainly you can tell after you have worked with horn a few times.

Now you have to saw the solid tip off of the horn and cut a split diwn the length or preferable in two lengthwise and you will have two long curved pieces. You will need something to clamp them between like a couple of hardwood boards and C clamps to get them flat. Now here is the trick!

Boiling will soften the horn, but you cannot form horn at only 212F so don't boil the horn after you get the core out. Remember that boiling water will never get hotter than 212 (depending on your altitude) no matter how hard of a boil!! Dry heat at somewhere between 300 to 350F will make the horn "plastic" and you can flatten it out and clamp it between the boards. Usually I put the horn in the oven set at about 325 and keep an eye out for it getting soft. Wear your gloves. This is how they used to imprint horn scales back when once they got them hot and pliable.. You have to pay attention or you will scortch the horn and it will be ruined, there is no bringing it back. Once the horn slabs have cooled between your boards they will stay flat. This is how priming horns for flintlocks were formed around a wooden "wedge" if you have ever seen one of the flat ones. That is also how you make a horn drinking cup round for a bottom.

Now that you have a slab, cut the size and pattern etc and now you can use the oil to treat the horn and help it from splitting and condition it.

That is probably a lot more than you wanted to know, but I hope that helps.

Will N.