Thread: vaccuum set up for refreshing old horn?

Originally Posted by pixelfixed

Wonder if compleatly saturating horn with neatsfoot oil would soften it?

This would be my fear.Nothing worse than floppy scales.

Originally Posted by Theseus

This would be my fear.Nothing worse than floppy scales.

uhm..... damn..... ok I agree....

Well if someone has the vacuum set up already, I can donate some horn scale material to find out the result.

The problem I see with hardeners is that often these old dried out scales are also warped. We don't want to harden them with epoxy in their current shape. We want them to be pliable enough to straighten. If the scales came out soft, then that seems to be ideal. Smash them between two straight pieces of wood with some absorbent backing for a few days. Wait...then pull them out. The excess oil that was making them soft should have leeched into the absorbent backing, and you should be left with two straight scales and no more worry of cracking anything while peening. Ofc...I really don't know. haha. Just making some hopeful assumptions. Any thoughts on that?