Craftsmanship > Accoutrements

How old is your horn?

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LongWalker:
I've been doing some digging through my notes and saved pictures (more on that later), and got to wondering, how old is your most-used horn? 

I can remember as a kid (early '80s) seeing folks who had horns that seemed "old" to me, with scrimm'd dates going back to the '60s.  Once in a while I'd see someone carrying an original, but we seldom knew how old those were due to lack of dates. 

The horn I carry most-often now was made when I got shanghai'd into running a seminar on horn-making at one of the rendezvous back in '89 I think.  No one was really set up for it, so we made horns using the tools we had with us.  IIRC, the original iteration of this horn was made using a knife (to shorten and scrape the horn), a hatchet (to split and rough-shape the plug), a canoe awl and a moc awl (to drill the spout and for nails to hold the plug), and a 3-square file I had for some reason.  I might have used the drawknife from my repair kit too, don't recall.  The awls were pounded through a split of wood and used as a compass to scribe some of the carving on the horn, finished up with my penknife. 

Around 2010, the horn (and my musket) spent some time under water after a canoe wreck--maybe a week or so.  Musket was OK, but the plug in the horn has absorbed enough water it split.  I turned a new plug from some quartersawn pine, and made some other minor repairs. 

So my horn is roughly 33-34 years old, older than the "old" horns I admired as a kid.  How old is your horn?

Bigsmoke:
Good question, Long Walker.  I hope it will draw a lot of comments.  Hopefully, there will be some great stories.
My oldest, personally used horn was obtained somewhere in the early 1970's.  For many years it was my only powder horn.  It was made by a fellow in the club that I belonged to.  It was a small, plain, basic horn, with no frills or fancy stuff about it.  Somewhere in the early 1980's, I decided it needed a valve instead of a stopper so I drilled the nose out and promptly cracked it.  I epoxied the crack and it has held up ever since.  However, I probably haven't used this horn since maybe 1984 or 85.



Currently, my most used horn is maybe 10 years old.  When I opened a bag of horns to select what I was going to work with next, I noticed this one horn that stood out from the rest.  I decided this was going to be my main horn and put it away while I decided what to do with it.  That took me a couple of years.  One day I was caught up with orders and I remembered the horn needed to be paid attention to.  So, I got it out and started the basic work, cutting the tip and drilling it, squaring up the baseplug, etc.  Then I put it back away as I had another order that came in.  Finally that order was done and I was faced with finishing up the horn.  By then, I had an idea what I wanted to do with it, and I finished it up.  I am pleased with it and believe this will be my forever horn.



I probably have over 50 powder horns in my collection, some plain, some scrimshawed, some banded, a screw tip and some applied tips, but this is the one I use and the one I like the best.

John (Bigsmoke)

BEAVERMAN:
That's kind of a personal question isn't it? OH! you mean powder horn!, guess I've been wearing this old buff horn for 27 years now, if I only new a guy who made powder horns I might have a new one soon

LongWalker:
What really got me wondering was the thought that I've made ~350 horns.  Bigsmoke has made. . . what, 3-4 railcar loads?  Even if half of us make one horn a year, that's a lot of horns! 

What happens to them all?  I know I've pitched a few over the years, and folks have passed on and their horns become heirlooms, and once in a while if you're lucky you may see one of the horns you made being offered for sale as an original by someone who should know better--but where are the rest? 

Enquiring minds and all that. . . . .

PetahW:

--- Quote from: LongWalker on May 08, 2023, 06:04:08 PM ---
What really got me wondering was the thought that I've made ~350 horns.  Bigsmoke has made. . . what, 3-4 railcar loads? 

Even if half of us make one horn a year, that's a lot of horns! 

What happens to them all ?   . .

--- End quote ---


My powder & and drinking horns all adorn my dining room when not afield    :toast




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