Good days work in the horn shop

[Bigsmoke]

Had a pretty good day in the horn shop on Friday.  Start to finish, I got 5 horns done, and that includes the time it took to ship two of them and take to the post office.


Obviously, the two not pictured were the ones that were sent off.

Incidentally, going back to  a previous thread about lathe turning horn, I took the horn tip from one horn and turned it to be the finial on that horn.  Kinda fun.



To do it, I flattened each end on a disc sander.  Drilled a little hole in each end and mounted between centers (live center on the tailstock).  If you tighten up the tailstock and don't put a lot of pressure on the lathe chisel, it will work.  Then it's just a matter of figuring out what profile you want.  I matched the stopper design to the finial design also, just to give it a unified look.

[BEAVERMAN]

OH OH!!!!!!!! Johns on a roll now!, looks good

[Riley/MN]

Lookin good John!

[Kermit]

You startin' with polished horns? I'm betting "yes."

[Bigsmoke]

Yes, Kermit, I am starting with polished horns, but only because that is the way I buy them.
After the base plug is installed I fire up the 2x72" belt sander and knock all the original finish off them and taper the tip down to an acceptable profile.  Then I dip them in some potassium permanginate, let them dry, and then hit them with a 400 grit belt, dip them again and resand again.  When all the little sanding marks are gone, it's good enough.  Then I hand sand to get rid of the belt sanding swirls, then polish with steel wool.  Then I do the flats and the rings and grooves and fancy stuff.

[vthompson]

Looks to me like you did a fine job on the ones that you have pictured.

[sse]

Yer good at that, pilgrim...

[Gambia]

Looks good, what do you do in your spare time

[Bigsmoke]

Spare time?
Is that something you get at the local ethnic delicatessen?

[Gambia]

Spare time?
Is that something you get at the local ethnic delicatessen?

:rotf  :rotf

[2-bellys]

wal-mart sells it but there usually out of stock