Box o' horns

[KDubs]

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 Well I got this box O' horns and I'm wondering what to do with them.
 I've made several basic horns in the past but I'd like to antique some, never really done that. Maybe make a few F&I style etc.
 I'm sure there's at least one flat horn in there and probably a salt container too.
 I'll be perusing out tutorial section as well as a few YouTube videos and books.
 Anyway stay tuned.
Kevin
 

[Bigsmoke]

That ain't no box of horns.
It's a box of imagination, a box of excitement and a box of fulfillment.
It can also be a box of frustration.
It is what you make of it.
PM me Kevin if you want to chat about them beauties.
John
PS, if you want to skip over the decision making process, just send them to me.

[KDubs]

Maybe I'll send ya a complete one for critique..
 The hardest part I think will be taking my time and working with purpose.
 The older I'm getting the worse my ADD seems to get.
 I'll have 3 or 4 projects going at one time and never seem to finish any of them before I find something else shiny that grabs my attention.
 I still have camp chair I'm making that I started in July 
 The gun season kicks off on Oct 10th so that'll hold my attention for a bit .
 Kevin
 
 

[LongWalker]

I still have camp chair I'm making that I started in July 

. . . of what year?     I have a partially-completed table (based on a photo of a campaign table from the Crimean War) that I've been working on since, um, '97 I think. 

I keep thinking I have it figured out, but it doesn't work. . . so I pitch it on the lumber rack for recycling, stumble across it a few months or years later, and try again.  Lather.  Rinse.  Repeat.

Your pic does inspire a thought or two: we could each post a pic of our raw horn stash.  Might get some interesting trades in the works, or share some ideas.  I'll try to grab a pic next trip out to the shop. 

I've got three on my bench now that are giving me headaches, so I work on one til I hit a wall, set it down, go on to the next.  Eventually I'll get one done: then I'll have 2 to fuss with.  When they are done, I can pull another out of the box and start afresh.

(I'm going to use the other idea to kick off a new thread)

[LongWalker]

As threatened, here's a shot down into my horn box:

[Bigsmoke]

That black one at the top shows promise for a flattie.  Thin, even walls all around would make it a delight to work with.  Then make a baseplug out of ebony?  Then put an applied tip out of snow white antler.  I'm starting to drool just thinking about it.
Do it!!!
Hmmm, I've never used ebony for a baseplug.  I don't think it would be all that difficult.  Gosh, I think I will try that after the next two or three horns I do.  I have a couple of lengths of ebony just waiting and wondering what I am going to do with them.

[KDubs]

Alight it's on, the great horn build off !
 Nice box of wonder ya got there.
 I'm anxious to do some scrimshaw again too!
 I like to watch videos from horn n fiber on YouTube, good stuff.
Kevin

[LongWalker]

Bigsmoke, that black one at the top is actually a partially-prepped buffalo horn: even with about half the raw horn scraped away, further down it is still too thick to flatten without a lot of work.  That one is roughed out and will eventually be a copy of a horn that was a battlefield pick-up taken home by a Brit during the War of 1812.

Ebony will work for a baseplug--I made the base plugs for a couple of St. Louis horns with the ivory/bone inlet into the ebony . . . then I got to see one and realized the ebony and ivory were thick veneers inlaid into the base material (poplar I suspect).  Hey, if there is a hard way to do something, I not only do it but find a way to make it harder! 

The black one at 3 o'clock is another buffalo horn.  I was working on it for a friend when he passed away; I think eventually I'll finish it and make it a dedicated horn for a later (1830s-1850s) bag set.  My current bag is a copy of a bag with provenance going back to sometime in the 1790s, and not quite right for the western fur trade--and there are a lot of things I don't like about it.  But I've been living with it since I made the horn I usually carry, sometime in the late '90s, so I'll probably keep the old thing.

(Just as an aside: early summerish, I posted a buffalo horn I'd recently finished.  The guy who bought it liked it a lot, and commented how light it was, so when I started the next one I weighed it before I started, and again after I had most of the shaping and scraping done.  There was roughly a 70% drop in weight so far.)

That funny shaped horn at 6 o'clock is probably going to wind up getting smushed.  It reminds me of a carved flattened horn I saw in a museum years ago, and I think it would be an interesting project to flatten and carve it.

The one centered at 9 o'clock is nearly straight.  Normally I'd take a horn like that and cut it into rings to turn for a banded horn, but this is too thin.  I think it has a future as a blowing horn, maybe iwth a spiraling parade of a marching band scrimshawed on it. 

[Bigsmoke]

OK, OK, OK.  I will sign on to this bit of tomfoolery.
Here are some photos of my working stock, boxes of horns.
The first photo is a box of horns that I bought from another site, mostly starts but not finished.



Next up are a couple of more boxes of just polished horns





And that's all I got.
At the rate I am making powder horns, that might be a lifetime supply.  In times gone by, at the peak of my production, it might have held me for a week or so.

All this talk of horn making inspired me to get my lazy a** out into the shop this afternoon and work on a couple of horns that have been languishing there for months.  I should have them finished tomorrow, if all goes well.

[KDubs]

I use these moments to as you say, get my arse in the shop
 In the last two days I made a pound of antique muzzleloader propellent since Eric (second rate marksman )and I are going to have a homemade powder challenge at our next club shoot end of October.
 So therefore I need a new horn which I started when I started this milling powder.  Powder is way less work .
 I'll post some horn pics as I progress.
 I don't see this build as a competition, more of a chance for friends to get together and have some fun.
 Don't feel any pressure, take your time, no rush.
 Kevin