Flat horn project for horn nose squirrel gun

[4V50 Gary]

Been working on a horn for the .32 caliber horn nosed squirrel gun.

First two images show the raw horn being worked down. No white so I'm not losing much other than a weight (originally 3/8" thick).

Third image shows it after being boiled and a wedge driven in so that it may be flattened in a vise.

 

[4V50 Gary]

After more removal from the side (see image #3 to see the scales that needed removing), a pine wood plug was fitted.

May file off some more of the horn exterior later. It's easy to see where some scales were affected by the pressing process.

 

[Pahoo]

Nice work !!!

Gary, keep posting progress-pictures. Takes me back a number of years when I was doing more horn work. The last flat-horn I did, had a white body and blood-tipped. The plug on that one was Rosewood. For the exception of the flat-horns all my horns maintained the original shape. I was also fortunate to do an American-Bison horn. Have you given any thought on making a horn-tip, powder measure?

Enjoy and;
Be Safe !!!

 

[armoredman]

Beautiful.

 

[4V50 Gary]

I made a horn tip powder measure for my brother's squirrel gun. Horn is the last thing he needs. I'll see if the school's laser engraver will scrimshaw the horn. I want to put Rocky 'n Bullwinkle on one side & Boris (pronounced Burr-reese by Russians) 'n Natasaha on the other along with "Moose Must Die" in cyrillic.

Bullet starter was made from scrap of dowel rod and a piece of brass I found at school. The handle was a piece of walnut scrap left at the work bench. Bullet board was made from oak salvaged from a discarded sofa. I learned from another member to use a forstner bit so the board is effortlessly centered over the muzzle.

 

[4V50 Gary]

Horn is finished and is translucent. The first image is the uncleaned up cyrillic on the bottom of the horn that translates to Moose Must Die. A lot of the file marks and scratches have been cleaned up now and it looks better and I'm sending the horn off today. The images were created by laser Glowforge and the bottom tray had to be removed for the horn to fit. Lesson: Make 'em flatter. Second lesson was to darken the image so the tracing (scanning) and lasering will be better. Had to do a lot of touch up to bring out details. There's a small compass in the butt that works.

 

[4V50 Gary]

Here it is with the cyrillic cleaned up.

 

[4V50 Gary]

Crazy Crow Trading Post has an article on heating horns.
https://www.crazycrow.com/site/making-a-horn-cup-salt-horn/ From the link here is the key information:

The first step is to heat the horn to between 330 to 340 degrees Fahrenheit for about 40 seconds in order to make it plastic and moldable.