Basic Question on Horn

[Braidsta]

Morning all,

I'm looking around for a new carving project to get on with, my skills are basic and so far I've carved only wood.

I'm interested in working with horn - I've seen some beautiful buffalo horn, I wonder if I could make a spoon out of it. The time and effort it'll take aren't an issue, but what I've read so far makes me think I may not be able to carve it as I plan to - the horn having a pith centre.

I do understand that horns vary by species, does anyone know which type of horn I might use for this project? Just about to get stuck in to an article on pressed horns but I'm floundering a bit, I thought I'd ask this question of the knowledge goldmine while I'm at it!

Thanks for any help

Brady

 

[clay*pigeon]

Buffalo horn is solid at the end, it varies but you can get solid horn at least a foot long, the pith is still solid, it just has more random white streaks, this just adds to the character. Highland horn is mostly hollow, but with the natural curve you could almost cut a spoon shape, then heat it to whatever shape you want.

 

[clay*pigeon]

Have a look at this, http://www.highlandhorn.com/index.asp

 

[forrestdweller]

Buffalo horn is solid at the end, it varies but you can get solid horn at least a foot long, the pith is still solid, it just has more random white streaks, this just adds to the character. Highland horn is mostly hollow, but with the natural curve you could almost cut a spoon shape, then heat it to whatever shape you want.

can someone explain that part to me, please?!

 

[Braidsta]

Thanks for the help I well appreciate it, I imagined the pith to be pulpy and soft so still a lot to learn here.

The heating sounds like it might be easier done than said, so I'll hopefully get hold of a bit soon and have a go.

Thanks again

 

[Wayland]

Horn becomes somewhat "Plastic" when heated.

I have never done it myself but I believe it is usually done in water or oil.

 

[forrestdweller]

so you "boil" it to soften it?!

(my only working experience with horn involves glueing the tip back into my parang handle and making a small tinder horn, using the horm from a dead cow i found legs tied together in the forest...)

 

[Wayland]

I'm not sure how hot you need to get it.

I'm working from memory of something I read about 20 years ago.

 

[Braidsta]

In case anyone fancies a read, I'm going through this material - not sure it gets specific with temperatures etc as I've just delved in, but may be worth a look

http://www.personal.utulsa.edu/~marc-carlson/horn/horng.html

 

[clay*pigeon]

If you were making a crook handle from buffalo horn, you would need to boil it for about an hour, thinner horn can be heated gently with a hot air gun, it softens, then it is quite "bendable" you just need to watch you don't scorch it, a wipe of veg oil helps spread the heat and stop scorching

 

[VaughnT]

Standard run-of-the-mill cow horn is easy to come by if you have an internet handy. They are shipped without the bony core, so all you have it the actual horn outer layer that's very easy to work.

To soften the horn, all you have to do is warm it up and it will become nicely pliable. The safest way to warm the horn is to boil (more of a simmer, really) it in water. You could use a hot-air gun or put it in the oven.... the latter increasing the risk of scorching. Primitive cultures would have used coals from the fire or similar, so you can get as rustic as you want.

Horn is not antler, though a lot of people confuse the two and use the words interchangeably. Antler comes from the deer family, has a pithy core and works altogether differently than horn does. Horn is made from compressed hair just like our fingernails, and will only have a bony core if you get one freshly removed from the cow.

If you do get a fresh one, the easiest way to remove the bony core is to boil the horn for an hour or so until the meaty connective tissue is fully cooked. Then you put the horn on a hard surface and give it a good whack with a wood mallet. This will squeeze horn and fire the bony core out like a missile. Really great fun, and dogs love those cores for chewing on.

Note: If you are married and boil the cow horn in your kitchen, you will be unmarried rather quickly. Wives are finicky creatures, I'm told, and take a strong and immediate dislike the the fragrance of freshly boiled cow horn in their homes. Weird, I know, but that's women for ya!

I've worked a bit of cow horn in my day, so if you have any questions... just holler.

 

[Robson Valley]

Google UBC/MOA (University of British Columbia Museum of Anthropology)
Select the Online Collection and search that for spoons.

Pacific Northwest native artists made spoons from Mountain Sheep and Mountain Goat horns. The did hot oil bending.
There are several stunning examples in the UBC/MOA.

 

[Monikieman]

there is a hollow part to the buffalo horn and then it turns solid, however there is still evidence of a core running quite far up the solid part. It shows when cut across. you get a solid disc of black but there is sometimes a white line like two parts pressed together. The nearer the tip the more truely solid it becomes. the horn can be flattish on one side and then more rounded on the other. the flat hollow section could be removed and used. hope that makes sense!