Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Muzzleloaders Powderhorn - external finish

Troops:
A newbie in the process of fabricating two horns. One a cowhorn kit from a friend and a bison horn I'm working up from scratch.

The kit horn is well smoothed and appears to have a hard shiny finish to the exterior. I have rasped, filed, and sanded the bison horn down to 1200 grit and it's taking on a mild sheen. When complete, I'd like a little more shine.

What's the typical approach? I was thinking a simple waxing might suffice, or perhaps a layer or two of Tru Oil since I'm in the process of working up a stock too.

Thoughts please?

personally i have always just polished and then waxed the horn and then let it be .
Maybe alittle Tung oil to seal the scrimshaw work , but that�s about it

Ditto.

All of the old timers that I knew used a piece of broken glass to scrape and smooth. A piece of broken window pane being the most common. If it quits scraping good, re break it. miles

I forgot about that one. I remember the old man refinishing a bunch of oak chairs for the church, and he used chunks from broken mayo jars to scrape off the old finish.

With plastic now, I'm not sure that there's a expendable glass jar in the house.

if we are talking actual shaping of the horn, then keep in mind that cow horn and buffalo horn are worked differently .
With buffalo horn you have to scrap with the grain of the layers . If you don�t those layers can begin to separate and broom out .

you dont need to break a good glass jar for a scrapper . Just hop in your Rig and drive up on the hill there above Burns , along the road to Yellow Jacket .
you don�t have to go that far . Once you top out above the truck stop , the ground is covered with enough Obsidian to keep you in scrapers for eternity
Either pick you up some of the larger chunks to make scrapers from OR take some time and walk around and collect the larger shards that have already been broke off and are near ready to use .
Same out along the Burns John Day Highway.
Though in that direction the obsidian is a little harder for some reason , to find on top of the ground ,in workable sizes larger then your fist . they are there as well though

I would think that you would need to go with the grain on a cow horn, buffalo horn or a piece of oak. miles

Captchee:

I don't have to get in the rig for obsidian as I live in those same foothills. Any digging for a posthole or flower garden will bring up 7 or 8 softball sized cobbles. The better grades of obsidian though are a bit more distant and I don't want to divulge those locations.

I'm a closet knapper and do have a 7 gallon bucket full of good stuff.

nice and well done . yep i know some better locations as well .
but any way . by the looks of your work , you can make far better scrapers then a broken piece of glass