Powder Horns
I've just started a new project on making some authentic style
power horns, for use
use muzzleloading rifles and such.
I managed to snag a small group of raw cow horns, which
I'd been searching for. I
wanted the raw horns, because most of the ones that you get are already
"processed" a
bit, which means they've been sanded smooth, and very thin. Most of the
ones that I
had looked at were so thin, that you couldn't do and decorative work on the horn
at all.
So, I got the raw horns and immediately had to find a way to shape the large end
so it
was perfectly round. In order to do that, I turned up a set of tapered
wooden plugs out of
yellow birch to
round out each end.
I turned them out of some branch wood that i put up
in the shop a long time back. I turned a range of sizes
to fit whatever size horn i had.
After heating the end of the horn in boiling water, I pushed in the tapered plug,
and then let the whole thing cool and dry. In the right hand picture, you can
see the rounded end, which is almost perfectly round, and ready for it's wooden
plug and fittings.
I'll post more information as i get further along with the project!
