filing down a powder horn

[RhodeHunter]

Last weekend I was trying to make a powder horn somebody gave me into a useful container for powder. It is a $20 cheapie from Cabelas or the like. Powder would not go into it, even trickling it in. I ended up sawing off the tip of the horn, and discovered they had drilled a 5/16 hole, and then another right through the outside, and the two channels are supposed to meet inside to make the bend. Then they just epoxy the outside drill hole. Well I don't think the two channels lined up right, and that is why powder would not go through.

As I was sawing the tip off, and then sawed another section off, going further, I noticed that the outside material of the horn was delaminated off the inside part on one side. Is this a common defect in the horns? Or is it seen occasionally or rarely? What can be done about these air pockets? I smeared epoxy in but it doesn't look good.

I ended up epoxying in an aluminum tube a little less than half inch diameter, and put a small cork in the end. It is UGLY (so don't expect a picture), but it holds and pours powder now.

[pietro]

AFAIK, there should be a large wooden plug in the horn's big end, with a smaller, removeable ( usually a screw-in) plug of wood or brass for filling the horn.

If that horn doesn't have it, you can make it so; with the small plug's knob acting as a strap anchor ILO a staple.

I would obtain some small diameter deer antler, not all that hard in RI ;) , and cut a section, drilling a hole down through the core, to cover the aluminum repair, securing it internally (hidden) with epoxy.

If the horn delaminates further, you might try wrapping the entire horn body with a thin layer of wetted leather, for a tight/shrink fit when it dried.
You could decorate the leather prior to wetting/fitting.

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[KCSO]

What I do on those is cut the horn off leaving a 3/4" or larger opening and then turn a spout section from deer antler. This makes a nice scupltured tip end and salvages the horn. Acraglass mixed with black dye will fil the cracks or delamination.

Here is a chunk of horn from my first buffalo. This one is a little different as the antler tip is threaded and the front end unscrews for filling.

[Omnivore]

Cracking, or delamination as you call it, is not uncommon. Almost all the black horns I've worked on have had some of it to some degree. Sometimes I'll carve an horn and it will be perfectly solid, bit it will crack later-- much like wood. Horn has growth rings and a grain, much like a very dense wood. If the separation is fairly thin, I've used the super thin cyanoacrylate (super glue) that you get at hobby shops. It wicks its way into the smallest cracks. The Acraglass sounds like a great idea too, especially for the larger cracks. Sand it flush, steel wool it, and you'll scarcely notice.

Drilling the spout end of a horn can be a challenge, especially since you don't know how far you have to go to hit the open space inside. Getting it drilled at an angle that complements the final shape of the horn is an often botched operation, though you can tweak the stopper hole angle (but only a little bit) during the reaming operation, and you can tweak the final outter shape of the spout portion (neck) somewhat, to better match the angle of the spout hole/stopper angle. I've drilled the full length of my drill bit before, and hit only solid horn. Cutting an inch or two off the end and re drilling can sometimes completely salvage the horn. Just carve the outside down accordingly and you can still end up with a nice, "shapely" horn. Sometimes you can start with a pretty ugly horn and end up with something pretty nice.

A plain, hand-carved wood stopper is the classic stopper for the spout end. I use a fiddle pegbox reamer to form the tapered receiver socket in the horn spout, but you can get away with using a file tang as a reamer. Just sharpen the edges by grinding the flat sides of the tang nice and flat, leaving a clean, sharp edge. Sometimes the peg reamer can be too long, i.e. too small at the tip, so I'll cut it off with a Dremel cutoff wheel. You end up with two or three reamers that will accommodate various sized horn spouts. Use a relatively soft wood for the stopper, and it will conform to the reamed horn spout to some degree, as you're whittling and trying. Form the tapered shank to match the taper on your reamer. If you have a lathe, the completed spout stopper can be made entirely as a turning. I start with a chunk of split wood. That way your finished stopper has a straight grain, parallel to the tapered shank. I assume that it's less likely to break off in handling. Take your time, think it through, and you may be surprized at what you can do.

If you mess up the horn real bad, Track of the Wolf sells nice, white horns as blanks in various sizes for such projects.

[waksupi]

If you can get horns from US cattle, they are a better quality. Most import horns have been boiled in salt water, leaving salt to dry out the horns. This is a big cause of delamination, although it can happen on fresh horn, too, although usually only the outer layers that are removed anyway.
When I get a horn to work on, I will boil them out again real well with fresh water, to remove the salts. I do it a couple times, with fresh water each time. After I have a horn built, I rub bear oil, or lard into the surface, to put some natural animal oils back into it. I give them an oil treatment when ever I think of it, to keep the horns in good shape, and prevent brittleness.

[gnoahhh]

I have built maybe 3 dozen horns over the last couple decades. Here are a couple of observations.

If I want to keep the horn long so as to be able to file/carve a fancy tip on it, and the horn has a tight curve that precludes drilling a long straight hole, I have successfully used the old timer's trick of creating a hole with a red hot wire. Use a fairly thick wire (or small diameter drill rod), cold bend it to conform to the curvature of the horn, then heat the tip red hot and start poking it in. Go slow, re-heat as necessary, and be sure to push it in an arc that allows it to track around the curvature. It is a slow process, and believe me when I tell you it stinks bad- do it outside far from sensitive noses! Proceed with reaming the stopper hole and filing the outside.

Always make the hole first. That way if you screw up and poke the drill through to the outside (and you will, if you do enough of of them), you're not out the time and labor of filing/dressing the exterior.

Don't be afraid to dress down the exterior walls of the horn super thin. Thin enough to be translucent and be able to see the powder level inside with a strong light behind it still leaves plenty of wall thickness for structural integrity. Go as thin as you dare.

I don't like putting screw plugs in the butt cap for powder filling. To me it just creates one more way for moisture to get in and one more thing that can potentially work loose. I fill mine through the spout, using a tiny funnel. Takes time, sure, but what's time to a pig?!

I like to whittle/turn my own tapered plugs out of wood that holds sentimental attachment to me. The trick is to use a tapered hole and a tapered plug that fits it perfectly. With a fit like that you achieve two goals: as good a moisture barrier that a mechanical seal of that nature can give, and a tight fitting plug that isn't likely to ever fall out on its own. I use either a #5 or #6 Morse taper reamer depending on the size horn. They're cheap and easily found. The hard part is turning the peg to fit, but careful measuring and a slow approach will get it done. Short of doing that, get a handful of violin tunings pegs (the ebony ones are cool), and the reamer that luthiers use in fitting them. Easy peasy. The benefit to turning your own though is that you can get creative with the shape of the knob on the end. One thing is for sure, metal spouts and stoppers just seem out of place on a horn for some reason, but that's just me.

Why a tapered hole and not a straight one? Think about it this way: drill chucks are held in the arbor of a drill press, and centers are held in the tail stocks of lathes by a simple press fit of a tapered shank in a perfectly matching tapered hole, and they're pretty darn tight. A stopper doesn't have to be that tight, but good and snug is a plus.

Lastly, and then I'll shut up, is whether to attach the stopper to the horn with a string. In the beginning I fretted about dropping the stopper, so I tied it on with a string and often found myself walking around with an open horn and the stopper dangling from its tether because I failed to put it back in. Then a wise old man pointed out that when pouring powder from a horn you have to do something with the stopper anyway so why not hold onto it, and when you're finished why not just put it back in the horn, and forget about the stupid string. Made sense, so I stopped with the string and after 20+ years I have never lost one, and no customer has ever come back to me for a replacement stopper.

[RhodeHunter]

Thank you, thank you, thank you. I am going to cut and paste this info into a Word document for sure.

When I get some antler I will try to pretty up the horn. If I'm really good this year, maybe Santa will bring me a small lathe; I can only hope. Seriously, though, I appreciate all your efforts at the keyboard.

[Omnivore]

The lathe is something of a luxury for making the stoppers, or it's a way of creating a different style stopper. Turned base plugs on the other hand, are nice though. I've done several stoppers totally by hand, using various X-acto type razor knives, and each time it's not nearly as difficult as I think it'll be. The handle portion of the stopper can be further shaped using abrasive strap cloth, a Dremel sanding drum, various files, etc. Just depends on how fancy you want to get, but many of the old originals were pretty simple and a bit crude. Nothing wrong with a hand-hewn look, so long as the taper shank is a good tight fit.

Good point on the stopper tether, gnoahhh. I have some that are tethered, and I've been debating drilling some others of mine for a tether. I think I'll just leave them alone and see how it goes. For another thing; they're probably stronger without the hole.

[Bullet Caster]

I've made two sets of powder horns. The first set my Dad helped me with by helping me to saw out and carve two base plugs out of cedar. I had ordered all the fittings and spouts to be epoxied in from Dixie Gun Works. We nailed in the base plugs with little brass tacks and epoxied them in at the same time. I drilled the end cap pieces in the base plug installing the fill plugs. On the other ends, one was a priming pan horn so I epoxied a 1-3 grain adjustable measure you operated with your thumb. On the main horn I epoxied in a fitting that would allow a powder measure to be screwed in to measure specific amounts of powder.

These were made from two cow horns someone gave me. The hardest part was the drilling of the tip to the main chamber. My dad fashioned a spring steel rod we used to heat up with the torch with a flattened, sharpened edge. Stuck it into the drill and rotated very slowly. Vibrates a lot but we got 'er done.

I've since made two more but in the traditional way; i.e., fiddle tuning keys for stoppers, base plug with no holes except to attach powder horn sling. I also main charge with a 90 grain powder measure I made out of deer antler. Then drilled a hole in the tip to insert cowhide strip for wearing while I muzzle load. I also have an antler funnel I put over the muzzle to pour in my powder from the measure. It's on the same cowhide strip I wear--keeps 'em handy. Ain't muzzle loading fun? BC

[gnoahhh]

Yep, it's all in good fun. Lots of approaches to the same end. It would be boring otherwise.

[pietro]

For a nice stopper, hie thrre to a music shop, and ask for a few old/worn violin string tuning pegs - I've often gotten a few for the asking or $1 each.

New, Ebony pegs are $3.

http://www.stewmac.com/product_images/1sm/0356/Violin_Tuning_Peg_sm.jpg

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[pietro]

For a nice stopper, hie thee to a music shop, and ask for a few old/worn violin string tuning pegs - I've often gotten a few for the asking or $1 each.

New, Ebony pegs are $3.

http://www.stewmac.com/product_images/1sm/0356/Violin_Tuning_Peg_sm.jpg

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[Leslie Sapp]

Here's a small one I made to use with my TC Hawken. I carved the cut off end of the horn to the shape I wanted and used a coarse threaded tap and die to thread the stopper and the spout.

I was taught by my dad to use a pocketknife to strip the horn down close to the thickness I wanted, and then use a curved blade (he used a piece of broken glass) to scrape the horn surface smooth.

[Buckeye509]

Great information here.