Horn Making

[azmark]

I have worked a few ram and bison horn scales made but they came came cut in plates from dick's but I picked up some long horn from my trip to Texas and was curious what method to use to make them into plates? How to boil and form? Thanks!

 

[mdunn]

my horn experience is limited to straightening some vintage horn scales that have become a little bent. I just steam them, and clamp them flat, then follow that up with a nice neetsfoot oil massage a few hours later

 

[thirdeye]

In the past I've cut the horn to manageable length, cut them in half length wise. Used a 40 qt pot with steamer basket and steamed until workable. Pressed and clamped the between hardwood boards and placed them in the oven for one hour at 250 then reduced the heat to warm for an additional hour and the removed them. The idea is to let them cool slowly. I leave them clapped for several days before removing them from the claps. At this point I put them out in the sun for a week or so remembering not to let the night dew or rain get to them.
It's worked well for me. This was something I learned from and old school craftsman.There may be other "modern" tricks but this again has produced fine results.

 

[azmark]

Something tells me this is more than my wife is going to put up. One thing I don't mess with is her kitchen. Dick's has Yak horn and I'm curious to see how it would come out with scales but it is too expensive to mess around with.

 

[Ender Wiggins]

In the past I've cut the horn to manageable length, cut them in half length wise. Used a 40 qt pot with steamer basket and steamed until workable. Pressed and clamped the between hardwood boards and placed them in the oven for one hour at 250 then reduced the heat to warm for an additional hour and the removed them. The idea is to let them cool slowly. I leave them clapped for several days before removing them from the claps. At this point I put them out in the sun for a week or so remembering not to let the night dew or rain get to them.
It's worked well for me. This was something I learned from and old school craftsman.There may be other "modern" tricks but this again has produced fine results.

Thanks for the very informative and interesting post. I was having a hard time wrapping my head around how horn got from it's natural shape into nice rectangular blanks.