Wood can be really annoying. It splinters, splits, warps, tears out, burns, and breaks. So sometimes, I need a woodworking project with as little wood as possible. Thus was the origin of one of my favorite projects I’ve done, this powder horn.
My dad is friends with a lot of guys who are into historical reenactment and muzzleloader rifles. One of them, Mr. Aucker, is a master horner—a craftsman who makes powder horns. I told him that I was interested in learning to do it, so he gave me three of them to start working with and some sage advice. I started the first one soon after, and I don’t have a picture of it because it was pretty laughable. The second one, however, was a major improvement, and is what I’ll be focusing on today.
Working with a horn is very much like working with plastic (except horns smell a lot worse). They are initially very rough, so the first step is to scrape them smooth with a pocketknife. A hole is drilled in the pointy end for the powder to pour out, and a big wooden plug is stuffed into the wide end. Normally this is done by boiling the horn to make it pliable and jamming it over a round disk. I did that for the first one, but for this horn I chose to cut a piece of wood to shape, because I’m lazy. Horn doesn’t grip nails like wood does, so the plug is supposed to be held in place with square nails in round holes. Once again, laziness and convenience won out and I prayed really hard that my round nails would hold. (They did.)
The best part of this project, though, was learning to do scrimshaw. This American folk art is done by etching a drawing onto horn, ivory, or whalebone and rubbing it with ink or shoe polish to make it appear in black. I don’t have any experience in drawing, so I taught myself to do this simple sketch of a hummingbird and daylilies. It came out really well on the horn, and I was duly impressed with it for my first try.
I still have the third horn Mr. Aucker gave me, and I’m still planning what to do with it. I think I’m going to etch on Genesis 27:3: “Now therefore take, I pray thee, thy weapons, thy quiver and thy bow, and go out to the field, and take me some venison.” I’m excited to try it again, and I can’t wait to see how it turns out.
I find this post to be really interesting. I have never done anything even remotely like this, so your experience was really informative to me. I’m so impressed with the drawing you were able to do on the horn! It looks amazing! I’m excited for your next post!