Hairline cracks in horn handle -- problem?

I

Icopy

Joined
Apr 20, 2000
Messages
14
Last night while admiring my WWII made by Sanu, I noticed several hairline cracks along the horn handle. When I ran my fingernail across them, I was only able to "feel" one of them. Should I be concerned about these tiny cracks?
 
nah, I wouldn't worry about it Icopy. Usually indicative of the horn getting a little dry. Fill the cracks with a little superglue and the handle will probably outlast you. However, I would treat the handles with some hooflex as soon as possible if I were you. I got a whole container of the stuff and probably enough for 100 khukuri. The hooflex compound is commonly used to treat the hooves of farm animals, mainly horses.

It works extremely well on the horn handles, bringing out the color and wonderful attributes of the horn as well. Forward an address, and I will be glad to share some with you. Not exactly cheap.


Shalom
 
I may take you up on that offer. I'll look around my neck of the woods first. Hopefully, I can find a feed store around here. I'm not sure if I have one around here. After all, Cleveland isn't exactly known for its farming industry.
 
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Icopy there are some `Animal Health Supply' stores around Tulsa that sell hooflex.
I would also check some suburban animal stores as well if I were you.
And if you can't find the hooflex one of our daughters who has several horses tells me that anything with a lot of lanolin in it will work just as well.

An interesting thing happened to Barb and me as we were passing through Cleveland vey early one morning on our way to Pennsylvania.
We were in a huge freeway interchange seemingly close to the city when a nice sized doe deer ran right out in front of us.
The poor deer seemed to be badly confused and competely out of her normal enviroment whch she was.
I hope she made it back to her usual range and didn't become roadkill venison and go to waste.
Sometimes I think it may be true that there are more deer in the US than there was a few hundred years ago.
We were both just surprised to see a deer where deer don't belong.
biggrin.gif



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>>>>---Yvsa-G@WebTV.net---->®

"VEGETARIAN".............
Indin word for lousy hunter.
 
Yvsa --

I will check the pet care stores tonight. There are a couple near my house. You're right about the deer coming too close to the highway. There is so much development that the deer no longer have a home. I had a deer jump over my car over my car once at a stop sign. And a couple of years ago, a deer somehow found his way into a parking garage right in downtown Cleveland. The police tried to catch the deer, but the deer jumped over the garage ledge. Unfortunately, the deer was on the fith floor at the time.
 
Anyone know what would happen if you used Rennwax on horn?
I only ask because I have a can of that stuff, but I don't have any horn handles to try it on.

Bob
 
Thanks for help and deer stories.

Bro, I know for sure there are more deer up in SE KS now than 50 or 60 years back. When I was a kid I almost never saw one. Now in the evenings and night you have a hard time driving 10 miles without seeing one. I think one of the reasons is they have good fodder in the reclaimed strip mine areas.

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I got to thinking, yeah dangerous I know, and it seems that some of the hair prodcts like VO5 used to have large amounts of lanolin in them.
Perhaps another source that could be looked into.

Bro I agree that there's a lot more deer here in Oklahoma than there used to be.
What gets me is the appearance of large cats in the form of panthers or mountain lions if you will.
I think I've told the story where Barb and me found panther tracks at the reservoir near us.
There was numerous reports of sightings from many people in that area.

And a friend of ours in Missouri saw one at the end of his driveway while walking his dog one night. Ralph's dog was torn up by some kind of large animal not long before that.
When he reported it to the Arkansas fish and wildlife dept they said no way!!!!
But several people in his area has seen the panther as well.


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>>>>---Yvsa-G@WebTV.net---->®

"VEGETARIAN".............
Indin word for lousy hunter.
 
I may have goosed the moose on my horn handle, but the other evening when I finished applying Lexol (the preservative in the tan container) to my sheath, I rubbed what was left on the cloth into the handle. This stuff will sit on leather until it is rubbed in, but the horn literally seemed to drink it. Same thing with a second coat, and the visible grain in the horn now stands out, and the surface has a deeper sheen. The contents aren't marked on the container, but I don't think there is anything good for leather that would be harmful to horn. Not a recommendation until I've watched it for a while, but a possiblity. With the horse industry as it is in Kentucky, you would think Hooflex would be available at Wally World, but I'm still looking.
Deer - Speaking of Wally World, they stock Cobbs warning whistles that mount on the front bumper or in the grill of your car. THEY WORK!! I've had them on my last two cars, but got visual verification two years ago returning from SD. On I-35 north of Des Moines there are high, sloping grassy embankments on the west side of the freeway. A large doe topped the skyline ahead of us and started down the slope, out in the open. She ignored three tankers that were about 1/4 mi. ahead of us, but when we were 50-75 yds. away, she went into a spraddle-leg stop, spun back up the slope and stared down until we were past. These things are worth a lot of money, body shops being what they are today.
 
About the Renn wax. It is a great top coat to presevere your knife, blade, handle leather etc. The problem lies in that it does not really soak in like some of the other products out there. On all my horn handles I have a hoof conditioner(it smells a lot like pine tar) that seems to really make the handles shine. Haven't really had a problem with cracking since I started using the stuff, or any other odd side effects so I will recomend it highly.

As a protective coat Renn wax excells. After all the oil has soaked in try it out on some of the wood handles. I usually apply the stuff with one of the non abrasive scotch brite pads(the white ones).

 
Hey just an idea I worked on a horse farm for about 1.5 yrs on on thise side of kentucky and we used to get hooflex from State Farm Supply. Their pretty common and if you do a search on yahoo I found many online stores carrying the product.
 
Heating up lexol with a blow drier will help it penetrate. The manufactuer does not recommend this, they recommend warm water. I don't like to use it on my sheaths because it can cause the leather to relax more so than wax.

I don't think lexol will hurt horn. I have the MSDS for it but can't seem to find it. If I recall correctly there are no harmful to human ingredients.

I am not sure if it is the turpentine or antibiotic in Hooflex that irritates my finger when I rub it in.


Will

 
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