Musk ox horn

T

TurningByrd

Joined
Jun 25, 2017
Messages
1
folks - I am not a knife maker but a pen maker. I hope that some of you will be willing to offer some advice! I have acquired a musk ox horn and the provider has requested that I make a fountain pen for him. I use a lathe to turn and polish parts. I know that the musk ox horn is fairly delicate to work with and expensive so I don't want to mess it up! Can you provide any tips for drilling, turning and polishing? I saw on a forum that you can stabilize musk ox horn - Ow would you do that? Can you put a protective finish on it to prevent it moving?
You advice I'd very much appreciated!
Keith
 
Keith:

I find Musk Ox easy to work - it isn't very chippy and polishes nicely - I take it to 2500 grit and use Renaissance wax. Some parts of the horn has little "pits" in the surface that is part of the texture. For that reason I don't hit it with a buffer that will leave a dark residue in the pits. I also found it easy to drill. Here's a Musk Ox takedown damascus hunter I recently completed. Good luck on your project.

TK

 
Tk, in talking with a couple of my maker friends about Musk Ox, they say it is pretty heat sensitive so some caution on the grinder and buffer should be exercised. This came from John White (RIP), Mike Quesenberry, and John Horrigan. Based on that I would guess a bit of hand finishing comes into play.

What say you on the heat subject?

Paul
 
What I have heard about musk ox horn is not that it is so hard to work with, but it has a tendency to move, perhaps even more than some other natural materials. The advice that I have seen form folks who sell the stuff like Mark Knapp is first make sure that it has been drying/curing/whatever for long enough.
 
Last edited:
sheathmaker said:
Tk, in talking with a couple of my maker friends about Musk Ox, they say it is pretty heat sensitive so some caution on the grinder and buffer should be exercised. This came from John White (RIP), Mike Quesenberry, and John Horrigan. Based on that I would guess a bit of hand finishing comes into play.

What say you on the heat subject?

Paul
Click to expand...

Paul: I don't doubt that the makers you reference say it's heat sensitive - the hand techniques I use to shape and sand Musk Ox don't generate much heat so, I'd recommend to our pen maker to use very sharp turning tools, slow feed and speed rates.
 
I have uses muskox, but never on a pen. I am both a knifemaker and a turner. I wouldn't consider Muskox horn a good choice. It is fantastic looking when finished as a knife handle, but most of that effect is the 3-D look caused by the transparency and the thickness of a knife handle. I don't think it would look like that on a pen tube. It moves readily as it gets warm/hot and cools. I think it would be very difficult to get down to the very thinness of a pen. Any sanding and polishing would likely lift it off the tube and it would come apart. It would likely turn similar to the acrylic pearl material. If you have used that, you know that when it gets thin near the tube ends, it doesn't show much of the pattern you see in thicker areas. You should come up with some way to make a thicker pen on a thinner tube. I feel a fountain pen would be the hardest one to do that on. I suggest a custom desk pen of cigar pen size. A stand from muskox horn would be good, too.

It would require:
very sharp carbide tools
slow mandrel speed
very careful sanding steps up to 12,000
Keeping it as thick as possible.

Good luck, and please show us your results.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top