Question about sheep horn for handles

[DeadPineKnives]

After reading both of Ed Fowler's excellent Knife Talk books, and seeing that Bob Loveless would sometimes use sheep horn for handle material, I decided to pursue sheep horn for knife handles as well. However, when I look on ebay, most of the sheep horns I find look as if they're hollow on the inside, while Ed Fowler's handles look to be solid all the way through.

Can someone educate me on which type of sheep horns are hollow vs. which ones are solid, or did Ed Fowler use some kind of filler material for his handles?

 

[Karl B. Andersen]

They're hollow at the base and become solid toward the tip. Ed's "spacers" at the front of the handle are cross section pieces.

 

[Del Raso Knives]

All horn is hollow. Slabs are cut from the whole horn and heated before flattening between plates or boards. Marino is good and thick which allows grinding the inside face flat to remove any cupping.
Important to use fresh belts to minimise heat as slab will want to move towards its original shape. Also important to use Corbys or similar to bolt the scales down. Mr. Fowler would have used the very tips of the horn to get short solid sections.

 

[Crag the Brewer]

Horsewright

Dave uses horn, and antler, and bone A lot.
I think I've read he has had people get/find/trade/etc. some neat stuff for him to use on his knives.

I'm in a similar situation as you, I'd like to dive into this natural handle material area more, too.

I'm leaning towards Bone, but I find all nice looking.....

Also, I've been trying to find and read more about Fowler since his unfortunate passing.
(I read a bit about his fascination with French Curves. That spoke to Me, I feel the same.)
I didn't know him, but I started to Miss Him as I was reading.
Loosing so much..

Good Luck.

 

[ea42]

Horsewright

Dave uses horn, and antler, and bone A lot.
I think I've read he has had people get/find/trade/etc. some neat stuff for him to use on his knives.

I'm in a similar situation as you, I'd like to dive into this natural handle material area more, too.

I'm leaning towards Bone, but I find all nice looking.....

Also, I've been trying to find and read more about Fowler since his unfortunate passing.
(I read a bit about his fascination with French Curves. That spoke to Me, I feel the same.)
I didn't know him, but I started to Miss Him as I was reading.
Loosing so much..

Good Luck.

I recall him posting somewhere about how he (Mr Fowler) was buying old sheep for the horn and then tried getting into the sheep jerky business to find a use for all the meat. Was a pretty funny and interesting accounting but damned if I can remember where I saw it.

Eric

 

[Crag the Brewer]

I recall him posting somewhere about how he (Mr Fowler) was buying old sheep for the horn and then tried getting into the sheep jerky business to find a use for all the meat. Was a pretty funny and interesting accounting but damned if I can remember where I saw it.

Eric

I LOVE that...... I hope it's True. Thats the craziness that makes sense to me
I'd like to shake his hand, or buy him a beer!!!

 

[Karl B. Andersen]

I went out to Ed's in '03. The first thing I noticed when pulling in on my motorcycle was a strange odor in the air. As I got closer to the house I could see a couple dozen sheep heads stuck on the top of fence posts. They were there to cure. He insisted the sheep horn "cure" naturally for about five years throughout the entire Wyoming four seasons before he would process the horns for use.
The first section behind the guard was two matching cross sections of the thinner portion of horn and the back section is the solid tip of the horn.
He said he always told his customers he was use anything they wanted for handle material on their knives.........as long as it was sheep horn.

 

[Bill DeShivs]

It's a great material- but it shrinks.
Age it for a couple of years after it is cut into slabs to be safe.

 

[Horsewright]

I've had great results with stability on sheephorn scales by glueing a liner to the scale before fixing it to the knife. I started doing this for tow reasons. One was the stability and two I'd often be able to see through the sheephorn when it was polished, it'd go translucent on me and you could see the tang. This has led to some really cool results where the sheephorn glows with the color of the liner, green being the color that influences the sheephorn the most for some reason that I don't understand.

Yes I do trade for horn, mostly elk sheds although I used to trade quite a bit for different sheep and goat horns. There was an animal dealer here in town. He'd buy a hundred goats or sheep here for $$ and sell them there a week later there for $$$. He was an auctioneer at many of these sales and he knew what was a deal and what wasn't and where they might bring more. If one died while he had it, his guys would cut the head off and toss it on the barn roof to season. That dried up though (sorry for the pun) after a couple of years as he switched to cattle only. I do remember though dropping his son off before he was old enough to drive. We'd pick up Easton and he'd come to the ranch and cowboy for us. He was great help. We'd pick him and his horse and a few dogs up and then drop him off at the end of the day. Was dropping Easton off one time and we had to wait as there were literally about 500 goats being driven from one field on one side of the drive to another on the other.. I was thinking knife handles the whole time. They were also some long haired variety and I was seeing wooly chaps too!

I have had some sheep horns lately and haven't got much yield from them. Most of the times these days I buy sheephorn scales. Do trade for elk sheds though. A lot. Any natural material seems to benefit from sitting around some before use. I've got some walnut scales that were cut in 1959. Same year I was. They're pretty stable. Some rosewood too my dad brought back from India at the end of WW2 Its pretty stable too.

Some of that rosewood:

Some recent sheephorn. This knife made as part of the trade for the horn:

Some traded elk:

Elk and store bought sheephorn. The sheephorn has black liners. The black seems to intensify the natural color of the sheephorn:

Green liners tinting this sheephorn slightly green:

And a lot green on the other side:

 

[Jason Fry]

My best tip is don't use voice text to search the internet for sheep horn. You'll get she porn.

 

[DeadPineKnives]

They're hollow at the base and become solid toward the tip. Ed's "spacers" at the front of the handle are cross section pieces.

Oh, I see! Thank you very much! Exactly what I needed to know.

All horn is hollow. Slabs are cut from the whole horn and heated before flattening between plates or boards. Marino is good and thick which allows grinding the inside face flat to remove any cupping.
Important to use fresh belts to minimise heat as slab will want to move towards its original shape. Also important to use Corbys or similar to bolt the scales down. Mr. Fowler would have used the very tips of the horn to get short solid sections.

Gotcha! I'll make sure to do that if/when I end up buying some!

Also, I've been trying to find and read more about Fowler since his unfortunate passing.
(I read a bit about his fascination with French Curves. That spoke to Me, I feel the same.)
I didn't know him, but I started to Miss Him as I was reading.
Loosing so much..

Good Luck.

Learning that Mr. Fowler had passed was especially gut-wrenching for me, as I had actually sent him a letter a few weeks before. It haunts me, wondering if he even saw it, and if he did, whether it helped to ease his pain.

I recall him posting somewhere about how he (Mr Fowler) was buying old sheep for the horn and then tried getting into the sheep jerky business to find a use for all the meat. Was a pretty funny and interesting accounting but damned if I can remember where I saw it.

Eric

I distinctly remember reading about that in Vol. 2 of Knife Talk!

I went out to Ed's in '03. The first thing I noticed when pulling in on my motorcycle was a strange odor in the air. As I got closer to the house I could see a couple dozen sheep heads stuck on the top of fence posts. They were there to cure. He insisted the sheep horn "cure" naturally for about five years throughout the entire Wyoming four seasons before he would process the horns for use.
The first section behind the guard was two matching cross sections of the thinner portion of horn and the back section is the solid tip of the horn.
He said he always told his customers he was use anything they wanted for handle material on their knives.........as long as it was sheep horn.

Exactly the kind of sensible insanity I would expect from Ed! The more I learn about him, the more I relate to his often unusual ways. Makes me think of my own obsession with micarta, lol.

I've had great results with stability on sheephorn scales by glueing a liner to the scale before fixing it to the knife. I started doing this for tow reasons. One was the stability and two I'd often be able to see through the sheephorn when it was polished, it'd go translucent on me and you could see the tang. This has led to some really cool results where the sheephorn glows with the color of the liner, green being the color that influences the sheephorn the most for some reason that I don't understand.

Yes I do trade for horn, mostly elk sheds although I used to trade quite a bit for different sheep and goat horns. There was an animal dealer here in town. He'd buy a hundred goats or sheep here for $$ and sell them there a week later there for $$$. He was an auctioneer at many of these sales and he knew what was a deal and what wasn't and where they might bring more. If one died while he had it, his guys would cut the head off and toss it on the barn roof to season. That dried up though (sorry for the pun) after a couple of years as he switched to cattle only. I do remember though dropping his son off before he was old enough to drive. We'd pick up Easton and he'd come to the ranch and cowboy for us. He was great help. We'd pick him and his horse and a few dogs up and then drop him off at the end of the day. Was dropping Easton off one time and we had to wait as there were literally about 500 goats being driven from one field on one side of the drive to another on the other.. I was thinking knife handles the whole time. They were also some long haired variety and I was seeing wooly chaps too!

I have had some sheep horns lately and haven't got much yield from them. Most of the times these days I buy sheephorn scales. Do trade for elk sheds though. A lot. Any natural material seems to benefit from sitting around some before use. I've got some walnut scales that were cut in 1959. Same year I was. They're pretty stable. Some rosewood too my dad brought back from India at the end of WW2 Its pretty stable too.

Some of that rosewood:

Some recent sheephorn. This knife made as part of the trade for the horn:

Some traded elk:

Elk and store bought sheephorn. The sheephorn has black liners. The black seems to intensify the natural color of the sheephorn:

Green liners tinting this sheephorn slightly green:

And a lot green on the other side:

Bob Loveless stated that he used liners to help stag scales bond better, so that makes sense!

My best tip is don't use voice text to search the internet for sheep horn. You'll get she porn.

Might have to do that later

Thanks everyone for your responses, they were all very helpful and informative! I may have a source for sheep horn but I'm not sure, but either way it's something I feel better equipped to experiment with now!