sheep horn for handles?

clint c

clint c

Joined
Aug 21, 2001
Messages
397
Hello gents,

A fella I've gone elk hunting with the last few years has given me a set of Bighorn ewe horns to make a matching set of hunters with for him and his brother. They are about 8" in lenght, and 2" diameter at the base. Tonight I split each horn in two in order to make scales, but the skull plate runs up each about 3", making that portion of the horn fairly thin once the bone inside is removed. This area is also the widest part of the horn, and I'd really like to incorporate it as part of the scale, as the remainder is to narrow for handle material. Any one still with me through this description?

My question is, What is the best method of flattening sheep horn? I'm thinking of boiling them in H2O and stuffing them between the flat dies on my hydraulic press. Suggestions and comments nedded and appreciated. Thanks, Clint
 
I flatten sheep horn and buffalo horn by putting them in cooking oil at a temp of 225. depending on the horn thickness depends on the time, but for a scale about 1/4" to 3/8" I would leave for around 10 minutes. when you place you scales in the oil they should release little fine bubbles. then I remove and place in a 4 ton hand press with 2 steel plates, squeeze flat and then leave until cool. From there I wipe off all the excess oil, and stabilize in a vacuum chamber using minn wax wood hardener. 1 word of advice, don't try to apply a great amount of pressure or you will cause the horn to split, you can tell if its soft enough by the way it moves in the press, kind of like squeezing a piece of rubber. once its looks flat don't squeeze anymore, thats what will cause it to split.

Hope this helps,

Bill
 
Thanks Bill, I'm off to try this process out and will let you know how it worked for me.

Clint
 
The best way to use ewe horn is to make hidden tang knives and not try to slpit them down. You have already found out why. The horn is hollow where it is large enough to get decent sized scales and gets thin very fast where it is solid. Put the hollow section at the rear and put a piece of ivory or something real purty in the hole. I'll post some pictures of one that I did a little while ago. But right now it's past my bed time
 
I cut scales out of the horn. Sometimes, the outside curl is all I get out of them. After cutting to length, I heat in an oven at ~200-250 degrees. Then clamp in a vice overnight. I let them sit in the open for a few days, then grind the backs flat. I've tried everything from boiling oil to a microwave and this is the best
method I have found. I do Aoudad the same way.
 
Thank you all gentlmen for lending me your ideas and experience. Bill Burke, your right, the widest part of these ewe horns is the base, but unfortunately, hidden tangs wern't an option as the remainder of the horn is too thin.

I've decided not to use the wide, thin, base area that is hollowed out as I can't see me successfully working them flat and then blending that area with the rest of the horn, and having thick enough scales for handles. Instead, I'll use the 3 1/4" area of solid portion of the horn that is wide and thick enough for scales. These of course arn't long enough though, which leads me to my last post about how to drill holes in hardened steel in order to apply rear bolsters!!! :D Thanks again,

Clint
 
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