Aging Powder Horns

Robby said:

When I first started making horns I wanted to give them that parchment like look. I visited a local museum and they kindly allowed me examine a few original old horns. To me, the coloration did not appear to be natural aging, thought that factor added to the beauty of the existing color. So I went home and thought about how they would have attained such a color and figured they were probably boiling them in left over tea grindings and onion skins, things common to them. Plus boiling softened up the horn for carving, scraping, and fitting the butt cap. This is what I have been doing ever since. I think back in the day a uncolored white horn would have been the exception, and not the norm, especially those horns made by those in the business of doing such.
Robby

Click to expand...

Yeah, back in the old days, there were commercial horn makers, even used the furniture
pulls for hardware. Not every old-timer wanted or needed to make his own. You could go to a 'general store' and buy a horn ready-made; they were just a tool or usable item needed for shooting. Not every one was a carved, engraved, historical record, of course.

Zonie said:

I didn't see anything that was posted that said antiquing was right or wrong.
I did see a few that pointed out that if a person is reenacting and trying to look like the people who lived 150 or 200 years ago, most of those people wouldn't be carrying around powder horns that looked, at the time, like they were 200 years old.

In other words, they weren't saying that aging was "right" or "wrong" for someone who isn't doing any reenacting and just wants to carry something that looked like it was 200 years old.

Click to expand...

Good point!

spinner1 said:

Why is it that every post on ageing techniques results in unsolicited opinions as to whether it's kosher or not? I would just like to add that, from personal experience, potassium permanganate provides an almost instant brown color - very easy to use. However, it fades quickly.

Click to expand...

I didn't know it faded! I just used it for the first time on a simple little horn I did up; Maybe it can be "re-dyed" if someone desires to do that.

Is not fading over time "aging"????

Pete G said:

Is not fading over time "aging"????

Click to expand...

Ha! Of course! I thought of that well after I posted! This is a great site!

Folks, I don't know whether Grandpappy ... or maybe his Grandpappy ... stained or dyed his horn but the old gentleman lived and hunted the woods in a time and place where not making meat probably meant he and his family went hungry, and also where anything that stood out visually in a forest environment could draw hostiles. I believe that he did what he could to blend into the natural world around him and to avoid drawing attention to himself. That's how he hung around long enough to be "Grandpappy."

Yes, plus you just get dirty and greasy with the blackpowder residue, and dirty hands from being out handling game. The horns got dark on their own due to handling!

I posted elsewhere. Horn IS hair. Use hair dye. Various shades of blonde work great for aging. If you want to have the look of early aging in the horn paint the dye with a brush adding as much or as little as you like where you want it. Let it dry.

Just a side note to the above: Aging is a process and a horn that is old looking, as some people have mentioned, 200 years old in appearance or so; These should be for show. Using anything in reenacting, it should be used looking, not 200 years old. I was at Bedford Village in PA. I was assisting a woman of their staff in a cabin. She did cooking demo's . We had a school group student ask why our cast Iron looked new and not like a couple hundred years old since it was 1996. I said I was stepping out of the time frame lock so I can answer and explain., and I told him when he crossed the bridge into the village, he went back to 1760's. Those cook ware pieces are fairly new and were costly. We care for things we own. We clean and care for everything. We make repairs when needed, make what we need if we can, etc. I hadn't noticed the curator of the village had been accompanying the group. When the group move on, the curator thanked me for a well thought response. He also said one of his biggest pet-peeves is reenactors having their guns and accoutrements looking like they're a couple hundred years old, rather than recently acquired.

Thanks for the blond hair dye tip, for the horns. IF folks don't realize the horn is hair....wait until they make a hole in the spout with a rod tip heated bright red that burns it way through...sure will know the horn is hair then! phew!

LD

I just noticed this thread for the first time, and I wanted to join in, if late. I have seven left-handed flintlock rifles and fowlers. Five I have had made for me, due to my lack of patience and artistic skills. Each gun I have specified to be As New, when made 250 years ago. No one in 1750 intentionally made a "beat up" or "worn out" gun. No one in 1750 made a rusted or "patina'd" gun. No one sewed ragged-looking clothes. Simple and plain, perhaps, but not ragged. And regardless of style, things were properly maintained, because they were valued.

When I go to a rendezvous or other period event, I want to look like I just stepped in, not like I stepped back. As a gentleman of the age, I have tailored clothes and fine firearms; I wear shoes and stockings that denote my status and I wear them clean and tidy. I dress for each activity I attend; fancy for dinner, plain for work or going about. I don't understand those who beat up their "period stuff" to look "period" when in fact it should be relatively new. I care for my clothes and gear, including firearms, as if they were essential items for my very existence. I must admit that when I attend a rendezvous, I look out of place (due to others' interpretations) but not out of time. Just one person's perspective, with no offense made to others' and their choices.

ADK Bigfoot

OP was talking about aging his horn. His horn, his perspective on how aged he wanted it to look. Their equipment was used hard, maybe well maintained, but used hard. It wouldn't take long to look what many would consider 'aged' even to the contemporary eye.
Robby