Dye formula to antique a horn

[ladysmithtrading]

Ok gents, whos got a good formula to give a cow horn that nice yellow/tan antique glow, tried the orange/yellow mix of rit in the selbys horn book, looks like manure, anybody?

 

[soggy]

I've had pretty good success using dried onion skins and apple cider vinegar.
Take a handful of onion skins about the size of a baseball, a couple of cups of apple cider vinegar, put in a pot filled with enough water to cover the horn and bring it to a boil. Turn off the heat and submerge the horn and keep watch until you get the desired colour.
Here's one I done a while back:

After about 10-15 minutes:

 

[rich pierce]

That onion skin dye works. Looks much more natural.

I too dislike the RIT dye look. I saw dozens of very fine horns dyed that way recently at Dixon's Gunmaker's Fair and despite the wonderful craftsmanship, was put off by the orangy color.

Another dye I'm experimenting with is osage orange wood shavings boiled to release the color. This works great on cloth giving a yellow to golden color. Will try on horn and let you know.

Aquafortis and heat work well too but can be spotty because the horn does not seem to wet evenly. Try really soaping and scrubbing the horn first, rinsing extensively, drying before applying the AQF.

 

Horn Dyeing -[url] http://members.tripod.com/~shoot7/madmonk.html[/url]

 

[Harddog]

I too dislike the RIT dye look. I saw dozens of very fine horns dyed that way recently at Dixon's Gunmaker's Fair and despite the wonderful craftsmanship, was put off by the orangy color.

Rich,

Rit dye has its place in dyeing powder horns as does onion skins and vinegar. It all depends on whether you are trying to replicate the patina that "grows" on a horn that was never dyed originally or whether you are trying to replicate the actual color of horns that were initially dyed when they were manufactured. Horners during the F&I and Rev War periods that made scrimshawed horns typically dyed them to impart a color to the whitish body of the horn. Yellow was a typical color. Many horns other than scrimshawed horns were dyed green or red. Today we just don't seem to want to dye our horns green or red, but it can make for a beautiful and unique powder horn that attracts a lot of attention at events.

Boiling in onion skins and vinegar kind of, sort of, but not really replicates a patina that would have grown on an undyed powder horn. Various color combinations of Rit dyes are usually used in an effort to replicate the original color of horns that were orifginally dyed.

Actually, of all the dyed or stained contemporary horns I have seen, the color never looks like the coloring and patina of the old original horns I have seen.

The orangey color that you dislike so much is the result of adding way to much orange Rit dye to your dye bath of Yellow Rit dye. It seems to me that a bit of brown Rit dye added to the yellow Rit dye bath would better replicate the original yellow dyed horn that has then grown some patina.

Randy Hedden

 

[AeroncaTAL]

The orangey color that you dislike so much is the result of adding way to much orange Rit dye to your dye bath of Yellow Rit dye. It seems to me that a bit of brown Rit dye added to the yellow Rit dye bath would better replicate the original yellow dyed horn that has then grown some patina.
Randy Hedden

On my daughters horn I used two packages of orange, one package of yellow and about a quarter package of black. I like the way it turned out, it was not too yellow and not too orange.

Scott

 

[rich pierce]

That looks really good.

 

[dennis byrd]

Beaverman
Here is a commercial formula you can buy at Buffalo Bill's shooting store, it's appropriately called "Old bones". I have never used it but I intend to on my first horn, i'm looking for that aged patina as well.[color=black
Just GOOGLE or look up Buffalo Bill's
"Old bones" item #938
Best wishes Jet90[/color][/color]

 

[longshot47]

Rich-
The osage orange works well. I've found that the most convincing results come with the addition of walnut and butternut hulls to the dye pot. Requires a l-o-n-g simmer and a pretty long soak [to taste]. Tho untried, I'm betting that the follow-up steam bath mentioned in Madmonks article [thanks Graywolf] is worth the extra effort. Little things/big differences.
~Longshot

 

[Harddog]

Jet90,

Old bones is nothing more than potassium permanganate. You can buy a whole container of potassium permanganate at most stores that sell supplies for water softeners. A whole container of PP will cost about as much as that little bottle of old bones.

Randy Hedden

 

[dlpowell]

I've never changed my dye water. Still using it after 8 months. Just keep adding fresh water to it. Haven't added any dye in at least 4 months. Only use the yellowdye. Bring to a boil and turn off. Fill your horn full of hot water and drop in dye until it turns yellow. The water you put in your horn helpos to keep it under water while you go off and do something else. Get the horn out of the water, empty out the water and immediately apply a good dark stain liberally to the horn. Sprinkle the horn with black powdered paint and rub it in with your hands until the horn is black. Now take a cloth with stain on it and rub off all the paint. It'll take a few trys but you'll figure how to do it. They look really old and beat up when done right. I'd never take a heavily scrimshawed horn to the woods in fear of damaging it. Damage one of these, a little stain and paint and it improves with use. :hatsoff: