Dyed Horns...

[FrontierTrapper92]

Just a thought I had today...I know some of you prefere a pc natural horn, and we know horns were dyed back then using the natural ingredients available. I know some of us prefere aged powder horns which end up a yellow or brown color...Makes me wonder if back then horns were ever dyed the way we faux age them purely for hunting purposes to give the horn a darker color?

 

[DixieTexian]

I would speculate that as the game in a particular area got more scarce, stuff like dyeing horns would become more important as the game got more weary. So dyeing a horn to be less white makes sense. My question, and one that I've only found mixed answers to, is what did they use to dye them with? Most horn makers nowadays use modern dyes, and finding information on historical methods seems a bit futile.

 

[appalichian hunter]

I have heard that boiled onion skins will work, or perhaps a soak in walnut hull juice.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

..., and we know horns were dyed back then using the natural ingredients available.

Um, I know some early chemical solutions were used to make some horns two tone, with a blackened tip and very light colored body.

I know some of us prefere aged powder horns which end up a yellow or brown color.

Which is odd that folks doing living history would wear a horn made sometime within a 50 year period and contemporary to their persona..., and then age it to look like it's 200 years old...., a really BAD reenactorism....

Makes me wonder if back then horns were ever dyed the way we faux age them purely for hunting purposes to give the horn a darker color?

I doubt it. The primary cattle that the horn would've been made of would've likely been English Red Cattle, and they don't always have white portion of their horns. Nobody today, though, is making utility horns when it comes to horn making. The reason why I bought a dyed-brown horn for hunting, was because of the yahoos out there in public areas adjacent to where I hunt or when I'm in public hunting areas, and they have modern optics and will take a pot-shot at a bit of white moving through the woods.

Back in the day of the powder horn, the white horn was for embellishment purposes, and likely not the norm as mentioned the most common cattle didn't always have the necessary color horns. The lack of a coloring would also not have given the hunter away to the deer. I've stood completely still in the woods during summer scouting, wearing bright colors, and the deer took no notice of me. The use of hunter orange would also spook deer if that was the case. The white area of the horn is a LOT smaller than the area of blaze orange required in all states, and while a deer's eyesight does not see orange, blaze orange looks like white to the deer. The hunter would have a lot more problems with his movement, like his swinging arms, or his face, than the color of the horn

LD

 

[BoomStick]

Mineral pigment dyes, primarily copper-based, were used as a preservative on leather and horns to prevent insect damage. I believe darkening a horn was just a result of making a serviceable tool, not decorative or to mute the color for hunting. That it might have looked nice or reduced glare would have been a fortunate byproduct.

 

[DixieTexian]

Um, I know some early chemical solutions were used to make some horns two tone, with a blackened tip and very light colored body.


Which is odd that folks doing living history would wear a horn made sometime within a 50 year period and contemporary to their persona..., and then age it to look like it's 200 years old...., a really BAD reenactorism....



I doubt it. The primary cattle that the horn would've been made of would've likely been English Red Cattle, and they don't always have white portion of their horns. Nobody today, though, is making utility horns when it comes to horn making. The reason why I bought a dyed-brown horn for hunting, was because of the yahoos out there in public areas adjacent to where I hunt or when I'm in public hunting areas, and they have modern optics and will take a pot-shot at a bit of white moving through the woods.

Back in the day of the powder horn, the white horn was for embellishment purposes, and likely not the norm as mentioned the most common cattle didn't always have the necessary color horns. The lack of a coloring would also not have given the hunter away to the deer. I've stood completely still in the woods during summer scouting, wearing bright colors, and the deer took no notice of me. The use of hunter orange would also spook deer if that was the case. The white area of the horn is a LOT smaller than the area of blaze orange required in all states, and while a deer's eyesight does not see orange, blaze orange looks like white to the deer. The hunter would have a lot more problems with his movement, like his swinging arms, or his face, than the color of the horn

LD

I think I read somewhere that there were large numbers of horns coming up from Spanish Mexico to the Colonies. So the criollo breeds descended from Iberian stock would have been a likely source as well.

 

[Two Feathers]

I have heard that boiled onion skins will work, or perhaps a soak in walnut hull juice.

Ap Hunter:
When I was a kid (back in the early 50's) I had 5 brothers and sisters so money was scarce. My dad used to "color" our Easter eggs by boiling the eggs in a pot of water with onion skins and a 1/2 cup of vinegar. They came out a beautiful deep Mahogany Brown. Sure, they weren't fancy store bought dye, colored eggs, but who eats the shells? We were kids a colored egg was a treasure. I know onion skins will dye eggs, so I assume they'll dye horn too?
Just my thoughts.
God bless:
Two Feathers

 

[appalichian hunter]

Not to run a fowl of the original post, my grandmother raised chickens that would lay pastel-colored eggs, some white but mostly light blue and green. We used them at easter. Not sure perhaps use a strong tea or coffee liquid that might also work to dye a horn if you let it soak long enough.

 

[FrontierTrapper92]

Ap Hunter:
When I was a kid (back in the early 50's) I had 5 brothers and sisters so money was scarce. My dad used to "color" our Easter eggs by boiling the eggs in a pot of water with onion skins and a 1/2 cup of vinegar. They came out a beautiful deep Mahogany Brown. Sure, they weren't fancy store bought dye, colored eggs, but who eats the shells? We were kids a colored egg was a treasure. I know onion skins will dye eggs, so I assume they'll dye horn too?
Just my thoughts.
God bless:
Two Feathers

That’s exactly what I read in one of the books of buckskinning on dyeing horns, it talks about dyeing horns in a boiled mixture of vinegar and onion skins but adding coffee and or tea.

 

[Two Feathers]

Not to run a fowl of the original post, my grandmother raised chickens that would lay pastel-colored eggs, some white but mostly light blue and green. We used them at easter. Not sure perhaps use a strong tea or coffee liquid that might also work to dye a horn if you let it soak long enough.

Araacuana chickens, YEP, they lay colored Easter eggs, very cool. We had a few on the farm.
Thanks AP Hunter.
God bless:
Two Feathers

 

[Two Feathers]

That’s exactly what I read in one of the books of buckskinning on dyeing horns, it talks about dyeing horns in a boiled mixture of vinegar and onion skins but adding coffee and or tea.

FrontierTrapper92:
You don't need to wait for Easter, try it. You can use ANY onion skins, it's just the more brown the skins the darker the eggs. It takes a fist full ( a good full cup) of shells to color a dozen eggs. It leaves NO taste in the eggs.
God bless:
Two Feathers

 

[Two Feathers]

FrontierTrapper92:
You don't need to wait for Easter, try it. You can use ANY onion skins, it's just the more brown the skins the darker the eggs. It takes a fist full ( a good full cup) of shells to color a dozen eggs. It leaves NO taste in the eggs.
God bless:
Two Feathers

PS:
Leave out the tea or coffee.:~)))
Two Feathers

 

[FrontierTrapper92]

PS:
Leave out the tea or coffee.:~)))
Two Feathers

Ha! Will do, I'm going to have to try that out on some eggs!, I'll have to try it on my next horn project too. I just completed a horn yesterday that I had good luck using brown hair dye.

 

[HSmithTX]

Even if the onions go bad and your horn wasn't cleaned out well it will smell better than hair dye I think...... that stuff smells awful.

Seriously now though, are we talking the dark dry skin only or maybe the outside couple layers of the onions with the dark dry skin on them too? Should be able to scrape up a bunch of the dry skins at the grocery, 99 cents a pound, out of the onion bin. Will red onion skins make a red dye? I will be trying this soon.

 

[FrontierTrapper92]

Even if the onions go bad and your horn wasn't cleaned out well it will smell better than hair dye I think...... that stuff smells awful.

Seriously now though, are we talking the dark dry skin only or maybe the outside couple layers of the onions with the dark dry skin on them too? Should be able to scrape up a bunch of the dry skins at the grocery, 99 cents a pound, out of the onion bin. Will red onion skins make a red dye? I will be trying this soon.

Yeah I don’t recommend the hair dye, turned out great but way to messy and toxic, definitely only doing natural methods next time. Yeah I kinda wonder about red onion skins too, be careful…might have a pink horn

 

[Two Feathers]

Even if the onions go bad and your horn wasn't cleaned out well it will smell better than hair dye I think...... that stuff smells awful.

Seriously now though, are we talking the dark dry skin only or maybe the outside couple layers of the onions with the dark dry skin on them too? Should be able to scrape up a bunch of the dry skins at the grocery, 99 cents a pound, out of the onion bin. Will red onion skins make a red dye? I will be trying this soon.

Yeah...just the outer "paper" shell, NOT the inner membrane stuff. I think you're onto something? Just go buy ONE onion and fill the bag with shells.
Also the hair dye stinks worse than rotten eggs!! Let us know about your success.:~)))
God bless:
Two Feathers