Gentlepersons:
I recently purchased a horn buttplate from Lewis Drake and have some questions as to what to do next. I am looking to get a very classic buttplate style that is quite tasteful.
How do I work this material? I have tried to sand the back side on a disc sander but it is very slow cutting due to the hardness of the material. Is this real buffalo horn or a type of plastic called horn? I had planned on cutting grooves in it with checkering tools but found that it will be very difficult to cut due to its hardness.
Should I make the stock concave and the buttplate convex to match or leave both flat?
Can this material be buffed via buffing wheels or will it smear like a plastic material?
I think that it should be quite thin like a plastic buttplate as to not appear to be bulky. Is horn a strong material when used in thin cross section?
Any thoughts that you may have concering working with horn will be welcomed!
TIA,
Franchi
A friend had a horn plate grooved for a Lindner Daly Diamond Grade. I don't know how the gunsmith did the grooving. It would have been pretty difficult to do on a milling machine table since it is not dead flat but slightly "around the bend" as the grooves approach the edges of the plate. I am assuming the gunsmith used a checkering tool. It was a wonderful job. I have a Lindner Daly Diamond myself that has a pad. I would like to have the same job done with a thick piece of horn like my friend had done, but I don't know who to send it to. I have a piece of Mittermeier horn that is almost an inch thick, a bit thicker than Lewis Drakes buttplates. I have some Drake plates but they are not as thick as a recoil pad. I usually buy any horn buttplate I see at a good price. I did not buy a beautiful thin, curved, grooved, undrilled horn plate this weekend at a show just because it was not cheap. Now I am disappointed I didn't buy it because it sounds like just what you want. I only bought the Drake plates because they were thick. I would not prefer to grind them until they were thin. I think you can buy thin ones from other sources, like New England Custom Guns maybe. I think most thin ones are made curved, not flat. Most unfinished thick ones are flat because they are ususally used to replace a recoil pad which is normally installed on the flat.
as you have already found...horn is VERY hard. I was shocked the first time I tried to work a piece of it. It polishes and sands just like very hard wood. I use files to put the grooves in, small needle file. If it was me I would sand both stock and plate flat on a sander and fit from there. Horn is much stronger than plastic, yet like anything organic, it has flaws. Good luck,
Steve
I had a similar situation with a very hard plastic buttplate.
After fitting the plate, to get the grooves, I screwed it to a scrap square piece of wood which I could then work freely on mounted in a vice. The square piece of wood was so that I could use a set square later...
I then marked out lines with a set square and a sharp needle file point. I then used alternate needle files to deepen the lines until I had the desired grooves.
I then polished the plate with fine wet and dry down to 1200 grade lubricated with a liquid polish.
perfect result!
Jonty
I have made a few pens from horn. Soaking overnight in water makes all the difference in the world...
Horn is an interesting material, I have tried using the abundant source (old Browning butt plates). The design is heat formed on these; trying to remove it is fruitless, as its ghost shows afterwards. I think you could make a curved plate by using a heat gun and form it to the butt, it saws on a bandsaw easier that it grinds. Repairs to a damaged or broken one is easily done with epoxy dyed black or dark brown, I have even replaced missing pieces with dark epoxy. It is also attacked by some type of insect as seen on some old guns. The dust when power sanding is bad and you should be careful about ingesting or breathing it as it probably is not good for your allergies.
Horn may be shaped rather easily after boiling, or using a heat gun. It becomes like soft plastic when hot. Depending on the thickness, and even age of the horn, will determine how long to boil. I would suggest orienting the buttplate on the wood and align the screw holes. Boil the horn and screw it in place, it will conform to the shape of the butt. It will retain that shape after cooling and/or drying. The edges may be filed using a bastard cut file, or a cabinet-makers rasp. To thin horn you must scrape it. Use a sharp knife edge at a little less than 90 degrees. It will come off in thin slivers. It takes time and you must be patient.
Horn also has a temperature at which it loses it's memory. I have never worked the water buffalo horn which is what most of the black buttplates are made from. However, cattle horn loses it's memory at a little over 300 degrees. You can't get there with boiling water as it only gets to 212 degrees. I heat horn in lard and monitor the temp with a candy thermometer. Once it is heated to about 300 all the way through you can move it around quite readily. Cold it can be filed, rasped, sanded and cut with chisels (but not near as fast as wood). I shape the exterior with rasps, and a wood finish scraper. At slightly higher temperatures horn will weld like hot plastic. I have watched it done but haven't done it myself.
To be sure you have real horn, bone or ivory use the pin test. Heat a pin very hot. In an area that is not visible, touch the pin to the back. If it does not melt but burns, it is not plastic, bakelite or gutta percha.
To cut it, it is best to use a jewelers saw. This will give a fine cut. For a rougher cut, you can use a hack saw or any metal cutting blade with about 6 teeth per inch. Sanding is best done wet. You can start at 120 and move up in grades slowly. Finally it can be polished with chromium oxide or white rouge.
If the horn is beginning to crack from age or lack of humidity, you can repair or fix it to a point. The easiest method it to immerse the piece in mineral oil for a few days. Then take it out and let it dry. If time is a premium, place the piece in a pan over very low heat with mineral oil. Do not let it boil. Keep it in the heated oil for 4 to 8 hours.
To freshen any lines cut into the horn, you can use an exacto knife. Also an engravers tool will work.
Pete
I have not boiled horn having experienced color change in hard rubber buttplates from boiling. I have found that hard rubber buttplates bend readily without color change when submerged in heated water somewhat cooler than boiling temperatures. I don't know if horn suffers the same damage from boiling or not.