buffalo horn handle

S

Salolan

Joined
Feb 27, 2013
Messages
730
I have a gentleman wanting me to make him a knife using horn from a water buffalo that he shot for the handle. I have had the blade ready for some time but just this week now have the horn in hand.
Is there enough here to get a handle? :rolleyes:
JZwmQ21.jpg

n0IUk8B.jpg


Seriously though, I have very little experience with buffalo horn and zero experience working it from raw form. Any recommendations are most certainly appreciated. The knife is AEB-L and has a 3.5" blade and a 4.5" tang. My plan is to use stainless for a guard and pommel and it has not yet decided if any spacers will be added for other color. Best I can tell without cutting in to the horn is the last 1/3 is solid. Anything I need to know before I start cutting?

Any thoughts, ideas or suggestions are most certainly welcome.
Thank you,
Chris
 
Does he want a hidden tang type knife or are you doing a frame? You could possibly cut a section out of the hollow part and flatten it out using heat and a vise and get nice slabs with lots of character... of course, you'd have to be careful not to over heat and burn it, or under heat and crack it...
 
Horn moves and shrinks. It's best to rough cut the handle and let it sit for a while. You can even speed the aging process up by heating the rough handle to 225 degrees maximum and letting it "soak" for a few hours before working it.
 
Doing a hidden tang. A frame handle is on the to do list but not with this project.

Chris
 
If doing scales splitting the horn down the center will give you a good start. Buffalo horn can be quite soft. Take lots of care in grit sizes used and extra care if you want to do any buffing. I suggest you try a scrap piece to show you the way.
Frank
 
Thanks Frank, I'll certainly use a scrap piece for practice. I will be doing a partial tang with a solid piece I hope to find on the end 1/3 of the horn.

Chris
 
Can you tap with a hammer to hear the difference between the solid and the hollow? Or maybe stick a pipe cleaner or something similar down inside to see where the solid starts. Do you get to keep the hollow for scales?
 
I can see where is goes solid if I hold it right, but yeah, I need to run a wire down it to measure. I may keep a smaller amount, but the gentleman wants to try and make pistol grips for his 1911 so I intend on getting as much back to him as possible.

Chris
 
The basic method of shaping buffalo and rams horn into straight pieces is:

1) Cut the solid part away from the hollow part. Split the hollow part into two sides. Cut the hollow sides into smaller length pieces if needed.

2) Make a simple set of straightening/flattening jigs. The flattening jig is two boards and some C-clamps. The straightening jig is usually some arrangement that will clamp the curved piece so the pressure is on the ends on the concave side, and on the high spot on the convex side. A large vise will often work. Bending jigs can be made to make cane or crook handles from the horn. They are shaped to the desired shape and the softened horn clamped around them.

3) Boil the horn until it softens. This can take a long time. Soaking it in water for a week or two first may help speed the softening. Some people use an oven, but that can be risky for cracking....and stink up your house. Even boiling will smell. A BBQ with a side burner is a perfect place to boil horn.

4) When softened, quickly clamp the hollow cuts between boards to flatten them, and clamp the solid section to straighten. It may take a couple of repeats of the boil/clamp cycle to get a heavily curved piece straight. The hollow sides flatten pretty easily.

5) Leave in the clamps for several weeks, and then remove and set aside for a month to allow them to dry and stabilize.


Work horn slowly and do not let it get hot. Buffing it after sanding to a fine grit can make it shin like glass....but over buffing, or building up heat in buffing, can leave it with a million tiny checks across the surface. I repeat - Go Slow and Keep Cool!
 
3) Boil the horn until it softens. This can take a long time. Soaking it in water for a week or two first may help speed the softening. Some people use an oven, but that can be risky for cracking....and stink up your house. Even boiling will smell. A BBQ with a side burner is a perfect place to boil horn.

4) When softened, quickly clamp the hollow cuts between boards to flatten them, and clamp the solid section to straighten. It may take a couple of repeats of the boil/clamp cycle to get a heavily curved piece straight. The hollow sides flatten pretty easily.


Can this method be used on Deer and Elk antlers?
 
Man this stuff sounds like a pain in the ass to work with. I say make him a nice knife out of wood and make him a display for it with the horn :) I'm sure you will get it Chris look forward to seeing it.
 
Tommythewho said:
3) Boil the horn until it softens. This can take a long time. Soaking it in water for a week or two first may help speed the softening. Some people use an oven, but that can be risky for cracking....and stink up your house. Even boiling will smell. A BBQ with a side burner is a perfect place to boil horn.

4) When softened, quickly clamp the hollow cuts between boards to flatten them, and clamp the solid section to straighten. It may take a couple of repeats of the boil/clamp cycle to get a heavily curved piece straight. The hollow sides flatten pretty easily.


Can this method be used on Deer and Elk antlers?
Click to expand...

Not really. Bone and horn are very different. Rams horn, cow, and buffalo all work well with softening and shaping.




Chris:
An alternative solution to the buffalo horn blade problem would be to purchase a block or roll from a knife making supplier and let him use the horn as a display stand. It is really low priced.
 
Horn is easy to work-you just need to know it's quirks.
Horn is the earliest "plastic." It can be heated and shaped or pressed.
You shouldn't have any problem if you are just going to grind a handle out of the solid part.
 
Thank you fellas.

Stacy, I had recommended using commercially produced buffalo scales and he wants horn he harvested himself.

My hope was to grind a handle out of the solid. I've yet to start cutting but there appears to be enough length of solid for 2 handles. If I'm doing this is there a need for straightening?

Thanks again,
Chris
 
No, you shouldn't have to straighten anything if grinding the handle. Just to be sure, saw it fairly close to size and give it a few days to sit and stabilize itself. Then finish.
 
I won't boil it. Just use an oven; 160-170 °C is what it needs to become soft and be bent safely and effectively (but you won't need it for hidden tangs).
It doesn't even need to stay in the jig for weeks, just when it cools it's ready in shape.
Though you want allow for curing if you cut fresh pieces, but for an hidden tang there are less surprises than for scales.
Stacy is very right on the buffing/burning thing...treat it as a very heat sensitive material, don't do anything to it that would burn you if you were doing it to your nails ;)
 
I finally cut on the horn today. I have to say there was more solid horn than I had thought there might be. I measured inside with a skewer and made my first cut within a 1/4" of where it turned solid. There ended up being about 12" of hollow and over 18" of solid horn.
Re93dro.jpg

I have a piece ground to just over the size I need. Going to let it set a couple days before I go any further. Brand new 40 grit belt on the 1x30 and had zero issues with heat build up.
Thanks for the advice,
Chris
 
When working ram horn, it depends upon whether it is commercial rams or wild rams like Desert Big Horn. The Desert Big Horn has horrible memory. The commercial rams boil, bend, and retain the new shape.

I am going to do some American Buffalo (bison). It is thin so I'll back it with maybe Microbed after flatening it. I have been doing Cape Buffalo. It is thicker and I just grind to shape. I make mostly 1911 grips but some knife handles.
 
Put myself behind the 8 ball on this one last night. :mad:
z9Ql9Zp.jpg


Had to "tap" a little too hard to get the pommel tight. My concerns about the guard separating were confirmed when I took the tape off this morning.

On the bright side, I now have absolutely zero concerns about the integrity of Acraglas. I had to grind all the way to the tang 2/3s of the way around the handle before I could knock the rest loose with a hammer.

Now to go fit up the handle components again. Yay! :rolleyes:

Chris
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top