Drinking horns (move this if necessary)

C

CaffeinatedViking

Joined
Mar 15, 2007
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38
Yeah, move this if I'm not using the right forum. I thought it would be, but hey...

I was recently given some "freshly cut" goat horns from an animal biologist friend, and I'm wanted to work them into small drinking horns. However, the horns still have the white inside stuff (marrow?). How would I got about cleaning that out without harming the horns? I was thinking about using my Dremel, but it won't go all the way to the ends.

Also, I left them outside in hopes that maybe the bugs might assist me, but it's rained for the past 2-3 days or so. Is the rain gonna harm the horns in any way? Should I move 'em?

If anyone's got experience with drinking horns, I'd appreciate some feedback. Thanks.
 
Hmm... I have a little xperience with horns. I've left some trophy goat horns (32" spread on the animal) out in the open for the bugs in birds to strip off the flesh, very hot very humid, and the horny outer sheath slipped off the base, leaving the horn off the scull and all that chalky inner stuff attached to the skull still.

Try putting them in a sealed ontainer on a rack above some water in the bottom of the container, and leaving that somewhere it'll get a LOT of sun to heat it all up.
Alternatively, if they're small enough to fit, chuck them in a pot and cover with a 1:30 vinegar/water mix and keep at just below boiling for a couple of hours. the inner stuff is sorta alkaline and this will loosen and partially dissolve it.

Horn itself is pretty tough stuff, and if the mix doesn't harm your skin, it's not goning to do anything to the horn.
 
Dude, thanks! I'd been looking everywhere for info on what to do with fresh horns. Everywhere else I've looked takes you from after you've bought your damn cattle horn from Tandy Leather. Which I plan on doing at some point, myself; I just thought it would be neat to try and work a "new" pair.

I'll give your stuff a shot. Chances are I'll have to try the stock-pot method in the back yard.
 
The vinegar water mix should help a lot. I use it as well with the buffalo horn that I have gotten from my neighbor. Usually, the first thing I do with a fresh horn, or bone for that matter, is set it by one of the ant hills for a week or so, they are excellent at pulling off those little bits of connective tissue. then I clean them with vinegar and water, using a stiff bottle brush, then water and comet and the bottle brush. that usually cleans out the inside pretty well. A friend recently told me that he had tossed the horns in his vibe (a tub shaped rock polisher) with pretty good results.

Ken
 
I recall, as a kid, we would throw cow horns into a tin washtub sitting over a fire for several hours. I don't think the water was a rolling boil but the innards would just slide out after a bit.
 
my wife got some fresh horns once, she boiled them. works great. one draw back is that it STINKS BAD. do it in the backyard.
 
are you guys sure this is all a good idea?

I know they used horn to drink out of in history, but are not all them guys dead?
 
You might see if a local taxidermist has the grubs or whatever it is sometimes used to clean trophies. They might throw it in with their stuff for free or for a small fee.
 
Allan Molstad said:
are you guyts sure this is all a good idea?

I know they used horn to drink out of in history, but are not all them guys dead?
Click to expand...

I don't know, I think horn is pretty inert isn't it? Except when you grind or cut it of course, the dust has got to be a killer. :barf: I nearly got fired for grinding some deer antler at work, LOL.
 
horn is pretty stable as a utensil or vessel. There is still a line of horn drinking vessels made for the Highland regiments. If you are concerned, an excellent sealer can be found at any woodworkers store, ask them for Salad Bowl Sealer. pour it in, swish around, and pour out, then coat the outside as well, leaves a nice "wet" look.
Ken
 
If I recall my high school biology correctly horn is mostly made of keratin, the same stuff that our hair, fingernails, etc are made of. All natural. I wouldn't worry too much about drinking from it and getting sick. I'm sure we've all eaten worse things and survived! :D -Matt-
 
well.....here is the thing..
I think i remember reading someplace that they did a test of why some people had something "funny" in their blood, and they believe it came from putting a type of strong drink into a cow's horn.

It seems that in some cases the effects of the strong drink will react with the horn and this all gets into the person.

anyway....I just think that it would be better if....you go first...
 
If I remember right in Backwoodsman mag they said that the horns could be lined w/ melted beeswax? or something. They melted it, then swished it around in the cup and dumped it. Apparently they are only used for cold drinks like that, which they said was ok because the hot drinks took on the flavor of the horn anyway. According to them, everyone went to the tin cups for multiple reasons, esp. the taste of the food in them.

Still think a horn cup is cool though.
 
I think you guys are forgetting exactly what was drunk from the horns, a clue is that it wasn't water. and the stuff that was drunk kills off the worst of the little nasties.
Del
 
ive used many drinking horns. the only real problem comes when drinking alcohol. u dont want your sealer leaching out. wax works. ive also heard of brewers pitch that will work. if you use an unsealed horn u dont have to worry about leaching but it might change the flavor of your drink. all in all they make a fine period drinking vessel as is.
 
I would at least make sure there are no bacteria in it before drinking from it. The horn is made of keratin and it's harmless.

Mix a solution of water (2 cups) and bleach (1 CAP full)

Fill the horn and let it sit for at least an hour.
Rinse and dry.

This will kill any surface bacteria sneaking around in there.

From there, I would recommend using a sealer of some kind like the salad bown sealer used on wood bowls.
 
Wow, I totally didn't expect this much feedback. Thanks, folks :)

Actually, I was outside today, fiddling around and poking the horns with a stick, trying to lift one up to see what (if anything) was happening to it, and the inner core just *popped right out*! I couldn't believe it was that easy! So I took Ye Olde Trusty Stick and popped the other core out, and now I have 2 very nice, smallish horns to work with. I'll still be boiling 'em, of course. Just to get out anything that might still be in there. And then with the thorough inner cleaning.

As far as curing/sealing the horns goes, I'm going to go one of two routes (and will probably try both and compare the results):

Kveldulf Gundarsson, author of "Teutonic Religion", amongst other titles, suggests either the classic "bee's wax" treatment, which I believe is period accurate. And the other being a few dark beer/ale soaks over the course of several days, which should do away with any residual "horn taste". I'll be using Guinness. Other sources I've checked out say that you *can* partake of hot beverages from a drinking horn. One source says that bee's wax has a melting point of around 140F, so I don't think hot cocoa would wear away the inner coating. If you don't want to risk it, I'd think that hot beverages out of an ale-cured horn would be the better choice.

Also, horn itself requires *over an hour of boiling* to soften it up for re-shaping, so I don't think a hot drink would affect the horn's structural integrity.

And to Allan Molstad: Nothing was imparted to the Norse populace's bio sytem due to drinking from horn containers. That's ridiculous. Post a link to your info source, or at least some other *direct* reference. And no, *they* didn't all die out. If that were the case then there would be no current population in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, Poland, Holland, Scotland, Ireland, Brittain, France, Germany, Spain, or really any other European nation.

Furthermore, I'm sure that the FDA or the Surgeon General would've had some sort of article or treatise released about the hazardous effects of drinking from horn vessel. And as you might be able to discern from the posts to this thread, numerous people on BF apparently drink from horns, and they have yet to offer warnings against such action due to personal health decline.
 
So I got paid the other day, more than usual due to busting my ass at work. I immediately went to Wal-Mart and got pretty much all of the supplies I need:

-Bottle brush
-Steel wool
-A *huge* one of those blue/white-speckled camping-type stock pot dealies, which will allow me to boil small/medium-sized horns.

I'm damn excited!

A couple of days ago my partner and I stopped by a small antique mall nearby, and whilst browsing I found 2 cattle skulls with MASSIVE horns still attatched. I was tempted to just yank 'em off the wall and run outta the building :) Unfortunately, they were over $100 each, and I don't have that kind of money to burn on a rack, even if they were legendary-looking. Plus, I don't have a container large enough to boil 'em in. *sigh* Still, nice to think about.

Oh, I actually have another question: We've discussed the cleansing of the *inside* of the horns, but what about the *outside*? After all the scale and such have been removed, should a wash of water/bleach mix be applied to the outside as well, or possibly boiling the horns in a similar solution? Any other ideas?
 
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