Fresh Cow Horn

Tommegow

Tommegow

Joined
Dec 16, 2004
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I am fixin to have my Dexter Steer butchered. My butcher is willing to cut off his horns for me. He asked did I want the horns cut of or did I want the skull cap that had both attached. Is there any good reason to leave them on the skull cap? Will the horn slip off the center core? Do I want to avoid that?
Thanks all
TomSo.Ga.
 
What do you want to do with the horns? From my experience they slip off the core. We used to toss them in our compost pile or a bucket of water to help the process along.
 
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Phil
I am not sure what can be done with cow horn!?!
Powder horns are all I have seen. Can they be used for handle material ?
Dexter horns are cream colored at the base and black at tip
 
Hey Tom,

I think you got it about right, they're good for vessels. Powder and drinking horns were probably two of the biggest applications. Of course, horn horns (ha ha) are cool too. You know, like Little Bo Peep might blow. ;)

They are pretty thin and unlikely of much use in handle material. Although, I suppose some sort of composite or laminate might be contrived with sliced and press horn pieces. Believe it or not, bull and steer horn are thinner than cow horn. I guess it has something to do with calving and lactating. You can actually often count the number of calvings a cow has had via "rings" in the horn.

You might be want to try and secure some of the leg bone. You definately could get some good handle material from them!

Will you be saving the hide? Even if you don't want to have it tanned, you could stretch and dry it for rawhide applications. I know a guy who doesn't even de-hair it. He just dries it and cuts pieces as he needs it. He uses disposable razors to shave the hair off as needed.

So how do you like keeping Dexters? It's been a while since I looked into the breed. I am attracted to their diminutive size, although was scared off by the recessive gene problem. Are yours long or short legged?

Keep us posted! All the best, Phil
 
cow leg bones are ok to use but most are too round to use for slabs except for a section on what i do believe is the front leg bones. there is a flat section that can be used. the flat section is placed against the handle and the inside becomes the outside of the slab when its attached to the knife. leave the bone whole so it has less of a tendency to crack as it dries out. you can cut off an end and dig out the marrow if you like.
 
We use a "ton" of cow bone in our high school bone carving classes. It is surprising how much is possible. Of course, they're already processed when we get them. You know like the stuff sold in pet stores. When I saved them on my old farm, I tossed them in the compost yard for some months. They came out with sweet earth tone colors.

I'm not sure with Dexter bone, as they are a smaller breed, but typically the bone wall is as much as 1/2" thick or more. Once processed, just rip the bone in half lengthwise and have at finding your scale material. I doubt you'd be able to do a solid hidden tang style handle unless it was constructed out of pieces.
 
Cow horn has been used for pocketknife scales for hundreds of years.
 
Does cow horn need to be stabilized, if used for scales?
Can it be heated, boiled, steamed then flattened ?
 
Cow horn is a wonderful material to work with, but only the pointy end is solid.

Easiest way to see how much solid you have to work with is to stick a length of wire up the hole, mark it, and then run it up the same path on the outside. Where the wire stops is where you're solid part starts. I'd expect less than four inches with a strong taper.

Still, it's a great piece for spacers and bolsters.

The wall of the horn can be boiled and flattened without any problems. It stinks to high heavens, so do it outside. Do not borrow one of the wife's pots for this job if you value your life. Do it on a windy day.

Just boil the whole thing, bone core and all, and wait. After awhile, and it depends on the horn, the core will separate.

Did I mention that this is a very stinky operation? Remember that.

With the core removed, you can cut the horn into sections. The horn will be very soft when it comes out of the hot water. Just take a section and clamp it between two pieces of wood to cool. If it doesn't come out perfectly flat, just heat it up again and re-clamp.

When hot, you can bend the horn around forms, but expect it to relax a bit once you take it off of the form. Might take two or three heats...

No need for stabilizing. I've never heard of horn being stabilized, but it can be split if you aren't careful with the rivets.
 
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