Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Making a Powder Horn: Almost There!

2009 Albert A Rasch and
The Rasch Outdoor Chronicles
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Making a Powder Horn for Black Powder

We are on the home stretch! I am almost done with the powder horn, and all the ancillary parts. It is coming out pretty nice and I am looking forward to finishing it up in the next day or two.

In Part I, I mentioned the following:

"Looking at traditional powder horns, I have found that in most cases the spout is carved directly from the horn itself. Note the shape of the tips in the adjacent pictures. Those are carved directly from the thick portion of the horn tips.


Other horns have what appears to be turned spouts. I have given this a great deal of consideration these last few days, and I believe I have a couple of different ways in which it could be done. The first would be a lathe set up to hold horns in such a fashion that the spout could be turned directly on the horn. The other method could be that the spouts were turned independently from the cut off tips, and then remounted and glued on a tenon cut directly into the remains of the horn. This method would allow any number of profiles and custom tips."

Well, take a look at the following!
Image Credit: Jeff Bibb

Threaded on! How cool is that?

Every time I take on a new and interesting project, I learn all sorts of new and interesting things.  Some of it is the usual trivia that sits in your medula oblongata along with seldom used synapses. Other stuff is the slap-your-forehead why-didn't-I-think-of-that type of knowledge, the kind you can apply to all sorts of things.

Hopefully I'll be done with the powder horn project by tonight and be able to post it first thing in the morning.

That's if I survive the dentist...

Related Posts:

Making a Powder Horn Pt I: A Chronicles' Project
Making a Powder Horn Pt II: A Chronicles' Project
Making a Powder Horn: Almost There!
Making a Powder Horn Pt III: A Chronicles' Project

Regards,
Albert A Rasch
Member: Bagram Tent Club
Member: Hunting Sportsmen of the United States HSUS (Let 'em sue me.)
The Hunt Continues...

The Rasch Outdoor Chronicles

2 comments:

Paladin said...

That threaded example is really interesting... I wonder if there was a reason the maker chose to do that instead of just a tenon/glue attachment? Maybe a need for interchangeable tips? Or maybe he/she just enjoyed the artistry of the threaded vs. the easier tenon method?

Either way, its cool! :)

Albert A Rasch said...

You know Paladin,

I'm not sure... Now that I have looked at dozens and dozens of these powder horns and their derivatives and variations, I think they must have just thought it more practical to have a tap and die to make them.

I can't think of a reason to go with one design or the other, short of the fact that I don't have a die and tap, so that means if I am going to try anything like that it will be mortice and tenon!

Best regards,
Albert