Amy's Horn

I always want to make fairly interesting stuff for people I care about. This scrimshawed hunting horn was the second attempt that I made with scrimshaw on a cattle horn. Amy was around six when I gave it to her for Christmas. I believe that she thought it was interesting but I am not so sure that she really appreciated the effort that went into its construction; that’s okay, though – she was six and I am quite sure it did not have any real application for a six-year-old. In retrospect, I believe she was right and in the long-run, I was basically looking for a project to attempt more scrimshaw. Since making the horn, I have made one or two others and have scrimmed several bone knife handles.

The piece was a lot of fun to make. The creation of the mouthpiece was the most challenging of its construction. The first thing to be done was to cut the end of the horn off – when horn or bone is being sawn, it really smells bad! The second challenge was the drilling of the hole through the thick part of the horn into the hollow. The drilling of the hole has to be very precise so one does not drill through the side; this was also a concern when powder horns were being made centuries ago. Luckily, I found a pretty nice horn that was already polished; that is the real challenge. Horns are normally very scaly and rough – it takes a very long time to scrape, sand, and polish them to a luster that will give a smooth enough surface to scrim on.

At the time, Amy loved butterflies so the design had to incorporate them. I put 3 rather abstract, overlapping butterflies on the back with Amy’s initials. The three butterflies represent Amy, Kathy, and me; they are emboldened by hearts to represent our Love for each other. On one side is the quote Liberae sunt nostrae cogitationes (Our thoughts are free) from the Roman Statesman and Philosopher, Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 - 43 BC). On the other side it basically states, “Amy’s Horn.” Although rather obvious, early powder horns would have the owner’s name inscribed in this manner. I left the design rather rough looking at an attempt to replicate the artwork on older horns.

It is operational and quite loud! Currently, it resides in the living room of our home.

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Research Log Journal entry (pen and ink)