Contemporary Makers Portraits: Lee Larkin

Lee Larkin at Mansker’s Station

Lee has been building and engraving powder horns since 1989 and is a Master Horner in the Honourable Company of Horners. He is best known for his “Golden Age” and folk art reproduction powder horns. He is also very familiar with the construction of Pennsylvania screw-tip and Carolina banded powder horns. Over the years, Lee has won numerous ribbons in multiple categories at Dixon’s Gun Makers Fair for his powder horns and bags. He continues to expand his horn working interests and also makes needle cases, cups, shoe-horns, pick and brush sets, salt and rum horns, thread winders, and many other items out of cow horn. Lee is not only an accomplished horner but a talented leatherworker as well.

Known for his original research, Lee has published, 'A Case for Mistaken Attribution: A Study of the Engraving on the Powder Horns Attributed to John Bush,' and has also published a 'Sketchbook of Colonial and Early American Powder Horn Engraving Designs, 1740-1800,' containing some 400 details from original powder horns. His various articles have appeared in Muzzleloader, Muzzle Blasts, Smoke and Fire, On the Trail, The Horn Book, and the KRA Bulletin.

Lee is a life member of the NRA, an active member of the CLA and NMLRA, and past Guildmaster of the Honourable Company of Horners. Lee has given addresses concerning various aspects of the historic horn trade to public schools, the Honourable Company of Horners, Connor Prairie’s Arms Makers Workshop, the Contemporary Longrifle Association, and the Kentucky Rifle Association.

Copy by Art Riser. Photos by Jan Riser.