2018 HCH Auction

I am very pleased to announce the items for the 2018 HCH Annual Meeting Auction are donated by dedicated members of the West Coast Horn and Accouterment Fair.
The second and live portion of the auction will be at the banquet on Saturday, March 3, 2018 during the annual meeting. If you are unable to attend, you can put in a pre-auction bid at the bottom of the page.  (We do not have the means to offer online bidding during the banquet portion of the auction.) And yes!, people have won using the online form below. 

From Friend of the Guild, Steve Skillman(Yelm, WA), we have two sets of sewing and weaving related items. The first set is sewing items including an Etui (needle case) including a horn needle, a pincushion, and a tortoise button box.

The second set made by Steve Skillman is made up from weaving items including a lucet and a shuttle. Also included in each set is a ring holder – just for the fun of it. Every item is made of horn and is beautifully done.

From Freeman Horner Dave Rase (Bremerton, WA) comes a fun “what if ?” item. It’s a 10 to 70 grain adjustable powder measure that is meant to appear as the result of re-purposing a screw tip from a lost or broken Philadelphia screw tipped horn. The tip is turned from a single piece of horn. The adjustment rod and furniture pull finial are hand made from brass round stock with a steel lanyard loop. An internal leather washer is used to keep the measure from moving after setting the size of the charge to be thrown. The markings on the 3/16” diameter adjustment shaft are set in 10g increments.

Journeyman Horner Scott Morrison (Keizer, OR) has made a horn with Virginia elements. The applied tip is turned from American Bison (Buffalo) and secured to the horn with wood pegs. The finial is threaded with the top piece turned from bison and the bottom threaded portion hickory. The butt is turned walnut and secured to the horn with iron tacks.

Next we have a beautiful French & Indian War horn by Freeman Kevin Hart (Hillsboro, OR). The horn is roughly 14 inches in length with an engrailed edge followed by a 2 1/4 inch throat and short turned deer antler tip & peg. The carvings and inscriptions are cut at different depths to show dimension and include plants and flowers along top and bottom borders, various birds sitting on bushes, a large compass and the Sun and Moon. The inscriptions read as follows:

I Powder with My Brother Ball, A Hero Like, Do Conquer All / dated 1769 / has an area for the owner’s name and His Horn.

And last, but certainly not least, is a horn by beloved friend and strong supporter of the Guild, Journeyman Horner Glenn Sutt, who passed away in February 2017, and is greatly missed. Glenn had been very excited about this auction and was happy to participate. Since Glenn is not here to give a description of this horn, I’ve asked his friend, fellow horner and Tansel expert Art DeCamp for details.

 “The horn itself was made by Glenn and is a careful replication of Tim Tansel type work, including Glenn’s use of specific construction details used by Tim Tansel. The spout end is shaped in typical Tansel fashion with a rounded bead at the very end and a raised ring about 1-1/2” back on the throat of the horn for strap retention. The cherry wood butt was copied from an original Tim Tansel horn owned by Glenn. Its lathe-turned domed shape with incised carved decoration is typical of several known horns. In addition, Glenn used copper to fabricate the round ring for strap attachment, and the staple that holds the ring in the butt end of the horn, just as Tim Tansel did on Glenn’s original.”

This horn is graced by a beautiful beaded strap by Gary Bertelsen. Our thanks to Glenn’s family, for graciously allowing us to have this horn for our auction. The auction will run similarly to last year’s with the live auction held at the banquet Saturday night. If you are unable to attend the meeting and would like to bid on an item, look at the bottom.

Here is the link to place a bid: http://www.hornguild.org/upcoming-events/2018-annual-meeting-at-the-ahec/2018-hch-auction/

Personally, I am very excited by this new focus on small groups within the Guild- it’s all about connection! If your group would like to participate or have any questions, please feel free to contact me at polizzifam@netzero.net. And don’t forget, all members can request a copy of the Guild roster to see if any other members are in their area!

See you at the AHEC,
Kris Polizzi

Copy and photos supplied by Kris Polizzi.

2015 CLF Auction Item: Tansel Horn by Scott Morrison, Steve Skillman, Glenn Sutt, & Steve Vance

The 2015 Contemporary Longrifle Foundation Fund Raising Auction will take place on Friday, August 14th at 5:00PM in Lexington, Kentucky at the Annual CLA Meeting and Show. The Grand Ball Room - Lexington Convention Center, 400 West Vine Street, Lexington, Kentucky.

Tansel Horn by Scott Morrison, Steve Skillman, Glenn Sutt, & Steve Vance

The 2015 CLF Fundraising Auction is proud to present this beautiful Tansel styled horn.  This horn was created by Steve Vance, Glenn Sutt, Scott Morrison, and Steve Skillman, all from the Northwest Horn Makers group. The horn has many of the features of Tansel family horns from the Indiana period.

The Tansel family made horns from about 1795 through 1850. They are known to have worked in Scott County, Kentucky and Hendricks County, Indiana. At least one Francis Tansel horn was done at Fort Meigs in 1813. 

This horn has all you could wish for in a Tansel styled horn, the classic fish mouth throat detail, first class scrimshaw fully covering the surface, polychrome coloring, the eagle with a shield, and a Washington portrait. It also features a beehive turned butt with a horn finial and great color and style.  

The Northwest Horn Makers group was started about 5 years ago by John Shourb from California with the idea of getting together horn makers from out West to exchange information and promote horn making. The group has an annual weekend meeting in May, in Littlerock, Washington that includes hands on classes to promote that goal. Several of the group are members of the Honorable Company of Horners. Glenn Sutt is a Journeyman in the Honourable Company. Glenn notes “We don’t have the availability of information and proximity of resources that you have on the East Coast, so this is a good way to raise the level of participation in our craft and the quality of the work being done. It also has gained us recognition in the fact that there are craftsmen outside of the East Coast.”

If you are looking for a horn to display with a high end rifle or a first class horn to display on its own, this horn will show very nicely. It is also a fine working horn for the War of 1812 re-enactor or Western fur trade enthusiast. It would really give bragging rights at the local range or even the Nationals at Friendship. A horn this nice seldom comes available.

Contact information for Scott, Steve, Glen, & Steve:

Scott Morrison – smorrisonhorns@gmail.com

Steve Skillman – sbskillman@yahoo.com

Glenn Sutt – kavic@comcast.net

Steve Vance – 916-914-5898

Photos supplied by the CLF with copy by Heinz Ahlers.

"Silk Purse" Powder Horn from a "Sow's Ear" by Scott Morrison

John Shorb gave a talk on "choosing your horn" at at the West Coast Horn Fair last year in Morro Bay, California, last year. He had several examples of horns with defects that would lend a person to pass when choosing. One example that he recommended passing up was a thin, translucent, misshapened horn that had a severe delamination at the tip.

Scott Morrison recalls, "I was sitting in the back of the room with Steve Skillman in "Heckler's" row and I just couldn't let this go by. I told John something to the effect that this was nonsense and that there was a lot that one cold do with the horn. John came right back and said that when the horn came to me  as it was being passed around the room to go ahead and keep it. The gauntlet had been taken off and the challenge issued;  John was pretty much telling me to put up or shut up.

Well now honor was at stake and I could not back down. So I took up the challenge and not only would I take this "Sow's Ear" and make some sort of "Silk Purse" with it, but it would come back to the West Coast Horn Fair in 2013 to be auctioned off.

The horn sat in my to do box until recently when I decided that I needed to "get-r-done". When I got back from the WCHF last year, all I had done with it was to cut off the tip and drill the spout. I had originally thought that the horn would be good for a Southern banded horn with an applied tip and when I cut and drilled it, I saw that there was plenty of material for such a horn.

As you can see in the photo, there is approximately 1/2 inch at the tip, which would be plenty for an applied tip or even threaded for a screw tip. The discoloration at the tip is where the internal separation of the horn layers occurred. I decided on a horn with an applied antler tip.

I had turned a base plug and fitted a rear ring to the horn and when I did a trial fit of an antler tip the horn looked too long to my eye. I ended up taking about 3/4 inch more off of the tip which improved the proportion. There was still plenty of material at the tip so I had no problem fitting the antler.

Of greater concern to me wasn't the tip but the thinness of the horn. When the horn was cleaned and polished, there was left humps and hollows from the sander that was used. One side of the horn was also pretty flat. Normally, there is enough wall thickness on a horn that I can work it to some semblance of round. However, since this horn was to thin, I was afraid that if I tried to round it I might break through the wall. The best I could hope for was to remove the humps and hollows and have a smooth body. The flat spot would have to remain.

I first thought of having just one band on the horn, but decided that this would be too uninteresting so I went with three bands. I heated the bands so they were pliable and they slipped around the oblong shape of the body easily, leaving no gaps. The base plug is walnut. The button finial is turned horn and tapered to slip fit into the base. I heated the bands so they were pliable and they slipped around the oblong shape of the body easily, leaving no gaps.

The base plug is walnut. The button finial is turned horn and tapered to slip fit into the base.

The horn was stained with aqua fortis, then a patina applied with a combination of shoe polish and blackpowdered tempura paint.

It measures 15 inches along the outside curve and 2 1/4 inches across at the base. The horn is nice and translucent and light as a feather.

I think it is an acceptable "Silk Purse" made from the "Sow's Ear" that was the original horn."

Copy by Scott Morrison with all information supplied by Linda Shorb of PowerHorns and More.

2012 Washington Historical Gunmaker's Guild: Photos

Horns by Scott Morrison of Oregon

The banded horn with plum wood base and an applied horn tip was inspired by an original North Carolina piece which descended in the Strayhorn Family. The original is pictured in Bill Ivey's "North Carolina Schools of Longrifles 1765-1865".  

 The blowing horn is patterned after the style of original hunting horns and feaures a single band and an applied antler tip.

Bag by Jeff Bibb, knife and banded horn by Scott Morrison, powder measure by Harold Moore.

Pictures by Maryellen Pratt, taken at the 2012 Meeting of the Washington Historical Gunmaker's Guild with copy by Ian Pratt.

Horns by Scott Morrison

I’m a relative newcomer to the sport of black powder shooting, having started in 2006 when I purchased a Lyman Great Plains rifle kit to assemble. My “first” horn was one I assembled from a kit, which was basically installing the mahogany base plug and securing it with brass pins. I did customize the horn, carefully filing four flats on the tip, afraid the whole time that I would break through. In May, 2007, I took a one day workshop on making French and Indian War period powder horns, taught by California horner Steve Vance. This one day class was a turning point in my life as I fell in love with making powder horns. My first horns were made for my two children to use when at our black powder club. Once you’ve made one though you cannot stop and I started making horns for family and friends, trying different techniques and improving my art.

What I enjoy most about working with horn is discovering and bringing forth the shape that is hidden within. I like to tell people that a horn will let me know what it wants to be and my job is to make that happen. Sometimes I’m successful and achieve what I strive for, bringing out the beauty in a horn.

One of the most inspired horns I have done was for a customer in Alaska. He wanted the horn to be a Chinook salmon, and after some discussion we settled on a Northwest Coastal Indian theme. I used a rather extremely oval horn with a lot of curve and fitted it with a cherry base plug. No attempt was made to round the horn and the oval cross-section was kept. The base plug was carved into the head of a fish with Inuit design. Native designs also were engraved on the horn body and the spout plug was a fish tail, also carved from cherry. In 2009 I took the horn to Dixon’s Muzzleloading Fair in Pennsylvania, entering it into competition. The horn was quite a sensation at the fair and it came away with three ribbons.

I continue to improve my craft and explore new ways and styles with my focus currently being the Southern banded horns of Virginia and North Carolina. I don’t like to recreate any particular original horn, but instead take inspiration from a variety of originals to incorporate into my design. I look for the unusual, some aspect of a horn that one doesn’t normally find, yet still retains the character of the style.

An example is an engraved North Carolina banded horn I recently completed. Engraving is not something normally found on the banded Southern horns, yet the 1803 original was engraved with a floral design. I replicated that engraving on my horn along with a scallop design from another Southern horn.

I am a member of the Honourable Company of Horners, having joined after finding an application to the guild in an order of horns I received from John and Linda. At Dixon’s, in 2009 and again in 2010, I spent most of my time there at the HCH table, meeting a lot of new and old friends.

I’m also a member of the Horner’s Bench, an internet forum dedicated specifically to horn work. This is one of (if not the) best online forums available. The members all share a unity of purpose: to freely promote working with horn and sharing their knowledge. It definitely is a worthwhile forum to be a part of.

Copy and photo supplied by Linda Shorb at Powder Horns and Friends.

Scott Morrison Southern Banded Horn for the West Coast Horners 2011 Raffle

The horn is about 12 1/2 inches from the tip of the button finial to the tip of the spout.  Diameter at the base is 2 inches. The base plug is turned from walnut, and the bulbous tip is carved from the horn. The base and two heat applied bands are secured with iron brads. The horn was first dyed in RIT tan, assembled and then a dark walnut oil stain applied to the whole horn. 

Copy and photo supplied by John Shorb at Powder Horns and Friends.

Some of the Winners at Dixon's 2009

 

L-R standing: Scott Morrison, Tom Ames, Calvin Tanner, Bob Copner L-R kneeling: Mike Karkalla, Bill Legdon, Jeff Bibb

Scott Morrison

Calvin Tanner

 

"Best of Show " for the VA. Hunting Pouch

 

Judges Choice for Painted Haversack. 

Mike Taylor did the painting of the Snake.

 

Bob Copner with Madison Grant Award

 

Gun by Mike Karkalla

 

Bill Legdon

 

Jeff Bibb

Photos by John Kiselica.