American Buffalo Horn Closed End

[Tanner]

I got this off Ebay a year ago with some other antler. The buffalo horn was old and gray with some deep cracks on the outside. I figured since I’ve been turning for almost 2 years and graduated from beginner to amateur I could handle this. The marrow was old and it looked yellow. I was afraid it would fall apart when turning it, if I turned it that far down. So, after I cut it, I dripped in some thin CA into the marrow. I think I counted to 50 drops twice for the cap alone. I did drip in some medium CA into the other end as to act as a cap for the thin stuff being dripped into the other end. I dripped a lot into the closed end barrel. I was just afraid it would fall apart as it was so old. Maybe I went a little overboard, however it came out looking real nice with no cracking and the marrow didn’t crumble on me.
It turned like a rock. I had to sharpen the skew several times to get through each barrel. My skew wanted to constantly bounce off of it. I ended up using a rasp file for awhile to get it to the shape I wanted.

 

[Stevej72]

WOW, Tim that is absolutely outstanding! Beautiful Pen! I love the closed end design. Been wanting to try it sometime, looks like it worked out real well.

 

[Tanner]

The closed end was the end of the horn so there wasn't any marrow down there. It was just white with some gray. The marrow on the other end was yellowish. Maybe because it was so old.

 

[OKLAHOMAN]

Really great looking pen has that "WOW" look at me factor.

 

[Rick_G]

For all the problems it gave you it turned out very nice. I'm hoping that yellowish colour at the bottom is the horn and not the lights. The colour gives it that little extra.

 

[wjskip]

super glue to the rescue. Great looking pen

 

[R2]

A stunning pen! Great lines, wonderful match of kit and blank!![^]

 

[stoneman]

Terrific looking pen. Great job! I really like it.

 

[CaptG]

Well done. VERY well done. That is one awesome looking pen.

 

[England14]

Very nice pen! Something else on my to-do list.

 

[fernhills]

nice job,i like it a lot.. Carl

 

[Tanner]

Thanks for the nice comments. That yellow color is the marrow. Maybe it turned yellow with age. It seemed kind of soft when I cut into it, that's why I dripped so much CA into it. It kind of looks like a stain, but it is the natural color that was in there.

 

[Mather323]

Great work on your pens!

 

[Proud_Poppa_of_2]

That coloring is great, Tim, as is your fit and finish. Good effort.

 

[toolcrazy]

Beautiful pen.

I have a bunch of antler, I just can't get past the smell when turning it.

 

[TurnaPen]

That pen does have the "wow" factor, the natural shade of colour due to ageing makes it an "antique", well worth every effort put into it. Amos

 

[Ligget]

Lovely colours in the antler, beautiful pen![]

 

[johncrane]

Looks really good.[]

 

[wlk]

This is positively gorgeous. I've been turning a few months. I hope I can rise to the level of this piece after 3 or 4 years.

Wade

 

[NavyDiver]

Outstanding work! I think the age gives the antler more character.

 

[Ozzy]

Great job.

 

[jtate]

Really nice! How did it smell? I ask because I've been wondering whether antler or horn smells less horrible if it's allowed to age for a while before it's turned. I've turned some fresh white-tail deer antler and - geez! - it stunk!

 

[Dalecamino]

Great pen ! Good Heads Up thinking on the CA !

 

[bitshird]

Pretty neat, I've never seen American Bison / Buffalo horn in any thing but black, I guess if it were sun bleached it might turn light gray but it sure is a nice kooking pen,

 

[armyturner]

Ken,
I was thinking the same thing. That has to be a piece of the bone that goes up into the horn. The black portion of a bffalo horn is almost like a hollow sheath that covers the bone and is only solid for a few inches at the tip.

 

[Tanner]

Julia, the smell was the same as deer antler. Even with as old as it was, it still smelled like a dentist office.
I think Jeremy is right about the black being like a sheath. I was hoping to have some of that darker coloring, however it was there, and then it was gone. There was just that darker color under the almost black. Deeper down was the nicer white coloring. The closed end is close to the tip of the horn. I only had about an inch of the horn left after cutting it for the pen. I was going to take a picture of that, but that little bit left doesn’t really show anything. It's definitely not like the black Water Buffalo horn you can get that is black all the way down.

 

[doddman70]

Very Nice!!!!

 

[Jarheaded]

Tim, you did a nice job with an old antler. I have been working with some old ones recently and found that like you, I went through a lot of CA. The only real difference in the way we made them was when my skew wouldn't do the job, I reached for my roughing gouge( I know I'm going to hear about this one) and turned it down gently to a cylinder that I could work with. I am going to have to try the rasp and see if it works better for me. I really like the fact that you didn't bleach out all the character.

 

[Rifleman1776]

Nice save, well done. I have never seen buffalo/bison horn that was anything but black. If you hadn't said it was buffalo, I would think it to be antler. You do mention marrow. Horns on buff or bovine have a marrow core that falls out when the horn is cut off the animal.

 

[karlkuehn]

That's one of the best antlers I've ever seen, beautiful work Tim!