# Cow Horn Handled stick - follow up to Countersinking Bucks topic



## Gloops (Jan 23, 2015)

With Norson asking the question re insetting coins I thought I would expand the process to cover its use in a handle.

The stick





















Most club members when making a cowhorn stick inset a multitude of things-coins,badges,flowers,photo's,glitter etc. I aquired a nice cow horn and the had to decide what to do with it.

The first and foremost requirement is that it must be comfortable to walk with everything else purely aesthetic

when holding the horn balance on a shank (loads of Blu Tac & masking tape) it was too upright and uncomfortable at the wrist, tipping the horn forward sit tarted to come comfortable - How to incorporate this into the design - sketching it out immediately solved it -A wedge shaped spacer- which threw up another problem - mounting it to the shank, not practical to drill the horn in line with shank due to curvature sketching again solved it - bend the studding eureka start making.

I then decided that I would like to have ablack cap on the open end with a whit ring ist (to compliment the colouration of the horn.

The process:-

Cow Horn is hollow - fill using car body fillier, leaving a well at the top for cold cast resin.







next stage when set, drill hole for studding and drill 15mm dia hole in center of open end by approx 10mm deep








next stage was to form a well/reservoir to take the rasin and epoxy in a length of 15mm dia plastic water pipe














next job was to mix the resin and catalyst with the addition of a black dye and pour into reservoir and tube








after the resin had cured the masking tape was removed and the process of reducing the sticking out bit to a beautiful highly polished domed using rasps,files reducing grades of wet and dry carborundum paper and final TCut and polish. then fix the bent studding ready for mounting to shank





















Final job was to make the wedge spacer, this was cast as a short round bar at the time of casting the cap, alternatively Buffalo horn or any material of choice could have been used.the spacer was sandwiched between 2 bone spacers.

Handle fitted to shank (a golden coloured hazel) and smoothed dow to form a good smooth join -Finished or so I thought she who must be obeyed took one look and remarked "that shank colour no way goes with that handle"

back to the drawing board - Do I cut the shank off and re-shank or is there any other way, thinking cap on,

on closer inspection of the shank the bark had a light grooved like texture - could I use this and colour the shank, did a quick test on the offcut from the shank and gave it a go.

I painted the shank with black acrylic paint and let dry, then sanded the shank lightly taking paint off the crest of the grooves and leaving it in the valleys, success she loved it

That is one stick I am very happy with.


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## CV3 (Jan 30, 2014)

Thanks for sharing this Gloops! I made a copy for my how to do it folder.


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## cobalt (Nov 14, 2013)

it came over very well

its worth printing of for referance nice one


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## LilysDad (Sep 25, 2014)

That body filer was a revelation! I spent a lot of time carving a wooden filer.


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## LilysDad (Sep 25, 2014)

I have a large piece of horn that was cut off from the large end. Any ideas what to use it for?


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## cobalt (Nov 14, 2013)

if you dont want to use them for handles try cutting and shaping intials of people out of them or horoscope signs or alike.

Have a look at some illuminated text say from the book of kells loads of fancy scripts on the net.

the material is easy to carve and simple to shape you could make a very simple jig out of a of cut of wood to mould it to fit the shank so it would snap into position whan complete.. One thing do use a mask if you decide to try it not good for your health same as rams horn etc.

Here is something I have been thinking about to do as part of the shanks handle the Celtic scroll on the punch and judy booth was drawn free hand but tempted to put one made from horn on the handle of the shank.

The script was sourced from the web I was thinking of carving the Celtic scroll from horn and bend around the handle.

The letter h I shaped was for my wife to attach to her stick. The last picture shows the rams horn sandwiched between a simple jig and a off cut of a shank as when it is heated up its very easy to bend you can easily bend it with your fingers but I wanted it to snap into position so the jig I made was slightly smaller than her shank so it snapped on

The punch and judy set was the 1st thing I ever carved its pretty crude looking at it now but the children love the story but its the Celtic scroll that I want to carve from horn on the shank


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## Rad (Feb 19, 2013)

Nice job! Great plans -- thanks Gloops!


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## Gloops (Jan 23, 2015)

LilysDad said:


> I have a large piece of horn that was cut off from the large end. Any ideas what to use it for?


Cow horn thinned down can be used to make parts of a topper that could be damaged if a stick fell to the floor, parts such as animal ears, hat brims bird beaks etc. always good to have a bit on hand.


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