Restoring and Repairing a Peterson's Special Horn - Republic Era

[mikethompson]

Wow - very nice work. The transition from horn to briar is almost seemless.

 

[Humblepipe]

I agree! Nice work. I do like the aesthetics of the horn shape. This is the first time I have seen a horn-shaped Pete. Congrats!

 

[Bobby Bailey]

Heat isn't (and wasn't) the problem.

It's sustained outward pressure plus irregularly applied non-axial torque.

Put another way, horn is intrinsically unstable and makes truly terrible load-bearing pipe parts.

Unless shielded from those forces (which boils down to being used only as eye candy), it will fail sooner or later.

Hence the reinforcing ring.

I've not been around horn used on a pipe, but have many times with it used on powder horns, horn utensils, and furniture on rifles.
The normal cause for cracks there is allowing it to dry out too much. Like wood, horn requires an amount of moisture to remain stable.
Just my experience.

 

[UB 40]

I've not been around horn used on a pipe, but have many times with it used on powder horns, horn utensils, and furniture on rifles.
The normal cause for cracks there is allowing it to dry out too much. Like wood, horn requires an amount of moisture to remain stable.
Just my experience.

Yes horn keeps flexing if cared for, at least more than briar wood does. You can use hand cream to rehydrate,