Hi Kraig. I bet you make great boots. Like everything else stick making takes practise, and one of the best ways to improve is to join a local club and see other peoples work and how they do things. You could do worse than join The British Stickmaking Guild. They have a website and you can join thru that. All level of sticksmakers are welcome. The Guild produce a very good magazine with tips and hints and advertisments for stick making supplies. If you have a local Country Fair with a Stickmaking competion go along and enter some sticks and get talking to the guys there, most are always will to help. Remember none us started out as being any good at this or any other past time, it takes work and a willingness not to be disappointed at the begining, because you know the next stick will be better than the last one. And one day you will look back and marvel at where you have come from. Best of luck.
How many time's can you boil the horn? Have made two mistakes today (1)not boiled anywhere near long enough and, (2) my 'compression' plates are not big enough. If leave the horn long enough to cool down ie 24hrs can I repeat the process? Many thanks in anticipation 👍👍
Hi Alan. Never think you have made a mistake when working horn. You have just learnt a lesson. Rams horn work is a life time learning curve, and practise makes as perfect as the horn allows. Ok . First thing to remember is that rams horn is like a plastic material, it is in fact the same material as your nails. Namely Keratin ( if I have spelt it correctly). On your first boil you are looking for the horn to be pliable rigth thru and you can test this by putting the boiled horn in a vice as soon as removing it from the boiler. Once anchored in the vice you should be able to push amd pull the horn back and forth and get a good movement indicating the the horn is soft right thru. By boiling you are in a way unlocking the horn and any action you now take like pressing and then cooling should give the horn a new shape. However the horn has a memory and will always try and revert to its original shape if its get sufficient heat. Ok that the first bit . Once you have the horn flat you repeat the proces on a smaller scale by using a hot air gun to re work small section of the horn to get the final desired shape. If at any time you are unhappy with the way things are shaping or not you can re boil and start again. You do not have to wait to re start the process. But what ever work you have already done on the horn will be undone, and basiclly you will be back to square one. So remember , heat unclocks the horn , cooling the horn locks in the shape during the cooling priod. Any heat , such as a hot car , storage next to a radiator etc can make the horn move on a finished stick. Hope this helps a little Alan. With regards to the smallness of you plates. Scrap yards can be a good place to find steel plates of a goos size, but you may not find enough of the same size to make up a press. Mertal merchants will have loads of stock and will cut slices of a large diameter rod, but they are very pricey. Large sqaure plates of about 12 inch sq can be got from companies that supply builders with plates for stantions. ( Plates that foot vertical steel guilding supports) .
@@wrencountrysticks8660 firstly thank you for your prompt supportive/guidance much appreciated sir 👍👍what I didn't mention was that I was undertaking this project alongside me father who has dressed sticks for a number of years now, unfortunately my father now has Parkinsons Disease and finds certain tasks difficult to undertake he knows what he wants to do, he knows he has done it in the past but he can't remember when, so little things he thinks he remembers become set in stone ie you only need to "boil the horn for 20mins" he fails to grasp that it needs to be longer and it's cooling down once it removed from heat source. However I digress 😁 we both learn something yesterday, many thanks again, have subscribed to your channel and look forward in anticipation to future projects. Alan Scott.
hello i'm french and interested about knife making and i need to press a horn like you did but i don't get what is the tool you use at 2:17 and what is its propose , is it just a kettle (did you dip the horn in water and make the water boil , then press the horn , or it's something else) ?
Hi . Yes it is a kettle. I wait for the water to boil and place the horn in the boiling water for a hour or two depending on the size of the horn. Once the horn has boiled and is soft I place the horn in the steel press with the bottle jack to flatten the horn.
Cracking videos mate master craftsman 🤙❤️
Is witch hazel the same thing in the UK as it is here in the USA just curious ❓❓❓
thank you. l have Always wanted to make a proper stick. even tried to grow hazel. but i’m just a boot maker.
love your care. k
Hi Kraig. I bet you make great boots. Like everything else stick making takes practise, and one of the best ways to improve is to join a local club and see other peoples work and how they do things. You could do worse than join The British Stickmaking Guild. They have a website and you can join thru that. All level of sticksmakers are welcome. The Guild produce a very good magazine with tips and hints and advertisments for stick making supplies. If you have a local Country Fair with a Stickmaking competion go along and enter some sticks and get talking to the guys there, most are always will to help. Remember none us started out as being any good at this or any other past time, it takes work and a willingness not to be disappointed at the begining, because you know the next stick will be better than the last one. And one day you will look back and marvel at where you have come from. Best of luck.
thanks for the kind reply. great idea, may take a Holmes to find a club in california.k
How many time's can you boil the horn? Have made two mistakes today (1)not boiled anywhere near long enough and, (2) my 'compression' plates are not big enough. If leave the horn long enough to cool down ie 24hrs can I repeat the process? Many thanks in anticipation 👍👍
Hi Alan. Never think you have made a mistake when working horn. You have just learnt a lesson. Rams horn work is a life time learning curve, and practise makes as perfect as the horn allows. Ok . First thing to remember is that rams horn is like a plastic material, it is in fact the same material as your nails. Namely Keratin ( if I have spelt it correctly). On your first boil you are looking for the horn to be pliable rigth thru and you can test this by putting the boiled horn in a vice as soon as removing it from the boiler. Once anchored in the vice you should be able to push amd pull the horn back and forth and get a good movement indicating the the horn is soft right thru.
By boiling you are in a way unlocking the horn and any action you now take like pressing and then cooling should give the horn a new shape. However the horn has a memory and will always try and revert to its original shape if its get sufficient heat.
Ok that the first bit . Once you have the horn flat you repeat the proces on a smaller scale by using a hot air gun to re work small section of the horn to get the final desired shape.
If at any time you are unhappy with the way things are shaping or not you can re boil and start again. You do not have to wait to re start the process. But what ever work you have already done on the horn will be undone, and basiclly you will be back to square one. So remember , heat unclocks the horn , cooling the horn locks in the shape during the cooling priod. Any heat , such as a hot car , storage next to a radiator etc can make the horn move on a finished stick.
Hope this helps a little Alan.
With regards to the smallness of you plates. Scrap yards can be a good place to find steel plates of a goos size, but you may not find enough of the same size to make up a press. Mertal merchants will have loads of stock and will cut slices of a large diameter rod, but they are very pricey. Large sqaure plates of about 12 inch sq can be got from companies that supply builders with plates for stantions. ( Plates that foot vertical steel guilding supports) .
@@wrencountrysticks8660 firstly thank you for your prompt supportive/guidance much appreciated sir 👍👍what I didn't mention was that I was undertaking this project alongside me father who has dressed sticks for a number of years now, unfortunately my father now has Parkinsons Disease and finds certain tasks difficult to undertake he knows what he wants to do, he knows he has done it in the past but he can't remember when, so little things he thinks he remembers become set in stone ie you only need to "boil the horn for 20mins" he fails to grasp that it needs to be longer and it's cooling down once it removed from heat source. However I digress 😁 we both learn something yesterday, many thanks again, have subscribed to your channel and look forward in anticipation to future projects.
Alan Scott.
hello i'm french and interested about knife making and i need to press a horn like you did but i don't get what is the tool you use at 2:17 and what is its propose , is it just a
kettle (did you dip the horn in water and make the water boil , then press the horn , or it's something else) ?
Hi . Yes it is a kettle. I wait for the water to boil and place the horn in the boiling water for a hour or two depending on the size of the horn. Once the horn has boiled and is soft I place the horn in the steel press with the bottle jack to flatten the horn.
@@wrencountrysticks8660 Ok it's clearer ^^ thanks you a lot