Working with horn...

[mredmond]

My most recent pipe is my first to use a shank extension, and horn, and I have a question about the horn. The faced sides have irregular rings of brighter white material, which is easy to see on the side facing the stem. It looks to me like this was damage caused by facing (I used forstners) but all sides are very smooth, including the face, and there is no peeling, loose material, etc. I'm pretty pleased with this pipe...I think it is one of my best so far and I was planning on sending it to Kurt for sandblasting, but I'm a little bothered by the horn. Any ideas on how I can avoid this in the future?


Thanks!

Micah

[RadDavis]

Looks like your horn may have "delaminated" a bit. An extry sharp bit may help. And super glue the ends after it's faced.

Rad

[geigerpipes]

Horn can be tricky to work..Like rad says you need super sharp bits... it works much like your nails...work slow and shape in the direction of the fibers. also another word of caution... horn tends to shrink after you've drilled it out and shaped it..the only way to avoid this is by shaping a bit larger first and letting it sit for a few weeks before final shaping.

[mredmond]

Rad, Love, thanks for the advice. I was pretty sure I needed toget some better forstners and this pretty much confirms that. I will get some new bits and try the drying and super glue.

Thanks for the help!

Micah

[caskwith]

Personal i try and avoid having bar horn as any face on a pipe. Being hygroscopic the horn has a tendency to grow or shrink and this can cause gaps to appear or de-lamination as both Rad and Love covered. I like to face my horn stems with a thin slice of man made material, usually acrylic, both pieces are keyed on rough sandpaper and superglued together, this gives a much more stable face to work with that isnt going to be affected as much by changes in humidty or temperature.

FWIW I also do this on my Morta pipes as Morta never cuts as smooth as briar or olive.

[Leus]

Gotta love this forum. This is most useful advice.

[mredmond]

Indeed. Thanks guys!

- Micah

[Alan L]

When I have to work with horn, I find it handy to soak it in super-thin CA. this sort of stabilizes it, but it only soaks in the end grain about 1/8 inch or so, so I do it on both ends.