HOW TO CUT A SIBERIAN IBEX HORNS SUCCESSFULLY?

Rafael; Cut a little more deeply. You will only get one piece so care is needed. Prime horns. You did good there.

I have used a hacksaw for a couple of horns, and although it takes some more time than glueing the horn to a plywood board and cutting it on a band saw, it is much safer. Both for the horns and the fingers, hehe. With the hacksaw you can stop and have a look at both sides of the horn, to make sure the cut is nicely lined up.

I like to rasp/sand away all the knurls on the outside of the horn before I saw off the laminates. On some buffalo horns the cracks go quite deep, so first step for me is to sand away untill all the cracks have disappeared. A disc-sander is very useful, but a 40-grit flap-disc on an angle-grinder would also speed up the process nicely. - or a farriers rasp!

The Siberian Ibex (Capra sibirica) or Common ibex is a species of ibex that lives in central and northern Asia.

Conservacion status: Least Consern.
(Wikipedia).

Sweet Horn! i'm jealous

How many people have actually used the inside of the curl "inside out" for a bow?
It seems like a good option. The inside of horn is usually pristine with linear fibers. If the outer rough surface was worked down to a gluing surface it almost seems like a better option.

Patrick Menzies wrote:

How many people have actually used the inside of the curl "inside out" for a bow?
It seems like a good option. The inside of horn is usually pristine with linear fibers. If the outer rough surface was worked down to a gluing surface it almost seems like a better option.

Negative, 'cause the outer side of horn usually harder (older grown) than the inner one. However, if the whole horn structure seems to be homogeneous and both two strips' thickness is adequate, you might glue them up conversely.

It is interesting what Vonegelut says about these horns being 6 years old. I think one can find the separations between the good seasons and deep winter in grooves in the horn. It does indeed appear to be a 6 year old male. A female has more "J" shaped horns. If there is insufficient vegetation in the summer, the space between the grooves will be stunted.

Both curves and the side wall have horn of equal quality but not thickness. The grain swirls in the knobs like wood burl.

Have you ever seen a tall stack of paper cups like construction workers use once and throw away? This is how the grain of these horns is arranged, but when fresh and young, is very homogenous and tight.

Hi everyone! Sorry for a not answearing for a long time cause was busy with a forms & wood searching preparations for my bow. I started to cut horns with el.fretsaw using all kinds of blades that I found. I found out that it's not so easy cause there is a bone inside which I cannot pull out. So it's pretty hard to do it . I almost cut the first horn but broke 4 blades :?

Smells horrible!

Wear a good face guard. The horn dust is very dangerous to breathe.

jack farrell wrote:

Wear a good face guard. The horn dust is very dangerous to breathe.

Of course Jack :)