Re: Buffalo horn

[Andy Dingley]

Anyone use buffalo horn ?

More weirdness with the buffalo horn.

Sawed just a couple of square inches of the stuff on the bandsaw. Then sawed some timber. Opened the bandsaw's lower door it was full of sawdust - clearly the dust extract wasn't working any more.

Some cleaning and I found the problem - a "dust buffalo" of white fibrous swarf, big and tough enough to block a 4" dust collector hose!

It's the weirdest stuff - it's like the stuff that comes out of chainsaw boots if you accidentally cut into them - deliberately fibrous and capable of blocking a saw.

[ddinc]

Good thing you asked. A friend has asked me to make a bow using Buffulo horn. He thought it was from a buffulo. Is it a kind of wood?

[Chas]

"ddinc" wrote

It's generally from an Asian water buffalo; a carabao. 'Buffalo Horn' is from an American Bison, and is expensive and hard to get. Carabao horn can be a couple of feet long- you can take plates and strips from it that are quite large. Bison horn is much shorter, very curved, smaller solid areas.

Chas

[Robert Galloway]

Buffalo horn comes from the buffalo. It cuts more like a plastic than a wood. It's pure protein. Most closely related to your fingernails in terms of everyday experience (or your hair).

bob g.

dd> Good thing you asked. A friend has asked me to make a bow using

[Andy Dingley]

_Really_ advanced bowmaking, if you do it right - it's a laminated bow.

AFAIK, this is from European water buffalo, kept for milk production to make mozarella cheese. I think these are local Somerset buffalo (I eat their cheese), many are Italian.

You could use Gruffalo horn instead - although Gruffalo are harder to catch.

[zuldare]

[Andy Dingley]

I don't know where you are, so it's hard to make recommendations. Mine came from a bowyer and fletcher at a medieval re-enactment event ("ren faire" in the USA). I believe that bow tips and arrow nocks use it, as it's harder than wood.

Pretty cheap to buy - a buffalo horn is about half the price of a hollow cow horn.

[J. Del Col]

The buffalo are Italian? Do they moo with a Neapolitan accent?

J. Del Col

[mac davis]

dunno.. but if you piss them off, you might "sleep wid da fishes"..

[Joe Gorman]

[Greyangel]

Anybody have experience with buying leather from those folks? Looks like some fairly reasonable prices. Hard to know what your getting without looking/feeling/smelling it but...

GA

[Joe Gorman]

[Greyangel]

Well if you do before I do let me know how it goes and I'll do the same. I need a good bit of leather to work with pretty soon. Hard to get by without leather if you're gonna make knives.

GA

[Andy Dingley]

Easier than doing it the other way round though.

[Greyangel]

Ha! I suppose so! I just did a wooden sheath for a knife and liked it so much I'll probably do a lot more in the future. Still used a bit of leather to finish it out though.

GA

[Chas]

"Greyangel" wrote

Sure is the step up- A lot of the reason I work multi-media is that one can't make any material do all things. I come out of that weird 50's Cowboy Chic era; silver mounted, hand-carved, full raised, puffed and padded, double fitted- yaddayadda. You have to work a little wood (or a lot), some leather, some silver; maybe some lapidary,...... The best 'utilitarian' sheathes are probably in wood; leather is a compromise. The surface of wood is vulnerable, and if it splits, your sheath falls apart- so you cover it with leather. The edges of wood/leather are vulnerable, as are 'wear points', so you cover them with metal. Composite sheathes combine the attributes of the materials soas to produce the best sheath possible. Then you can cover the whole thing with pictures......

Chas

[Greyangel]

Amen Brother Chas! I like the wood 'cause it shapes so much better. But then I'll probably never do anything in wood as nice as you've done in leather ;-) Hadn't really thought how to go about doing the metal caps and stuff. Have to work on that...

GA

[Chas]

"Greyangel" wrote

Sure- and remember that you're probably *better off* using a soft, light wood for your sheathes, as opposed to a heavy exotic, or hardwood. I collect SEAsian- most of them sheathed in wood, sometimes horn. Often, they're covered in braided strips of 'bamboo' (who knows what it actually is), and become a wicker framework construction. The techniques translate to 'our' kind of usage pretty readily- good stuff.

Chas

[rcook5]

Most of the SEA examples in my collection are sheathed in soft, light woods of various sorts. One, a Philippine barong, has a sheath that is noticeably luan.

Handles are usually a very dense wood, however.

--RC

"You Know Things Are Weird When Arnold Schwartznegger Is Governor of California, Ronald Reagan Is One Of Our Most Beloved Ex-Presidents, And John Kerry Is Running For President On His Vietnam War Record"

[Chas]

wrote

The draw of some of the weapons split the sheath- they were, or could be, very consumable. Some weapons were never drawn except for mortal combat, or the first move defending attack from surprise was a strike with the sheathed weapon that opened it bare. Court weapons are often sheathed in decorative woods- or stuff that belonged to rich guys.

Oh yeah- and lots of use of other rare and precious materials; ivories, coral and stone, nuts; wonderful stuff.

Chas