Polishing bull or cow horns

[Arnold Ziffle]

If any of you have polished up some horns what were your methods? I assume that a person could start with some rough sandpaper to get all the cracks, chips & flaking under control and then gradually use finer sandpaper and lastly steel wool -- is that about right? And for the polishing: varnish? polyurethane? something else?

 

[dun]

When I made powder horns I just scraped them with the edge of a very sharp knife until they were smooth. The would be shiney but not glossy when I was done. Also thins them .

 

[cedar]

broken glass

 

[dun]

broken glass

Same principle as the sharp knife except I didn;t cut my hands/fingers as often with the knife.

 

[Red Bull Breeder]

Wire brush on a bench grinder to take the rough stuff off.

 

[brownmule]

Wire brush on a bench grinder to take the rough stuff off.

ok LOL now how do you get the cow to hold still for the grinder lol :lol:

i use sure hoof on my highlands horns to keep them growing nice. i havent harvest any of them yet