Not sure if this is something asked before, but has anyone used african animal horns for knife handles or pistol grips on handguns? If so, which ones work well? I have a few extras laying around and wondering if it would be something worthwhile trying.

Thanks

You always hear someone say “well you can’t antlers”. No, but you can stir a pot of chilli with em.

An old friend of mine, some of you might remember him from our safaris, Horst, used horns for his knife handles.

I always shoot a deer in MN for meat; sometimes I shoot a nice one but more often than not it might be a dink in the antler dept. One year my son in law too one of the antlers about the size of a roebuck and made a beer bottle opener. Sits on the bar in my trophy room.

I am more looking for useabbility of African horns. Kudu, spring buck, blesbok, wildebeest.

A friend of mine made me a pen from buffalo horn. Turned it on a lathe. Looks nice and I enjoy using it.
kh

just-a-hunter made my son a fantastic custom knife using the horn or an oryx he killed here in New Mexico. It turned out great.

I have several custom predator calls made from springbok horns. They work just fine.

quote:

Originally posted by hikerbum:
I am more looking for useabbility of African horns. Kudu, spring buck, blesbok, wildebeest.

Just trying to give an example; it doesn't matter what you use as long as it small. Make a bottle opener from a springbok or blesbok horn - fill it in with bedding material and insert the metal opener.

I have a .50 caliber flintlock long rifle, possibles bag, powder horn and tomahawk above and on the mantle above my fireplace.

My rifle is mounted on the antlers of a whitetail deer, the first big game animal I ever killed. He was an old buck. A four pointer with well-brooded tines.

It means a lot to me.

Long ago I made a powder measure for one of my muzzleloaders out of the tip of an antelope horn - still have it.

I use a Kudu horn as a cork screw...

Big cork screw, but might be something to mount on the wall behind a bar. I'll keep hunting buffalo but don't need any more of them as trophys. Maybe I can find a knife maker that needs handles.

A good bit of those hollow horns can be split with a saw, boiled and flattened to make handles and a good deal of things. Just boil till soft, squeeze a vise.

If you have a spare kudu horn you can make a bugle from it, the traditional Shofar horn of the Jewish faith: https://www.etsy.com/listing/6...et-natural-kudu-plus

Arno Bernard does something neat with the core of kudu horns -- those porous bony cores. He fills those voids with a resin and then grinds the whole thing down to a handle. Every handle is unique. Kind of different.

Grind them up and sell them to the Chinese.

Andrew, I don't think he meant rhino horns.

Although, if I could pass off antelope horns for rhino, I would be a very rich man.

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If you have a spare kudu horn you can make a bugle from it, the traditional Shofar horn of the Jewish faith: https://www.etsy.com/listing/6...et-natural-kudu-plus

I have one, but it was not made as a Jewish Shofar. It was a Kudu Horn that I had made into a horn that was used call the patrols and troop together for a Boy Scout Wood Badge Adult Training Course 25 years ago, and for which I was the Course Director. Those in the know will understand.

If we grind anything to sell to the Chinese, can we include a healthy dose of cyanide or strychnine? Kill the demand. Only way to stop poaching.

I picked up a few oryx horns on trips to Namibia. Some have turned into whistles. I gave some to a knife maker in Croatia and he has so far turned out one knife using oryx horn in the handle.