Super glue, regular wood glue or epoxy ?
Have done a few with regular wood glue and had no issues, but they are yet to be time tested.

Thanks in advance

I’m not an expert, but I’ve used Titebond II wood glue and two dowels. There may be better ways, but this has held up for me.

I've done them with two wood dowels and either Tightbond or Brownellls bedding epoxy. Did my first one in 1967, never had one break off.

I've used acra-glass or Titebond successfully, always with a dowel. Always wash ebony face with acetone. I've had nightmares about it, but none have come off, far as I know.

I know Pete Grisel used Titebond wood glue.

thanks guys

threaded bolt and nut

Acragel dyed black with two 1/4" dowels. So far, so good.

I prefer to use horn and not ebony. Good dark African Blackwood is less prone to crack than ebony, but it's rarely an even pitch black and it's also got a higher oil content. Our water buffalo horn takes a far higher polish, is less prone to crack than ebony, and most people like the look of it better in my experience. It is much harder and just as stable if well seasoned. I've got bulk quantity of all three so material availability isn't the issue to me. Horn also matches much better than ebony if the job has a horn grip cap and/or butt plate.

The old masters I admire chose to affix tips via integral round "dowel" of fairly large diameter cut from the parent stock if the grain flow allowed for it. (I'd likely reject a blank that didn't). For glue, I prefer good quality hide glue, and not the ready made stuff. It's good for at least 70 years, and it's a cinch to repair if and when it does fail. It doesn't bleed like some modern glues, and I doubt epoxy would last that long anyhow. Those same old British masters also normally used horn, and I doubt it was an availability issue given the massive woodwind instrument manufacturing trade going on due to the Brits exploiting the exact same hardwoods for so long. It seems to me that ebony only really got popular post WW2, and then mainly in America.

With ebony, I've used a fair bit, but it can crack as soon as you cough on it in the environments I've exposed it to when hunting. Some of it is relatively bombproof - but it's difficult to predict. I'm talking ebony carefully seasoned 20+ years, and several species have all proved just as variable. It never seemed a good idea to cut off perfectly sound walnut and replace it with something deemed pretty, so if I wind up doing it I minimise chances of it going pear shaped. Some blanks are a wee bit short, and that's when I'm happy to fit a contrasting tip - only if length is an issue to I resort to separate dowels.

Also, the way CITES is nowadays and looking into the future, it may become a problem in some countries. Water buffalo horn is very unlikely to head that way in the foreseeable future.

I use about any glass bedding compound with threaded metal or wood dowels..works.

Some time back,...forget who used it, but the tip was threaded for a 14x20 rod....other end was drilled into stock with relief to install a 1/4 x 20 nut to tighten up with small wrench.

Eveything was epoxied..no damn way that tip would ever come off!

Did it a few times, but...lotsa trouble and never had a tip come loose with two 1/4 " dowels anyway...even with the 500's . And.. free floating the tip itself is good insurance

One way to get well-seasoned ebony, Junglansregia, is to use broken ebony elephants. After attending many garage sales, I found the elephants' graveyard and bought about 10, some with broken trunks.

Though they get hot when you're cutting them, I had no further trouble and the one on my sporterised Greek MS has been in place for 30 years. I either used PVA or Araldite and possibly only a single dowel.

Sambarman338, yes that's a good way to source the stuff. I cringe at the age of the black stuff most folk down under are using, ditto the young imported stock blanks generally used here too. The youngest ebony I've used has been well over 20 years air dried, from a very reputable source. Other than what I mention below about down-under ebony, mine was all cut for the musical instrument trade and it is top grade stuff (not much of the best of it ever went for carving use, it's been traded to instrument makers for several centuries thanks in no small part to the slave traders). I've got a fair stash of ebony, ABW, Brazil Kingwood, Cocobolo etc the youngest of which was seasoned by 1997.

Around 30 years ago, I also started hoarding old sets of wood/ivory balls from the bowling greens. Early bowls sets (usually damaged and incomplete) were often turned by bagpipe makers like RG Lawrie and made from either ABW or ebony depending on the vintage, the better sets with elephant ivory jacks. Non-collectible-condition examples of both are a source of either material either side of 100 years old.

Ask ANY reputable bagpipe maker (or I suppose woodwind instrument maker in the real sense of the word) who also restores vintage instruments (Dave Atherton in the US would be a fine person to talk about working with ebony), and I'd be entirely confident they'll have many long hard stories of repairing ebony cracks in vintage instruments. For decades, most modern makers after say the 1930's stopped the use of ebony for reasons of cracking more so than supply. Ebony is pretty well expected to give hairline cracks in these instruments, and few instruments escape it no matter how well looked after. The reason some makers used ebony over ABW, Brazil Kingwood etc was TONE, not stability (Ditto cocus wood). Woodwind instruments get repeated exposure to warm/wet then cool/dry cycles and ebony doesn't hack it too well normally, but they used it anyway (tone is king). Regular oiling with almond oil helps minimise cracking on these instruments - baby them all you can and they will still crack. Few ebony instruments survive unscathed. Firearm forend tips suffer less "abuse" - but if for example a rifle is used in the Top End buildup for culling work, or in the cold mist, heat from shot string cycles and the vibrations that go with it will soon test the material. I've lost count of the number of other makers ebony tips I've repaired or replaced.

I went to horn as a preference for stock work long ago, and keep ebony and ABW for my warpipes unless someone really twists my arm. I was yarning with Gabe Gatti, a world-class stocker and even better bloke, and he described seasoned water buff horn as "Natures Carbon Fibre". Very apt.

The hardest, densest and most beguiling ebony I ever used is the stuff that grows in the NT. It is also at least as stable as the best Gabon ebony I have used. Mataranka Ebony was the local moniker, but it grows elsewhere. The dead and dying trees can be easily seen a long way off. PNG ebony is superior stuff, also - I'd take it over any Gabon I've seen. But, like any good ebony, it still just wants to hairline if pushed and I'd say exceptions are rare.

After a fair bit of experience making stocks, including cutting over 75000 blanks, nowadays I find it questionable that anyone would choose to cut perfectly good walnut from a stock to replace it with a tip of any kind just for the sake of a fashion upgrade. Ebony would be my last choice of the regularly-used materials. My experience observing the stuff in the bush including bovine culling and professionally hunting the same, only supports my views. None of these tip materials last like good walnut under hard service. I much prefer to limit their use to when I'm forced to. Cutting blanks, dealing with the vagaries of nature, sometimes a desired blank demands a tip be added. Sometimes a restoration job demands it.

I agree with Duane, free-floating of the contrasting tip material is very wise indeed no matter what it is.

My intention in writing the above is not to denigrate other makers choices or abilities/techniques, but rather simply state and explain my preferences.

quote:

Originally posted by Juglansregia:
I prefer to use horn and not ebony. Good dark African Blackwood is less prone to crack than ebony, but it's rarely an even pitch black and it's also got a higher oil content. Our water buffalo horn takes a far higher polish, is less prone to crack than ebony, and most people like the look of it better in my experience. It is much harder and just as stable if well seasoned. I've got bulk quantity of all three so material availability isn't the issue to me. Horn also matches much better than ebony if the job has a horn grip cap and/or butt plate.

The old masters I admire chose to affix tips via integral round "dowel" of fairly large diameter cut from the parent stock if the grain flow allowed for it. (I'd likely reject a blank that didn't). For glue, I prefer good quality hide glue, and not the ready made stuff. It's good for at least 70 years, and it's a cinch to repair if and when it does fail. It doesn't bleed like some modern glues, and I doubt epoxy would last that long anyhow. Those same old British masters also normally used horn, and I doubt it was an availability issue given the massive woodwind instrument manufacturing trade going on due to the Brits exploiting the exact same hardwoods for so long. It seems to me that ebony only really got popular post WW2, and then mainly in America.

With ebony, I've used a fair bit, but it can crack as soon as you cough on it in the environments I've exposed it to when hunting. Some of it is relatively bombproof - but it's difficult to predict. I'm talking ebony carefully seasoned 20+ years, and several species have all proved just as variable. It never seemed a good idea to cut off perfectly sound walnut and replace it with something deemed pretty, so if I wind up doing it I minimise chances of it going pear shaped. Some blanks are a wee bit short, and that's when I'm happy to fit a contrasting tip - only if length is an issue to I resort to separate dowels.

Also, the way CITES is nowadays and looking into the future, it may become a problem in some countries. Water buffalo horn is very unlikely to head that way in the foreseeable future.

So., I happen to have a water buffalo cull head that I brought home thinking I might try to do something with the horn. How far from the tip can you generally go before it gets hollow? this set is not too long but is thick.

We have longhorn cattle and I have fussed around with their horns a bit and it seems to soft to be of much use for anything like a grip cap or forend tip, is buff harder than regular cattle horn?

Thanks Junglansregia, it sounds as though you know your onions.

My only other knowledge of ebony concerns a heavy, stylised lion's head about nine inches long. I bought it in Pemba, Mozambique, after hunting in the hinterland 14 years ago. It has a large crack in the back, out of sight, which I saturated with fly spray to placate Australian Quarantine when I got home.

That ornament now hangs with the hunting trophies in a much-used room. Do you think I should give it any care other than the weekly dusting?

eny Re your cull head: Sounds like you have a bull head there. The tip material that can be recovered from intact bulls is scant. Intact bulls have a long bone core length, and comparatively little solid tip section despite the fact it outwardly appears massive. The tips on bulls tend to have a lot of fighting damage/regrowth and is thus flawed. The sides of the horn can yield good flat material for butt plates, however. Horn can be worked and moulded quite easily if that's your bag. You can measure the hollow length and determine it's path and map out the solid section. Picking up the horn tells me how much solid mass is in the tip section, but I've converted a lot into chips. The only real way to learn is to get stuck into it.

Bullocks grow more solid material than those with their bollocks intact, but it's not common to encounter them wild unless they've been previously mustered, cut, and escaped or released. A good bullock horn can yield a number of tips, grip caps and buttplates. Sometimes (rarely) I've seen cow-like bulls with one small nut that appear like bullocks, they produce some fine material too.

The best tip material comes from those old cows with big wide spreads when time comes to cull them.

I've worked a bit of Indian-origin horn and found it softer than our own, but still very good. It's an easier source for most people, but the horn takes a long time to season. Cows and bullocks don't fight much, and have less damage to the horn.

Sambarman338, like any wood the natural oils in ebony outgas over the years and decades. For your purposes a rub a few times a year with non-rancid almond oil or similar is pretty foolproof. Modern "Oil" finishes don't do too much to stop the loss of the more volatile oils within the wood that outgas, and absolutely zero to replace them. I'd avoid waxes personally, too. Don't use supermarket/hardware store home handyman furniture polish, some of them contain silicone oil which is the bane of panelbeaters and smart stockmakers alike. You could use cold pressed linseed, jojoba, camelia or similar, too. Let it soak in a few days, wipe off, buff. You'll probably find the piece pretty hungry for more.

I cannot speak of US longhorn horn. I have highland cattle here at home and am familiar with horned british breeds both feral and domestic. Our Arnhemland buff horn is harder and tougher in my opinion. Horned breeds are getting scarce downunder, a sign of the times, and it's a shame. I've never seen cattle horns anything like as solid or with as much mass as water buffalo horn, except the strains of water buff that have the tight, narrow horns which are rare here in the wild (they don't produce much). There may be a cattle breed out there that does produce a lot of solid horn, but I've never seen it - and then there is the colour phase that a customer will accept. Most of our buff horn is black (not all of it) and takes a bloody brilliant shine. It's marvelous stuff IMO.

A lot of suppliers sell horn that has been boiled and processed to maximise recovery etc. This can affect the colour, and even the texture, so beware. The folk who hawk that stuff are just as cultivated as the muppets to hawk force dried blanks - they know what to say to get that hook swallowed. I think that's got more to do with the Aussie horn I've got here being harder with more brilliant colour etc. I'd expect water buff horn from other areas is equivalent if treated similarly.

I've got limited experience of working cape buff and bison horn, but it's limited so I won't comment on them except to say that I'll take the local stuff for now.

Experience has lead me to a 15 year minimum seasoning time for buff horn, but experience has taught me to be fussy about such matters. I've seen a lot of other folks horn move on stocks, but not mine, so that is good enough for me for now. Reality is I'm mostly using horn that is significantly older, which has all been quite a commitment.

Like stock blanks, most extant makers won't be able to relate the texture, stability, finishing results of the blank (wood or horn) under their tools to how the material has been treated because normally they simply wouldn't know for sure what the reality of the materials history actually was. I think that will cause opinions to vary a lot, and a lot of parroting goes on where suppliers sales pitches are taken for granted and perpetuated by customers as fact. It's a main reason why I can't be bothered selling raw materials much nowadays, despite having an excess.