Repairing Buffalo Horn - SMP Silver Salon Forums

SM Publications

Silver Salon Forums - The premier site for discussing Silver.

SMP | Silver Salon Forums | SSF - Guidelines | SSF - FAQ | Silver Sales

The Silver Salon Forums
Since 1993
Over 11,793 threads & 64,769 posts !!

General Silver Forum

Silver Salon internal search
or

REGISTER (click here)

How to Post Photos

SMP Silver Salon Forums
tline

General Silver Forum
tline3

Repairing Buffalo Horn

profile | register | preferences | faq | search

SSFFriend: Email This Page to Someone!

next newest topic | next oldest topic

Author	Topic: Repairing Buffalo Horn
efuerst100 Posts: 34 Registered: Oct 2005	posted 09-21-2009 07:45 PM [26-1904] I recently acquired a beautiful antique set of continental salad servers. The handles are 800 silver and the portions that touch the salad are probably made of buffalo horn The horn portion shows its age with some cracking and chipping. Is there a way to restore the original horn? Is this something a dedicated home collector can do herself? I'd appreciate any ideas or leads. I am loathe to have the original horn replaced by plastic! IP: Logged
Dale Posts: 2132 Registered: Nov 2002	posted 09-21-2009 11:49 PM People have told me that a dentist restored their horn handles. Horns and teeth are chemically similar and respond to the same sort of ministrations. The other option would be to find a source of buffallo horns; since they are now being raised for food, there should be a lot of them on the market. Check out some of the medievalist makers to find a smith working with buffallo horns. And, how about pictures? IP: Logged
swarter Moderator Posts: 2920 Registered: May 2003	posted 09-22-2009 01:31 PM quote: People have told me that a dentist restored their horn handles. Horns and teeth are chemically similar and respond to the same sort of ministrations. There may be some confusion here - the pieces in question have silver handles. The term "horn" is often misused to apply to antlers, which are commonly found as handles on carving sets. Antlers are made of dense bone, which could have some similarities to teeth. True horn is the covering of a bony core, and is composed of keratin, a proteinaceous material related to hair and fingernails. "Buffalo horn" refers to the latter type. The dentist reference undoubtedly applies to antlers rather than the softer horn. IP: Logged
efuerst100 Posts: 34 Registered: Oct 2005	posted 09-22-2009 02:32 PM Thank you both. I ended up looking on the internet and found that I could lightly buff out the problem with very fine sandpaper. IP: Logged
dragonflywink Posts: 993 Registered: Dec 2002	posted 09-22-2009 03:48 PM Assuming that your pieces are similar to a set that I rescued many years ago, marked only "800" on the hollow handles, the ferrules and guards are plated. They're pretty beat up, the fork's handle was apparently damaged at some point and re-attached poorly, in addition to dryness and edge chips, the spoon had a deep burn mark and the fork had separated into two layers. I epoxied and clamped the fork, later sanding both pieces with the grain using a very fine wet/dry sandpaper, when it seemed smooth enough, switched over to emery cloth, getting a fairly nice sheen, then let a coat of mineral oil soak in for couple of hours and polished with a soft cloth. I've worked with horn before and can tell you from experience, that care must be taken if you decide to use a Dremel or any other machine method, the friction heat can make the horn become soft and sticky. Haven't really done anything to mine in years, does look like they could use another coat of oil though (fortunately I don't mind honest wear). ~Cheryl IP: Logged
Kimo Posts: 1627 Registered: Mar 2003	posted 09-22-2009 04:10 PM If the damage were only light surface deterioration you could sand them with progressively finer sandpaper down to about 1500 or 2000 grit then buff them to a nice polish then rub them down with a drop or two of vegetable oil. However since you mention cracking and chipping you will need to make a decision. The cracks can be sealed with epoxy, though the results will visible that there are sealed cracks. The chips are not possible to fill in. If they are very tiny you could sand the surface down to smooth them out, then follow the above process. If they are large you would wind up with some rather different and smaller shapes than you start with to sand them out. It would be best to have the horn parts removed from the silver mounts so you do not accidentally damage the silver. Also, this would allow you to get into the areas that are right next to the silver parts. If that does not yield results that are satisfactory to you, you can buy various types of horns on the big auction website. You would then need to find an expert with the right equipment for working the horn into the right shapes, then you would need to have a silversmith swap the old damaged parts with the replacement parts. While the horn material itself would be low cost, the working of it and the fitting into the handles would not likely be an inexpensive undertaking. On the up side, if you found talented people with the right equipment your salad servers would be as good as new. IP: Logged
efuerst100 Posts: 34 Registered: Oct 2005	posted 09-22-2009 04:25 PM First of all, thank you everyone. Each of your answers was quite helpful. Prior to receiving any responses, I was anxious to move forward and reasoned that the horn seemed similar to fingernails and started to file the crack gently with the finest emery board. ( I think swarter noted that buffalo horn is similar to nails, too.) Having realized some success with the emery board, I moved on to very fine sandpaper and wiped the loose particles off the horn frequently. The cracks, which apparently where mainly on the surface, disappeared. I applied canola oil (although an internet site suggested annointing oil as it contained instructions for cleaning a horn shofar) and the results are, frankly, terrific. Since the problematic parts of the horn were not near the silver handles, I just wrapped the handles in soft cloth while I sanded the horn. Project complete! Now I just need to have a dinner party with salad. IP: Logged

All times are ET	next newest topic \| next oldest topic
Administrative Options: Close Topic \| Archive/Move \| Delete Topic
	Hop to:

Ultimate Bulletin Board 5.46a

^1. Public Silver Forums (open Free membership) - anyone with a valid e-mail address may register. Once you have received your Silver Salon Forum password, and then if you abide by the Silver Salon Forum Guidelines, you may start a thread or post a reply in the New Members' Forum. New Members who show a continued willingness to participate, to completely read and abide by the Guidelines will be allowed to post to the Member Public Forums.
Click here to Register for a Free password

^2. Private Silver Salon Forums (invitational or $ donation membership) - The Private Silver Salon Forums require registration and special authorization to view, search, start a thread or to post a reply. Special authorization can be obtained in one of several ways: by Invitation; Annual $ Donation; or via Special Limited Membership. For more details click here (under development).

^3. Administrative/Special Private Forums (special membership required) - These forums are reserved for special subjects or administrative discussion. These forums are not open to the public and require special authorization to view or post.

| Home | Order | The Guide to Evaluating Gold & Silver Objects | The Book of Silver