Making a mess!

[Robb Barnes]

Before I send sheep horn off to get stabilized for grip panels I first machine and mill them down to a somewhat usable size. You pay for the stabilization by weight so if there is extra horn material that you know you will be removing, you might as well do it before you send the pieces out. Milling horn is kind of like milling ivory, definitely a dust mask operation.

This is just part of the material milled off the two horns.

This is what is left to go out for stabilizing.

 

[Busterswoodshop]

Pardon my ignorance , but what does stabilizing consist of ?

 

[Richard76]

what are you using for milling? like a Bridgeport?

 

[Robb Barnes]

Stabilizing is a process where pieces of wood or in t his case horn, are put in a vacuum pot while immersed in a liquid compound often called cactus juice. As vacuum is applied it pulls the air out of the pores of the material and once bubbles pretty much stop appearing the vacuum is stopped and released and it draws the liquid into the pores due to pre4ssure differences. The pieces are t hen removed and dried at a temperature that cures the material. I send out porous woods like spalted maple and some walnut to strengthen the wood and on horn it helps it to resist movement as environmental conditions change.. I recently sent out some very light box elder wood blanks and some burl walnut that was very light weight and "airy" and it is making beautiful grip panels.

I use a smaller version of a knee mill, an Enco mill drill which is perfect for the little pieces I work on. I wish it had a DRO on the X axis quill for when I do panels with various steps like S&W double action target grips but I can get by by using a good micrometer and frequently checking depth of cut.

 

[Richard76]

Very cool. thank you for the explanation

 

[Robb Barnes]

These two blocks were cut from the same piece of walnut. You can see how much weight the resin adds and how it darkens the wood.

 

[Richard76]

Awesome

 

[turd]

Thank you, Robb, for the explanation and photos. I knew stabilizing was important, but I had no idea what it was or did.

 

[Robb Barnes]

Here are a few pictures of a set of bighorn sheep grips I just wrapped up for a clients John Gallagher octagon barreled custom bisley. Wild sheep horn is becoming one of my favorite materials to make grips out of.

 

[contender]

Looking good Robb!

 

[Robb Barnes]

Thank you Tyrone!

 

[Rxbulli]

Here are a few pictures of a set of bighorn sheep grips I just wrapped up for a clients John Gallagher octagon barreled custom bisley. Wild sheep horn is becoming one of my favorite materials to make grips out of.

Nice Grips! Looks great.

 

[contender]

I have some sheep blanks to make into grips when I get back around to making a few sets. Next to real ivory,, Bighorn or Dall is my favorite material.

 

[Fox Mike]

Beautiful. All that needs to be said.

 

[Robb Barnes]

The start of the actual sheep horn grip making process itself.

 

[Yaworski]

Interesting. I never knew about stabilization. What did they do before vacuum pots and resins were a thing?

Can you take the scraps from machining, mix them with some epoxy so something similar, and make grips from that? A horn composite. Or is it not worth the trouble since horns aren't scarce?

 

[contender]

Many gun grips & other wood stuff would age & shrink, or suffer breaks before stabilization was invented.
It used to be that materials used were properly dried & aged to prevent such things.

Never considered making a solid piece out of scraps either.

 

[cbailey]

Beautiful work Robb! I'm still enjoying the 41 mag I got from you several years ago.

 

[Kings6]

Which 41 was that one sir! More than a few 41s have slipped through my fingers.