Similar but different

[Robb Barnes]

I spent most of today prepping sections of sheep horn to get ready to go our for stabilizing. While both sets are from the heavy horned sheep species, The Rockie Mountain bighorn and the Desert bighorn, the interior sections of the horn are quite different in coloration. The first set is the Rockie Mountain bighorn and the second picture is of the Desert Bighorn. The firsts set is all prepped for getting stabilized while the Desert ;pieces have only aobut half of the pieces fully prepped for the trip to Arizona.

 

[contender]

Great pics Robb! I have some Dall & Bighorn,, but looking at your pics,, I can see that my bighorn is most likely Rocky Mountain, not Desert.

 

[LGC42]

What is the process to stabilize them?

 

[Kings6]

They get immersed in “cactus juice” in a vacuum pot then a vacuum is applied and their is drawn out of the horn material. When the vacuum is released the stabilizing matrix is drawn into the material then it is heat set. At least that is my understanding from what I know.