Recreating the 18th Century Powder Horn

By Scott and Cathy Sibley

 91 pages, softcover: $19.95

Reviewed by Bill Scurlock for MUZZLELOADER. Published in July/August 2005 issue.

If you like to build powder horns, or want to learn how, there is no better book on the market than Recreating the 18th Century Powder Horn by Scott and Cathy Sibley. I’ve admired Scott’s and Cathy’s work for over 15 years and own several of their horns. Having built a few powder horns over the years, I appreciate the skill and artistry found on each Sibley horn. From map horns to folk-art horns to rhyme horns and more, their horns always have the right look and feel about them. Now Scott and Cathy share their knowledge and expertise in making powder horns in this new book.

Recreating the 18th Century Powder Horn takes you step-by-step through the horn-making process. It starts with a tools and materials list consisting of common hand tools and materials that are readily available. You might be surprised at the wonderful results that can be achieved with the simplest of tools. Next, they discuss how to choose a horn and set up a workstation.

Work starts on the horn with cutting and drilling the tip, followed by shaping the butt and making and installing the butt plug. The authors describe and illustrate making a lobed base and making a turned butt plug. Next comes shaping the neck, which includes layout, filing panels and rings, and engrailing. There are six pages on scrimshawing (engraving) your horn, in which the authors describe tools and techniques for this embellishment.

When it comes to finishing, there are sections on staining the neck for that dark-tipped look, antiquing techniques, adding patina, making iron staples and making a stopper.

I was impressed with the color photography throughout the book. Every step is clearly shown. In addition, there are 18 pages of photographs of original powder horns, many from Jim Dresslar’s wonderful collection, and 20 pages of reproduction horns made by Scott and Cathy. These photos of finished horns (both old and new) are worth the price of the book for providing ideas to aspiring horn builders.

This book can be purchased for $19.95 plus $5.00 shipping and handling from Scurlock Publishing, 1293 Myrtle Springs Road, Texarkana TX 75503, phone 1-800-228-6389, or order online at <www.muzzleloadermag.com>. 

@ 2007 ScurlockPublishing Co., Inc. All rights reserved.