Leather on horn-a-long.

[VTer]

I've had this small set of horns in my freezer for a few years and finally decided to do something with it. The horn-a-long idea didn't come about till the generous Tradganger, Stiks-and-strings, that sent me the leather suggested I do one, so the initial mounting of the horns was not photographed. This is my first attempt at doing this so you'll have to excuse the amuteurishness of it.

The first stage was cutting the head down to a manageable skull size, skinning the fur off and boiling the skull to get the rest of the parts off. Then I mounted the skull plate on a piece of plywood that I figured would be the appropriate size with a mounting hole predone in the back.

I then filled any voids between the plywood and skull plate with cardboard and hot glue, trying to leave about a 1/4" gap between the skull and edge pf plywood to make room for a 1/4' layer of plaster of paris to make a relatively smooth and roundish object that the leather would cover nice.

Here's what that looks like.
 
 
Then I took a measurement of the distance between the horns, and transferred that to the leather and generally guessed on the cuts I had to make.

 
 
Then I stretched and stapled the leather all around the base as best as I could. The cuts in the back helped me get that looking halfway descent but I had to have a fold on each side in the front to get it to fit good. I debated about making two more cuts in the front to help with the wrapping but decided against it.
 
 
 

Then I got out the hot glue gun to get the back seams layed flat.
 

[VTer]

Here is what it looks like finished.
 
On the wall.
 

Critiques or ideas? I can take it.  

[portugeejn]

Looks good!  If you used some thinner upholstery leather a lot of your problems would go away.  It is much more "stretchable" and is easier to work with.  If you PM me your address I can send you a scrap chunk out to play with.

RonP

[Stiks-n-Strings]

Looks good, I was wondering how the leather was gon work out for you. thinner stuff would stretch better but that was thinnest I had. I use all my leather for quiver making and armguards and the such.

 Turned out great though. Thanks for sharing.

 Stiks

[JimB]

Buckskin leather has a lot more stretch and is easy to work.It will form around your skull cap without any pleats or wrinkles.

When you go to thinner,stretchier leather,however,you will have to smooth out your plaster or a lot of bumps will show.

You can finish off around,underneath the burrs with a 3/8"-1/2" strip of your leather or get some decorative braided rope.You can also cut thin strips of your leather,braid that and put it around the burrs.

[VTer]

Jim, thanks for the ideas.