It’s a horny issue…

The finished cup

Being into bushcraft sometimes leads to an overflowing shelf of interesting items which might be useful at some future point. Well it is in my house anyway! One such item which has sat on the project list for a while was to make a horn drinking cup. How we came about having a piece of cow horn I can no longer remember but for a while I had wanted to turn this into a drinking cup.

Historically drinking horns were used for ceremonial purposes during the middle ages. Exactly when people started using animal horns for everyday drinking vessels is difficult to assess as these items have decayed over time leaving little to no trace. However, ceremonial drinking horns fitted with precious metals have been found in archaeological digs, giving some evidence of use. The remains of a large gold banded horn was found amongst 8 others at the celtic burial site near Hochdorf in Germany, dated from 530 BC which was excavated between 1978 and 1979. Further terminals and horn mounts preserved from the Viking age show that the use of the drinking horn was widespread. Further references of drinking horns were found in medieval literature and in ceremonial toasting they are still used today in parts of the world.

Not having a complete horn, or gold at my fingertips, a serviceable cup is all I was after making, and the process could be useful if ever in a situation where every part of an animal needed to be used. (Perhaps I have been watching too much Alone)

The original piece of horn, which if I am honest is rough and a bit stinky. (certainly not something I would drink from if there was an alternative option)
The original piece of horn, which if I am honest is rough and a bit stinky.
(certainly not something I would drink from if there was an alternative option)

To start the process, I completely scrubbed both the inside and the outside of the horn, this actually did nothing to alleviate the roughness of the inside or the outside, but it might have helped with the slight odour it originally had. After some thought I decided to keep the shape of the horn as it was but did level out the lip to remove the chips by sanding both ends down. I liked the natural shape of the horn but investigation into changing the shape of the horn yielded that supposedly if you heat the horn in lard it becomes pliable enough to shape. This is something I will need to investigate on a future occasion as it can make the horn brittle, and I didn’t want to risk damaging the piece I had.

Long hours of sanding both the inside and out, started to produce a smoother surface and had the added bonus of getting rid of any ingrained dirt.

I found the sanding process quite therapeutic, so I spent a lot of time on this. This picture was taken part way through the sanding process.
I found the sanding process quite therapeutic, so I spent a lot of time on this.
This picture was taken part way through the sanding process.

Historically to seal one silver, copper or wood terminals were used. So, after some measuring and carving, a plinth/stopper of wood was carved to fit inside the base of the cup.

Fitting the base to the cup….lots of measuring, carving and adjusting.
(After taking this photo I found a slightly nicer piece of oak to make the base of the cup,
unfortunately I forgot to take a mid-stage picture)

I opted to glue this into the base so that it was secure. Supposedly this could be done by heating the horn in hot lard so that it becomes pliable to form a seal around the wood, or by inserting stakes through the horn into the wood. As this was a first time project I opted for the one that wouldn’t cause the horn to break, so the other options I have not trialled as of yet. Although the heating option I would be very interested to try.

Once the glue had dried, I checked the seal by adding water into the cup, slight leakage occurred so I knew some kind of sealant was necessary to make this fully useable. There were three options to consider for sealing and making this able to hold liquid. Alcohol sealing, this was done by continually soaking in beer and a layer would build up to seal it over time. This sounds like a great excuse just to have beer at all times in ones drinking horn….honest gov I am just sealing my drinking horn. Although I highly doubt this is an effective option it was supposedly historically used; although I can’t help feeling that the more horn sealing one was doing the less you would notice if your cup was leaking. The second option was to seal it with beeswax but that would mean only cold beverages would be able to be consumed. Although a viable option as I can’t imagine drinking my cup of tea from this. The last option was to use some food grade resin as this would mean it could be used for both hot and cold drinks. This is what I opted for, so I poured a small amount into the base of the cup to make 100% sure that this would work.

Inside the horn cup after the food safe resin was added.
Inside the horn cup after the food safe resin was added.

The final stage was to make sure it held liquid, which thankfully it did, and with its now smooth surfaces was actually surprisingly good to drink from.

The finished cup
The finished cup.

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