Make your own horn following 6 simple steps.
Although we have evidence of the use of this means of communication in pastoral environments throughout the Basque Country, the best known and most important use of this instrument is found in the province of Bizkaia, a province where it was used to summon the people of Bizkaia to general meetings. In our travels through the Basque Country we have seen it in different museums and places, most recently in the Basque Museum in Bilbao.
Scattered throughout Bizkaia, carefully and strategically chosen, stand the so-called “Deiadar mendiak”, or what is the same, horn mountains. In Bizkaia, this type of mountains were used to announce to the people of Bizkaia the celebration of the general meetings.
Bizkaia’s whelk mountains.
- Kolitza.
- Ganekogorta.
- Gorbea.
- Oiz.
- Sollube.
Mount Gorbea is one of the most important mountains in Bizkaia and the first to sound its horns to announce the celebration, undoubtedly one of the most emblematic mountains of Bizkaia. Although this event was announced by means of acoustic and luminous signals, in this article, we are going to focus only on the acoustic ones, more specifically on the horn. The main objective of this small homemade experiment is to keep the bony coating of the horn, eliminating everything that is not useful to us.
- Materials needed: Cow, ox, bull or any other animal with similar characteristics.
- Tools used: electric saw, drill, electric sander and brush.
6 steps to create a whelk horn.
1.-Obtain a good cow, ox or bull horn: Although it is also possible to make a cow horn with seashells or big goat horns, our little experiment has been made on cow horn. Remember that not all cow horns are the same, depending on the breed we will find horns with more or less size, more or less hollow space and different thicknesses. We recommend looking for a horn that does not have a lot of solid space and that does not have a very high thickness.
Now, where can I get a horn? The health and environment department and the different diseases derived from animals (mad cow, swine flu, etc.) have made it impossible to obtain a cow horn nowadays. The easiest way to obtain one is to go to a local farmer.
2.-Clean the horn: The inside of the horns of these animals are covered with cartilage and other substances that must be eliminated.
To do this, it is best to put it in a large pot and boil it. When you take it out, the inner part will be separated from the outer part and it will be very easy to get rid of it.
Once this process is done, we must put it in bleach to disinfect well the whole horn, remember that a part of this horn will come in contact directly with our mouth. We leave it about 5 hours in a bucket of water with bleach but I imagine that 1 hour will be enough.
Trimming the tip of the horn: Depending on the breed and age of the selected specimen we must trim the tip of the horn between 2 or 5 cm, we recommend doing it little by little making several cuts. To make this cut we recommend an electric saw, fast and efficient.
Drill a hole: We must drill the horn until we find the cavity, we recommend starting with a drill bit of about 1 cm in diameter and perform several tests increasing the diameter of the drill bit to see what size is best for your horn.
5.-Sand the roughness of the horn: We recommend sanding the lower part of the horn, eliminating any possible roughness and imperfections created during cutting. It is also advisable to sand the entire horn, thus eliminating all the layers of dirt created during the life of the specimen and obtaining the original color of the horn.
It depends on the taste of each one to sand the horn or to leave that characteristic color that reminds us when the animal used it. In the photos below you can clearly see how the horn loses strength in color, what do you think?
6.- Varnishing and detailing: We recommend finishing the process of making the horn with a coat of saturated varnish (the one with the lowest gloss), a small detail, with which we will give our horn a professional finish. After varnishing, we can give free rein to the comforts, in our case, we added 2 holes to the horn to be able to incorporate a rope for the transfer.
Small details, great results: Trying to improve our horn horns, we have found a small detail that makes our horns improve substantially. The modification to make is very simple, lower the beginning of the hole with a dremel creating a wider space to support our lips. The result, a horn easy to sound and a much more pleasant sound.
Now we must arm ourselves with patience and learn to make it sound, grab the horn with both hands, bring your lips close to the hole of the horn without pressing too much but without letting the air escape, feel your lips tremble over the hole and you will get a sound that you will fall in love with. Remember, patience, with time you will become a real expert. As you can see, we have obtained an authentic horn horn from a cow horn, a primitive and original communication instrument. What are you waiting for to create yours? Create this authentic form of communication of our ancestors and enjoy making it sound.
Updating: Elaboration of alternative horn horns.
We currently have two projects in hand, a horn horn made with ox horn and an “alternative” horn horn made with cow horn. In order to create the “alternative” horn we take as a base the way of elaboration of the traditional horn except for the last step: the hole. This time we have to make the same hole as we did so far but we also have to make a circle around it with a circular saw as you can see at the top of the image.
Once the circle is made, we must make a lateral hole through which we will blow. Once the hole is finished, we only have to make a latex glove to cover the tip of the horn and secure it with an iron flange. The sound is more artificial but it is much easier to make it sound.
Good luck with your horn horn, do not hesitate to leave us a comment with your questions.
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