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Post by brokennock on Feb 15, 2020 18:10:36 GMT -7
Okay, I think I have steeled myself enough for the jokes, comments, and questioning ridicule to post this and ask for help fixing it.
I screwed up. I didn't think things through before taking a project a step further and now..... Well, let's explain 1st. I normally prime straight from my main horn, but sometimes I have a hard time with the horn blocking my view of the pan and I overfill, or I'm priming when it's cold or wet and it makes controlling the flow into the pan difficult. (I have found that ignition is slower in my gun primed with 3f if the pan is too full, just enough to barely coat the bottom is just right.} I've also been working on some small projects (another to be posted here later) along the lines of our interests but meant to let me try some techniques and materials I don't normally work with. So I decided to make a small priming flask out of antler, no priming plunger, just basically a mini powder horn out of antler. I've made antler measures before so the biggest challenges, I thought, were going to be getting the hole all the way through to the pointy end, and coming up with plugs. I was partially correct. I did screw one antler up that was just too curved. But, I did manage to get a serviceable device roughed out.    
Okay. Great. I took the lazy way out on the plug for the big end. I had thought about sawing the end of the antler nice and flat and making a maple plate to cap the end and pinning it there from the top. Then I wondered how I would fill this device, and, I don't feel I have the talent and tools for this job. Went with the plug. Hmmm, how to keep the plug there in use, and still be able to remove it for filling? Drill all the way through both and slide a pin through that can be pushed out. Didn't have an appropriate size bit of brass rod, and, was thinking of a leather loop off the end to hang it anyway. Does the pin really need to be solid? No. No the pin does not. This leather thong keeps the plug in and can serve to hang the device. Still need to finish it though. And would like to fancy it up a bit. Maybe make it a bit more like a horn? Maybe a nicer plug for the tip and a hand twisted bit of cordage run back to the neck from the stopper to keep from loosing it. The stopper is going to need to be tiny to keep it proportional after all.
Here is where I took things a step further,,, Without planning what it would look like, I filed a ring around the flask to give more of a horn style look and give me a place to attache the cordage for the stopper....
and,
now i have a deer antler priming phalus......
Go ahead and laugh. It's funny. As soon as the ring was there it hit me. Funny, yet crushing at the same time. Hopefully the picture angles don't look as obscene as it does in person.
When you're done, I'd appreciate some ideas on how to fix this and better ideas for a stopper (condom?) for the tip. (is there a moyle in the house) The hole at the tip is stopped perfectly by a 3/16" dowel rod. My concern with this and the existing apple wood stopper is breaking it off in the flask.
Go ahead, rip in...
lol
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Keith
City-dweller
Bushfire close but safe now. Getting some good rain.
Posts: 990 
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Post by Keith on Feb 15, 2020 18:25:46 GMT -7
Well if it was me mate, I would simply tie a leather thong round the groove. That should be enough to change the look. As to the plug, a wood plug still seems more appropriate than anything I can think of. If the wood plug is too thin & likely to break, I see two alternatives, either make a larger hole for a larger stopper, or drill the stopper & insert a brass rod to strengthen it . Braising rod works fine.
Keith.
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Post by brokennock on Feb 15, 2020 18:32:10 GMT -7
Thank you for your kindness. I hadn't thought of braising rod. I had thought of reinforcing the wood plug. I want the powder flow small so don't really want to enlarge the hole. In fact, it borders on pouring too well now, but is easier to control with a finger tip than the main horn.
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Post by Black Hand on Feb 15, 2020 18:35:35 GMT -7
Put your index finger over the hole in your horn and use it as the "flow regulator" - that's what I do... Just to make you happy  |
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Post by spence on Feb 15, 2020 18:36:59 GMT -7
Tie a leather thong around the groove for suspending the primer.
Fasten a decorative element around the groove, beads on a thong, or some such.
File some more on it to change the shape, widen the groove or flatten the tip.
File the tip down to a much finer point, it will be easier to use that way, two birds with one stone.
Spence
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Post by brokennock on Feb 15, 2020 18:55:21 GMT -7
Put your index finger over the hole in your horn and use it as the "flow regulator" - that's what I do... Just to make you happy That is my general practice. It doesn't work so good with wet hands, and sometimes with really cold hands. The smaller device makes this much easier. |
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Post by brokennock on Feb 15, 2020 19:00:35 GMT -7
Thank you Spence. I didn't want to just start filing and decorating without some direction for fear of making things worse. (law of the 7 Ps, wish i remembered it sooner) I thought of the leather whang around the groove to hang it. The looks weird to. It might not show in the pics, and I didn't take on of this angle, but, when stood tip up and viewed from one of the wide sides, it looks like a person in a long, flowing, floor length gown. Don't need to be walking around looking like I'm hanging folks in effigy.
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Post by spence on Feb 15, 2020 19:24:54 GMT -7
Hmmm...could it be you are thinking too hard? Pareidolia. I think it's called. When I look at it, it just looks like a kind of weird primer.  I'm used to those, I made one from the tip of a long-handled gourd.  Spence |
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Post by brokennock on Feb 15, 2020 21:58:43 GMT -7
Thank you Spence.
Seems I'm often accused of either overthinking things,,, or not thinking at all. (The second is usually regarding something I've said)
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Post by hawkeyes on Feb 16, 2020 6:12:36 GMT -7
All my thoughts and recommendations have been mentioned. Now, all that is required from me is to laugh. Good stuff and I like the idea. You could also simply roll a small piece of greased leather into the stopper end and forgo the wooden stopper.
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Post by Black Hand on Feb 16, 2020 7:34:40 GMT -7
Brokennock,
Try turning your horn to a different orientation.
I can also tap the tip in the pan and the horn will dispense small amounts. I tend to have my horn so the curve is parallel (or with the butt slightly downward) to the ground. This seems to keep the flow manageable when tapping to prime.
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ewoaf
City-dweller
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Post by ewoaf on Feb 16, 2020 19:21:04 GMT -7
Keep going. Make it more like a cock. Carve some detailed veins into er. Novel whimseys and erotica was the jam in the 18th c.
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Post by brokennock on Feb 16, 2020 23:30:23 GMT -7
Keep going. Make it more like a cock. Carve some detailed veins into er. Novel whimseys and erotica was the jam in the 18th c. I am laughing my butt off. This is exactly what many who know me would expect. But, I get enough grief from folks for being as far outside the norm as I am when I show up with my flintlocks and (close to) period accoutrements. Lol.... |
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I'm used to those, I made one from the tip of a long-handled gourd.
