bigcountry

I want to make some horn nocks for my yew longbow. Anyone have any material they would sell a fella?

burniegoeasily

I have not used horn in a long time. I use to get it at our local butchers. Other than that, you might try three rivers or rubberbow.

burniegoeasily

I just went on ebay and looked under buffalo horn and cow horn and found several that could be easily made into elb tips.

bigcountry

I saw a few too. But worried they will be hollow all the way to the tips. 3Rivers has a horn block I can buy.

I don't know anything about bull horns. I know goats like catalina goats, and pronghorn, the horn is hollow about half way.

burniegoeasily

Cow and buffalo are similar. Last time I used horn, I got two tips from one horn. They are solid from point to about 1/4 to 1/2 way to base.

bigcountry

thanks Kent. How did you cut it? Can I slice it with a bandsaw? I figured I would slice it, drill some holes. Glue in some 1/2" dowl and shape on my belt sander, and finish with files.

burniegoeasily

Bandsaw works great.

burniegoeasily

Oh yea, when you drill them out, you want to tapper the hole. Not just a straight even hole like you get with a standard drill bit. I modified a butterfly bit, by grinding the wings down to where they come to a v at the tip. You can also use arotary rasp bit. If you dont tapper them, you will cut into the hole when you shape the tips or knocks. The end of you bow need to be tappered to a point, just so it fits in the hole. A two part, gap filling epoxy will help in getting it to fit, but you still want to make a nice snugg fit. I just cut out two small blocks from the horn tip. Drilled out a tappered whole in the middle, glued them on, and shapped them on the bow. Im sure there are several ways to skin this cat, this was just the way I did it.

RLoving1

I use to have some elephant ivory laying around but gave it away.They were big chunks you could cut tips out of easily.I didn't have a use for it and gave it to a knife maker,it was about the time folks were pshyco over the word "elephant ivory" so figured he could find a use for it!

bigcountry

Holy cow, I bet that fella was very appreciative.