Just returned from Conner Prairie's one week Arms Making Seminar where I was enrolled in Roland Cadle's powderhorn class and Ken Scott's Hunting Bag class.
Now, I've made powder horns before, but all of my horns were scraped affairs in the manner of Ron Ehlert. Ron really has the French-Indian horns down and the horn he presented to Marion Stewart when she was president of the NRA may be seen at the NRA National Firearms Museum. Roland Cadle is a master of the screw tip powderhorn. These are the horns that came out of Virginia and had detachable tips (in addition to wood stoppers). They also featured a large lathe turned butt plug and some of these were internally threaded to detach for facilitating the loading of powder. I settled for the simpler York County horn that has a simple butt plug and a screw tip. Other folks made fancier horns start simple and build from there. Class was fun and Roland is well known in the blackpower scene. He made horns that have appeared in about 3 or 4 movies including Last of the Mohicans and the horn carried by Mel Gibson in The Patriot.
The other class I took was hunting bag with Ken Scott. Like Roland, Ken holds back no secrets and shares all his years of experience with his students. You decide what type of bag you want, make your pattern, cut your material and begin sewing. I picked out a double bag out of LaCrosse's The Frontier Rifleman. For a strap, I decided to go with a woven strap and bought a nice one from the ladies who teach and run the weaving program. As I was slow, I took the bag home the first night to work on it. Ken had tought about my slow progress and was going to suggest that I scrap it and start fresh w/out lining it. When he saw that I had completed the first part at home, he chuckled to himself. I later learned that my awl was useless and a better awl was procured to speed up the sewing. After the bag was completed, we proceeded to age them so as to make them look like they've been in the woods. Won't go into it here but suggest for anyone interested to take Ken's class.
Other classes linclude blacksmithing (one student who's been at it hammer forged a dasmascus pistol barrel for himself - most guys make knives and tomahawks), relief carving with Jim Chambers, engraving with John Shipper (sic), kit assembly with John Westin, hearth cooking, weaving (Jane Pigeon and Sue Payne) and quillwork (Lolly House). The classes are all worth while and I'm returning next year for more.
http://www.connerprairie.org
Now, I've made powder horns before, but all of my horns were scraped affairs in the manner of Ron Ehlert. Ron really has the French-Indian horns down and the horn he presented to Marion Stewart when she was president of the NRA may be seen at the NRA National Firearms Museum. Roland Cadle is a master of the screw tip powderhorn. These are the horns that came out of Virginia and had detachable tips (in addition to wood stoppers). They also featured a large lathe turned butt plug and some of these were internally threaded to detach for facilitating the loading of powder. I settled for the simpler York County horn that has a simple butt plug and a screw tip. Other folks made fancier horns start simple and build from there. Class was fun and Roland is well known in the blackpower scene. He made horns that have appeared in about 3 or 4 movies including Last of the Mohicans and the horn carried by Mel Gibson in The Patriot.
The other class I took was hunting bag with Ken Scott. Like Roland, Ken holds back no secrets and shares all his years of experience with his students. You decide what type of bag you want, make your pattern, cut your material and begin sewing. I picked out a double bag out of LaCrosse's The Frontier Rifleman. For a strap, I decided to go with a woven strap and bought a nice one from the ladies who teach and run the weaving program. As I was slow, I took the bag home the first night to work on it. Ken had tought about my slow progress and was going to suggest that I scrap it and start fresh w/out lining it. When he saw that I had completed the first part at home, he chuckled to himself. I later learned that my awl was useless and a better awl was procured to speed up the sewing. After the bag was completed, we proceeded to age them so as to make them look like they've been in the woods. Won't go into it here but suggest for anyone interested to take Ken's class.
Other classes linclude blacksmithing (one student who's been at it hammer forged a dasmascus pistol barrel for himself - most guys make knives and tomahawks), relief carving with Jim Chambers, engraving with John Shipper (sic), kit assembly with John Westin, hearth cooking, weaving (Jane Pigeon and Sue Payne) and quillwork (Lolly House). The classes are all worth while and I'm returning next year for more.
http://www.connerprairie.org
