David Templeton's Seldom Seen: Horns aplenty
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Wild Willy -- a local character with bristled beard and gray ponytail -- is a full-time "horner" in an age when horners face the same market projections as full-time coopers, wheelwrights and cobblers.
Full-time anachronisms, or so one might think.
But in Wild Willy's way of thinking, history is not a thing of the past.
As a horner for 12 years, he's earning a living inside a 250-year time warp by horning in on a niche market of collectors, re-enactors, historians and movie makers. Along the way, Wild Willy and fellow horners keep history alive and kicking.
William "Wild Willy" Frankfort, 46, of Union, makes fine powder horns, spoons, cups, combs, humidors, snuff boxes, flasks, containers, knife and handgun handles, among other items, from animal horn.
Then he decorates them with scrimshaw -- a method of carving or engraving bone or ivory.
During most of the past millennium, people used cow, bison and oxen horns the way we modern folks use plastic. The durable, pliable material can be heated, molded or carved into various shapes.
Once sanded and polished, it is engraved to turn the powder horn, humidor or snuff box into artwork featuring lettering, maps and historic scenes.
And this weekend is a big one for horners nationwide.
From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. today, Wild Willy and fellow horners will demonstrate their skills, display horn-ware and discuss its history at the Senator John Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center on Smallman Street.
"They are here to enhance the exhibit, 'The Clash of Empires: The British, French and Indian War,' that the history center developed," said Nancy Cain McCombe, history center director of community programs. "This is the perfect complement. This is their time, this is their era, and we are excited to be highlighting the group."
Horners also will spend the weekend judging fellow horners' works at the history center and Fort Pitt Museum in Point State Park.
"Few people know what any of this is about," Wild Willie said, noting a lack of historical information about horn work. "I eat with a horn spoon and a sticker [fork] all the time. I also have a horn bowl, a snuff box and two horn-handled knives.
"This is just neat stuff."
Wild Willy also carries dice made of horn, which he uses in a barroom gambling game. (He also carries colonial money.)
"In England, one could tell a horner by how he dressed and how he smelled, especially if it was a wet day," he said.
The display of horn-ware at the history center and Fort Pitt Museum exceeds the Smithsonian Institution's collection, he said.
For a year now, Wild Willy has served as guild master of the Honourable Company of Horners, which has as many as 180 members, and four masters, Wild Willy included. The guild includes journeymen working to become master horners, along with collectors and historians.
This weekend's Annual Horners Guild Show and Conference was expected to draw as many as 50 guild members. The conference also marks the end to Wild Willie's yearlong tenure as guild master.
Besides being a horner, Wild Willy also serves as an 18th century re-enactor and historian who presents talks on the topic as an expert on living history. He and other horners have been active producing items used in such movies as "The Patriot," "The Last of the Mohicans," and "The Alamo."
"We did most of the powder horns and bags they were carrying," he said of the movies. "If George Washington is carrying it in the movie, it has to be good. People call and say, 'Make me that horn that Mel Gibson is carrying in 'The Patriot.' "
Unfortunately that black powder horn was made of bison horn, which is rare nowadays. It was decorated with a white point and bands.
When guild members speak to each another, outsiders have a hard time understanding them because they speak their own language. Horning requires unique tools, equipment, techniques and chemicals. It also requires skill in using wood, metal and leather.
"It's like when you get a band of scientists get together," he said. "No one understands them but them."
Nowadays, horners have turned their attention to making items to hang on walls or above fireplaces in colonial, rustic or country homes in an attempt to expand the market for their ware. "If it's not expensive, no one will want it," Wild Willy said.
Anyone who orders products from a horner must be prepared to wait up to a month or two for delivery. "You can't walk up to Monet, push a button atop his head and a painting comes out on a tray on the side," he said. "It takes time to produce this stuff."
Wild Willy has made hundreds of items, including about 1,700 powder horns, most bearing elaborate scrimshaw maps, designs and pictures.
Items made from horn can be pricey. Powder horns with detailed scrimshaw can run $1,200. Small humidors can cost $300.
With his horns, Wild Willy makes a point that he's a living historian. He's mastered the time-honored skill of making useful products from outgrowths from cow noggins.
And his knowledge of history, especially 18th century frontier culture, clothing, food utensils, weapons, arts and crafts is almost as impressive as his horn-renderings.
He's an avid reader of journals and history, with a main interest in lifestyle and culture rather than details of major events.
An 18th century re-enactor, he's portrayed various characters from the French and Indian War, the American Revolution and the Whiskey Rebellion. He regularly travels to shows and exhibits to sell his creations and participate in re-enactments. He's a skilled marksman with black-powder muskets, uses 18th century techniques to catch fish and is expert in cooking the way frontiersmen did 250 years ago.
As a young teen, Wild Willy was an artist in the Avonworth School District and turned out artwork he described as wild, far out. One day his father's friend asked him to do scrimshaw on the handle pieces of a buck knife. The job brought him $45.
A graduate of the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, he held jobs in marketing and advertising, serving as an artist who made large signs. But after a back injury, he refocused attention on the age-old skills of the horner.
He now spends his hours making eye-catching pieces guaranteed to incite some conversation.
For more information, call him on the horn at 724-348-9705.
First Published March 5, 2006 12:00 am
