Paul,

I haven't used any impala horn but I have made two knives using gemsbok horn. The first knife had a hidden tang with the handle being very much "sanded to shape" so to speak, in other words not much natural texture left. On that one I just used some renaissance wax to seal and finish the handle.

The second knife was of full tange construction designed to keep the natural texture... or most of it any way. In other words, i just knocked off the high spots and the rest was left as nature created it. I didn't do much to seal it either. On this one I just rubbed some lanolin into it. I tried the lanolin on it because of some conversations with folks that had used ram's horn. it's what they used and the material seemed pretty similar... compressed hair. The natural oils from the hand do a lot to condition these types of materials. Lanolin will give it a boost when the material starts to "dry out".

One suggestion if you plan to rub anything into the horn with it in a natural state... use a lint free rag to clean off any excess. The horn can act a lot like velcro and will hang on to lint, paper towel fragments, etc. A toothbrush worked really well to work it down into the cracks and crevices.

Hopefully someone with more experience will help us both out.

Good luck.

Rick

Rick,

Perfect, thanks!

I plan to leave it as natural as possible. The texture is great but it just needs something to make it "Pop" or have a new look to it.

I was thinking about ren-wax but wasn't sure it would be enough. I have a scrap piece so I am going to try the lanolin. The tooth brush is a great suggestion. I am sure I would have just grabbed a paper towel and then spent the next half hour picking shredded paper out of the little rough spots!

PB

No problem Paul... post some pictures when you're done.