John EricsonThe first project done in my push before the summer closes down my shop is what I’m calling the “French” natural horn. The only marking on the body of the horn, as noted earlier in this series, is a simple letter “H.” And it’s worth clicking back to that post, as you can see the horn “before.”
And the body is done
I’m happy how it came out. I really like the curved braces. Also note the nickel silver decorative details on the main slide.
Only one part on the horn is not original to the horn as it came to me, and that is the tube that leads from the crook socket to the main slide, which was bent from fresh .440 bore tubing. And, also, of course, the two patches I added to the first branch and the patch on the rim of the bell.
I did add a serial number to this horn, JE 426 which translates into John Ericson, April 2026. This will be my system going forward, and I have a couple other horns to mark.
It plays well with crooks I have on hand as well, nicely in pitch! Yay. Just need to make crooks …
Next steps?
I do need to make crooks. I think my next steps though will be to go back to the Glassl bell and work on that. It was good to take a break because I missed the completely obvious solution to the first branch question.
Ideally, I make two crooks and a coupler for both of these natural horns before I’m shut down. I have almost all the parts I need to do that.
I’m also looking at a project not yet mentioned, one that involves making a .450 bore body for a wonderful vintage Schmidt single horn bell. Puzzling on that and sweating somewhat variations of tubing sizes between different source horns. It’s a fun puzzle.