{"id":1087,"date":"2026-04-12T16:29:27","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T23:29:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/johnericsonhorn.com\/?p=1087"},"modified":"2026-04-18T14:59:42","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T21:59:42","slug":"before-photos-of-a-french-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnericsonhorn.com\/?p=1087","title":{"rendered":"“Before” photos of a French project"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I’m calling this horn the “French” horn project, as the basic horn body is a French style piston horn, as seen below. An eBay find, this is what it looked like out of the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The bell is kind of mangled but there are some “good bones” for a nice natural horn. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This type of horn is exactly the type I would like to do this type of project with as well. If it were complete and by a well-known maker, I would not do it. In this case, it’s missing one piston entirely and there are no crooks. But of the basic tubing, most of it can be used, I just have to replace everything in the valve section area, and the bore is .440, perfect for a natural horn. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Look at those nice artistic braces. And the bell size is a good one for hand stopping. This will make a very workable natural horn in the French style. As I write this I have the stuck slides all out and I’m pondering options, I will need to completely rebuild the main slide area, most likely using the tubes from the third valve slide. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who made it? <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As of now it’s a mystery, and it may be one for a long time. The only marking I can find is this “H” stamped on the bell. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

H? I don’t think it is Hawkes. It’s no major maker, and might have been a “stencil” horn of the time. As I work on it more maybe something else will appear. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’m working now on making a good inventory of the natural horn parts I have on hand and what I need to obtain to at least make F, E, and Eb crooks and a D\/C coupler for this and the Glassl bell horn. Will be and interesting project. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

UPDATE:<\/strong> I’m about to take the horn apart and I figured out that the first slide on the main slide is smaller bore. Horn itself is .440 but that slide is probably .430, maybe .435. I’m hoping I can get .435 to work, as I have a brand new slide I can use. Will see how it all goes. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m calling this horn the “French” horn project, as the basic horn body is a French style piston horn, as seen below. An eBay find, … Read More ›<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1088,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-horn-building"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/johnericsonhorn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/French-horn-1.jpeg?fit=1440%2C1920&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnericsonhorn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnericsonhorn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnericsonhorn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnericsonhorn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnericsonhorn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1087"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/johnericsonhorn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1087\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1095,"href":"https:\/\/johnericsonhorn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1087\/revisions\/1095"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnericsonhorn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnericsonhorn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnericsonhorn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnericsonhorn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}