Cow Horns

These Nigerian cow horns, and the spoons made from them, are made from keratin, the same material that makes up the human hair brush and the human toenail (Material ID 1887) in our collection. The toenail and these cow horns are tough, thick and transparent, while the hair is colourful and relatively fragile. This is to do with the shape of the little bits of keratin that make up hair, horn and nails, as well as the way they are arranged. This is an example of the way the microstructure of a material determines its mechanical and aesthetic properties. 

Horn was what was used before modern synthetic plastics because it is a natural thermoplastic protein, which means it can be shaped by heat and pressure into things like our horn spoons, combs and mugs. These examples were collected during a horn-working masterclass run by Abbeyhorn, the last remaining horn works in the UK.