Just to throw in a word of caution with horn....all horn is nothing more than compressed hair. Keep in mind that while it can be boiled and flattened, with atmospheric changes, it will move, and if it happens to go from a very dry to a very wet climate, the horn will often try to revert to it's original shape.
A number of years ago I learned this the hard with with sheep horn, I build a large knife for a gentleman in Florida with sheep horn scales that I had boiled/flattened. The slabs where attached with acraglass and loveless bolts. This was a "user" that the customer intended on killing gators with.
About a month after the gentleman received the knife, I got a phone call from him saying that the slabs were pulling away from the tang. I of course had him send it back, and when I opened the box I was shocked! The sheep horn had curled, and pulled through the loveless bolt on the rear of the tang!!
I finished taking that slab off, and put it in a can of water on the bench just to see what would happen. Within two days it was back to almost it's original shape! That situation taught me a great deal about horn...... It's gona move, and is extremely susceptible to moisture changes.
I still use horn, but am very aware of it's drawbacks and am very careful about the situations/knives it's place on.
By the way, I managed to talk the customer into synthetic handle material and he has since sent me many photos of that knife jammed into various gators' heads.
