Here is a bolo I recently received. I knew exactly what kind of shape it was in before I bought it because of the detailed pictures the seller provided. The horn hilt has an extreme amount of worm damage.
I really hate it when I see things like this bolo that were completely neglected and left to rot with no attempt being made to preserve them at all.
To keep from having to grind off the end of the tang to remove the grip and then carve a new one out of horn I opted to replace the damaged areas with epoxy putty. This way I could also retain what is left of the original grip and stabilize it at the same time. The pictures show what it looked like when first received and what it looks like now. At this point it is only roughed in and not yet smooth enough to be stained to match the original horn. I will post more pictures when I am finished with it. My question to all is, what would you have done if this was yours?
Robert