Draughtraven Hand Made Viking Drinking Horn and Leather Belt Hanger | Natural Ox Horn | Polished Steel Rim and Tip Band with Engraved Raven Strap | Norse Feast Gift | RK-1672

The Draughtraven is a drinking horn cut from a single natural ox horn, polished inside and out, banded in steel at the mouth and again at the tip, and sold with a black leather belt hanger that carries an engraved raven. The horn on this one runs from smoky amber at the tip through to a dark grey band across the belly, which is the natural layering of the keratin showing through the polish rather than a stain or a dye.

Drinking horns turn up all over the Norse world, from the Gallehus horns of southern Jutland to the mounts pulled out of the Sutton Hoo ship burial, and the archaeology tells you something practical about them. Almost every surviving example is a rim mount, a tip cap or a hanging ring, because the horn itself rots and the metal does not. That is why a horn will not stand up on its own and why a Viking carried it hanging from a belt, drank what was in it and passed it on. Ours is made and finished in the Czech Republic, sealed food safe, and it ships with the leather hanger so it can be worn the way it was meant to be. It sits in the drinking horns, a step across from the horn mugs and tankards.

Specifications

How a drinking horn is sealed food safe

A raw horn is not ready to drink from. It comes off the animal with a soft inner core still in it, and the walls carry a faint smell that will find its way into anything you pour in. Making it usable is a slow job. The core is removed, the inside is scraped back to hard clean keratin, then the whole horn is boiled and washed to strip out the last of the residue and to kill the smell at the source rather than covering it.

After that the interior is sanded smooth, because a rough wall traps liquid in a way a smooth one does not, and finally it is sealed. We use a food safe interior coating rather than a wax or a varnish. Wax melts if you pour a hot drink in and a hard varnish cracks when the horn flexes, and both of those failures put the coating into the drink. A proper seal stays put, does not flavour what is in it and keeps the beer or the mead off the keratin.

The steel rim band does two useful things. It protects the mouth of the horn, which is the thinnest and most vulnerable part, and it gives you a clean edge to drink from rather than the cut face of the horn wall. The band at the tip is there for the same reason at the other end, and it makes the horn feel balanced in the hand rather than tapering away to nothing.

The horn and the leather

Ox horn is keratin, the same material as a fingernail, laid down in layers over the animal’s life. Those layers are why one horn is honey coloured and the next is charcoal, and why the same horn can be translucent enough to hold light at the tip and completely opaque across the middle. Nothing has been done to change that. We sand through the grades, buff the outside to a soft shine and leave the colour where nature put it.

The hanger is cut from black leather with a folded loop and a brushed steel roller buckle, and the raven is cut into the face of the strap rather than printed on it. The loop is sized to take a normal trouser or kilt belt, and the roller in the buckle means you can size it once and then leave it alone without the tongue chewing through the strap. Edges are burnished by hand so they do not fray.

Engraving, runes and your own design

Use the rune converter on this page to turn a name, a date or a short phrase into Elder Futhark and we will cut it into the steel, the leather or the wood. If you would rather have a Viking pattern than a rune line, choose your own design in the engraving option above the add to cart button and tell us where it goes. Where a piece already carries an engraved design, your chosen engraving replaces it rather than sitting alongside it. On this piece that means your engraving takes the place of the raven on the leather strap, or it can run around the outer curve of the horn instead. Full details are on the engraving page.

Fit and sizing

The hanger is the part that needs sizing, not the horn. The loop takes a belt up to about one and a half inches wide, which covers most leather belts and most kilt belts. If you wear a wide reenactment belt of two inches or more, measure it before you order and tell us, because we can make the loop to suit.

To hang the horn, thread your belt through the loop, then drop the horn through the buckled strap so the strap sits around the belly of the horn and the mouth points up and slightly out. Snug the buckle until the horn stops sliding. Do not tighten it so hard that the leather bites into the horn, because you want to be able to lift it out one handed. Worn at the hip, a horn this size sits comfortably and does not swing into your leg when you walk.

Care

Wash the horn by hand in warm water with a little mild soap, rinse it and stand it upside down to drain. Never put it in a dishwasher. The heat and the long soak will lift the seal, cloud the polish and can split the horn outright, and no amount of care afterwards will bring it back. Do not leave a drink standing in it overnight either. Empty it, rinse it and let it dry.

Keep it away from direct heat and long sun. Horn is a natural material and it dries out like wood does, so a horn left on a sunny windowsill for a year will lose its depth of colour. If the outside starts to look dull, a very small amount of food safe mineral oil rubbed in with a cloth brings the shine back. Feed the leather hanger once or twice a year with a leather balm and dry it away from a radiator if it gets soaked. Wipe the steel bands dry after washing.

Made in the Czech Republic

This is a handmade piece from the Czech Republic, made in a workshop that still forges, grinds and finishes by hand instead of stamping parts out. The smiths there have kept the older way of working, and the wood, horn and leather are shaped and fitted by hand as well. Two pieces of the same design will never be identical, and that is part of what you are buying.

Ransack Viking is a United States company. We handle the import ourselves, look over every piece when it lands and ship from our warehouse in Memphis, Tennessee. Engraving is done in the United States after the piece arrives, so your design goes on before we send it out.

A note on handmade variation

This is hand made rather than machine made or bulk produced, so what arrives will not be a pixel for pixel copy of the photograph. Every horn differs in colour, curve and translucency. Yours may be lighter or darker, more sharply curved or straighter, and the banding of amber and grey will fall in a different place. The leather will take its stamp and its finish slightly differently too. The capacity, the fittings, the seal and the build are the same every time. The character is not. Anyone new to this should read the Viking wedding gifts first, then Odin’s ravens.

Frequently asked questions

Is it food safe and can I drink beer from it

Yes. The interior is scraped, boiled, sanded and sealed with a food safe coating, so beer, mead, cider and wine are all fine. Avoid boiling hot drinks.

Will it stand up on its own

No. A horn has a curved tip and no flat base, which is why it hangs from a belt or sits in a stand. That is how they were used and it is why a horn gets emptied and passed on.

Is the belt included

The leather hanger is included. Your own belt is not. The loop suits belts up to about one and a half inches wide.

Can I put it in the dishwasher

No. Hand wash only. A dishwasher will lift the interior seal and can split the horn, and that is not covered by the warranty.

Will mine look like the photograph

It will be the same size, seal and fittings, but the colour and curve are natural and will differ. If you want a specifically light or dark horn, tell us in the order notes and we will pick as close as we can.

Can I have runes cut into it

Yes. Runes can run around the outer curve of the horn or across the leather strap. Use the rune converter on this page.

What is in the box

• Draughtraven natural ox horn drinking horn, food safe sealed interior
• Polished steel rim band and steel tip band
• Black leather belt hanger with engraved raven and steel roller buckle
• Care card for horn and vegetable tanned leather
• Lifetime warranty against defects in the fittings and build
• Made and finished in the Czech Republic

Explore the range

See more in drinking horns, horn mugs and tankards, accessories and wedding and groomsmen gifts, or read the guides.