I have no experience with this at all but if horn is easier to work with couldn’t you want the whole thing out of horn and insert a weight into the handle, a totally black horn bachi would look great!
this is the first experience i’ve had with horn so i wanted to start small. Yeah would look so cool.
I’m not sure if you could get a big enough piece of horn that would be flat enough (as the materials for making sheets are heavy and expensive)
I also think epoxy is the right choice for a strat , if it does not work well you can try something else , but i don’t see any reason why it would not work.
The main problem with making a bachi only with horn is that you would have either to find a very big horn , or to glue multiple parts to get one solid piece the size you need , and it can look pretty bad or even not be as solid as you want , and not to mention that it probably will take much more time to do.
by the way Amanda , here is two pictures of the plates i told you about :
(sorry for the bad pictures)
I tried to work a bit with it this afternoon , with just a scraper like this
and it works like a charm , it’s so easy to work with you would scrape the whole plate 
, now i will have to find out if it works great to make a bachi , but i know they use the exact same material to make guitar picks , and they can make picks about 1mm thick and it’s still durable and soft enough .
excellent!
It was one of the materials i was looking at when trying to find out about flexibility and strength.
haven’t done any bachi work today, too busy with study, shopping and baking biscuits XD
I promise i shall take some photos tomorrow after the next session.
I think everyone will forgive you if you bake cookies for each of us :-} (pictures of the biscuits will do the job i guess :p)
TADA!
you are forgiven ! yummy yummy
OMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOM
The main problem with making a bachi only with horn is that you would have either to find a very big horn , or to glue multiple parts to get one solid piece the size you need , and it can look pretty bad or even not be as solid as you want , and not to mention that it probably will take much more time to do.
Actually, cheaper bekkou bachi are made that way (gluing two thinner pieces together). The expensive bachi is made from a single piece of shell cut down the middle.
Sold me on the cookies!!! Ok, where do I sign up for a preorder of my Amanda Groves custom bachi???
The question is…
Free cookies with each bachi order, or free bachi with every cookie order. 
there’s only five biccies left now…
todays progress:
Cut and sanded down/shaped the prong part that will go inside the horn
Cut the split on the hornblade
Amazing. I’m really loving the photos.
another UPDATE:
Boiled the horn for 20 minutes (was expecting it to reek but it didn’t smell of anything) And made the first SPLIT!!! it was nerve wracking as i hit it with the acrylic hammer. I needed to have gone down a few more mm’s with the sawing, but leaving the horn to dry and set in position means i will have to wait a bit longer.
closer:
I’m a little bit scared that the tenon will not last for a long time but anyway good job Amanda ! So how is the horn after boiling? Softer , harder?
it was strange, it didn’t feel flexible at all but then when i eased in the handle it opened with encouragement. I only tapped it a few times with the hammer, not hard, and it was in there.
I can understand why you would feel that the tenon wouldn’t last, BUT i used a very hard wood on the janka scale and also the wood grain direction makes it stronger.
I am confident the join will hold itself, i am more afraid the glue i will use will not be up to the task at this point.
I think if i did it again from the start i would boil the horn for longer as it was quite thick.
ok so it will last without any problem then 
! I really look forward for the glue test , to see what holds and what does not work at all (if it happens, let’s hope not!)
It seems to be a weird feeling to work with boiled bone , i hope to be able to try it someday .
FIRST SANDING!
new photos, i ended up using 2 part epoxy glue to glue it. At this stage i really just want this finished as I’ve done most of it by hand an i’m running low on energy (hence the not perfect gap on one side.)
My dad managed to get a detail sander working for me so although progress is slow, it is better than nothing.
I was really unhappy so spent 2 hours trimming it with a craft knife and shaping.
i think it’s beginning to look more like it should now, mostly sanding and shaping the blade to do now before polishing.
It looks great Amanda! Im sure you will create a very good bachi.
Thanks again Amanda for keeping us updated on your progress!