Welcome to a photo gallery of Alphorns and other wooden horns!
It takes skills, patience and determination to build an Alphorn! If you have successfully built an Alphorn or other wooden horn and would like to showcase it here, please send photos of your horn, any links to your sites, and info on your location, to jason@argobuilder.com, and I will include it in this gallery. I will also include other wooden horns such as Büchels or Lurs if you would like to share those.
Please note that I do reserve the right to decide which words and which photos get posted on this site. Please include your first name and your location so I can update the map. This page is primarily for homemade wooden horns, but I will also post alphorns from professionals if professionals send me photos and descriptions of horns they built themselves.
Map of wooden horn builder locations. Red dots represent locations where the horns on this page were built. The gallery is up to 5 Alphorns!
F Alphorn Built from Sitka Spruce, Built by Jason in Merton, Wisconsin, USA, in 2020.
One-Piece F Alphorn built in Wisconsin USA of Sitka Spruce, with a birdsmouth main trunk construction and traditionally carved bell. Walnut, Cherry, and Hard Maple trim rings.
Sitka spruce Alphorn, with Black Walnut and Maple trim rings, and with local flower paintings. Wisconsin USA 2020.
I designed and made these experimental PETG mouthpieces on my 3D printer. The drawings and .stl files for these are on my "Making an Alphorn" page.
F# Alphorn built by Scott in Green Bay, Wisconsin USA, 2020
Beautiful work, Scott! The darker stained wrapping matches the bell-ring perfectly and I like the green bell.....maybe you can play it at a Packer Game! Congrats on your finished product and thanks for sending in the photo.
Alphorn built by Kelly in Vancouver, Washington, USA, 2021.
This one-of-a-kind Alphorn, with lovely bell painting, was built by Kelly in Vancouver Washington, and is tuned to F. Great work Kelly and congrats on completing this beautiful instrument.
Viking Lur, built by Jason in Merton, Wisconsin 2020.
Authentic Viking Lur made by chopping down a willow limb, cutting it in half, hollowing out the middle, carving a mouthpiece into the same piece of wood that the horn is made from, and wrapping it with willow rings. Build log here.
Viking Lur, made of Willow, in Wisconsin.
Alphorn built by Stephen in Centreville, Virginia, USA, 2021
Congratulations Stephen on this Alphorn that you built with expert woodworking skills and wonderful design creativity. This alphorn is made in segments so that it may be disassembled. It is made of pine with steamed White Oak reinforcements around the sockets where the sections connect. Stephen used birdsmouth joinery for the trunk and also used a new very creative method of building the bell. The bell was made by first building a birdsmouth straight conical bell, then cutting that into wedge cross sections and regluing them together to make a curved bell. Fantastic!! Stephen's alphorn is not wrapped with reed and does not have hardwood rings at the bell-end; this gives it a unique and clean look. Check out this amazing instrument below. Stephen, thanks for sharing photos of your fine creation.
Stephen with his finely crafted alphorn in Virginia.
Check out this woodworking mastery! Steam-bent shaker style white oak reinforces the socket connection where the sections connect. Ace work!
Here is Stephen's alphorn bell in-progress. Tapered , straight, birdsmouth cone.
Next he cut the straight bell into angled sections that when reassembled formed a curved bell.
Stephen's alphorn bell glued back together and sanded. I love the creativity and workmanship. Thanks Stephen.
Pine and Fir Alphorn Built by Jason in Wisconsin, USA
This is the second alphorn I built, and the goals of this second horn are: 1. Built in sections for easy transport 2. Lightweight with no wrapping around the outside of the horn 3. Simpler rustic look vs my first one, for example there are knots in the wood, it features a sorghum stalk woven handle, deer antler foot, no hardwood rings on the bell and a some carving marks are left to be seen in the bell. 4. The experiment was to build an alphorn from low cost construction lumber...the wood for this horn cost $59.00. More details on how I built this horn may be found on my Alphorn building page.
