Making an Alphorn

Alphorns, also known as Alpine Horns or Alpenhorns, make a warm, rich, sonorous, mysterious sound; their history is old and married to the Alps. They are beautiful pieces of woodworking also. I wanted to play one, so I set out to build one. I built the Alphorns shown below in my workshop in Wisconsin, USA.

Page Contents:
1. Background information on Alphorns
2. Photos of my finished Alphorn
3. Alphorn and mouthpiece dimensional drawings
4. Build log of making alphorn mouthpieces
5. Complete build log of my first Alphorn. This Alphorn is made of Sitka Spruce, is a one-piece alphorn, and is fully wrapped with wooden reed wrapping.
6. Build log of my second alphorn. The intent of this 2nd alphorn was to build an alphorn from very inexpensive, readily available construction lumber, and also to build a lightweight horn that breaks down into 3 sections for easier transportation.

These are the two Alphorns that I built. Build-logs for both of these alphorns are on this page.

Alphorns being played in Switzerland; photo from Wikipedia.

Here is the Alphorn that I built. The build log for this Alphorn is below. Photo taken March 21 at Ausblick Ski Hill in Wisconsin, USA.

This is me and the homemade Alphorn I built; seeing a person in the photo helps show just how big these horns are.

I built my Alphorn to the tune of F. It is approximately 12' 3" long.

I built my alphorn of Sitka Spruce, with Black Walnut, Maple, and Cherry trim rings. On the bell, I painted local Spring wildflowers.

Mouthpiece end of my Alphorn

Overview Video of the Construction of this Alphorn

A Brief History of Alphorns

Alphorn Drawings by a Novice Alphorn Builder

Alphorn, or Alpen Horn, or Alpine Horn, general arrangement drawing with Alphorn dimensions.

Alphorn mouthpiece dimensions. One can make an endless range of mouthpieces with varying cup diameters, cup depth, cup shape, rim width and shape, bore diameter and shape. The bore should reduce to around 3/16" at the base of the bowl, and then expand out to 5/16 or so at the discharge end of the mouthpiece, but with my tools, I am limited to straight bores when making the mouthpiece from wood. I have made three so far, all pictured further below on this page. Smaller diameter mouthpieces can help playing higher notes, and larger diameter mouthpieces can be better suited for lower notes.

Here is my latest 20mm alphorn mouthpiece design, including a tapered inner bore.

Here is my latest 18mm alphorn mouthpiece design, including a tapered inner bore.

My guide to building an alphorn is below, but first, a section on making mouthpieces

Making an Alphorn Mouthpiece

Hard Maple blank , cut into a rough octagon before turning.

The start of turning the Alphorn mouthpiece.

Checking dimensions with a caliper, from drawing to the piece.

Checking dimensions from the drawing vs the work piece.

The Alphorn mouth piece is coming along.

Here is the rough-turned and rough sanded Alphorn mouthpiece, removed from the lathe.

Drilling the bore through the stem of the mouthpiece

I played my Alphorn and the 1st mouthpiece worked well, but being used to a trombone mouthpiece I wanted one a bit bigger so I made one of cherry similar to a trombone mouthpiece. It is not a huge project to make these mouthpieces so I will make a few and try them.

Finished cherry Alphorn mouthpiece, a bit bigger than the maple one I made.

I have been experimenting with making and playing mouthpieces of different cup diameters, depth, internal shape, bore diameter, and rim width/shape. I have wound up so far with small, medium, and large versions of the mouth piece. Note that the outer shape of the cup does not reflect what the inner cup shape is....

Experimentation: 3D printed Alphorn Mouthpieces

3D Printed Alphorn Mouthpiece. Printed in PETG material.

Here are some of my finished 3D printed PETG mouthpieces. The big opne is 25mm, followed by my favorite sizes: 18mm and 20mm.

Below are two build logs of Alphorn projects. 
​1. The first is a Sitka Spruce Alphorn wrapped in wood reed.  This is a one piece alphorn.
2. The second build log is for an Alphorn built out of low cost SPF (Spruce, Pine or Fir) construction lumber.  This alphorn will not be wrapped in wood reed and will be cut into segments so that it can be disassembled.

Build Log 1 of 2: Making an Alphorn Out of Sitka Spruce and Wrapped with Wooden Reeds:

​Sitka Spruce

Sitka Spruce, growing in Olympic National Park.

Two 4/4 x 6 x 17' rough sawn Sitka Spruce boards from McCormick Lumber in Madison Wisconsin. Dimensions are 1.0" x 6" x 17'. These are perfectly straight, straight and vertical grained board with no knots. I built the alphorn from these two boards, plus a 4/4 x 6" x 7foot board I had in the basement, at the end of the project I was left with a 4/4 x 4 x 8 foot piece of Sitka Spruce remaining from this raw material.

Here you can see why this is such a sought-after wood; tight, vertical, straight grain, with no knots over a 17' to 20' length.

Making the Alpenhorn Bell

Sitka spruce pieces , cut to shape to build-up the laminations needed to make the Alpenhorn bell.

Using many clamps....

Here's what a little over one half of the bell laminations look like stacked up.

End-view of one half of the small end of the bell, rough at the initial glue-up stage.

Here are both halves of the Alphorn bell at the stage of initial lamination glue-up.

End-view of one half of the large end of the bell, at the initial glue-up stage.

Large end of bell, not glued up yet, but showing that the halves match nicely.

I drew the line for the end of the bell and cut it using the Japanese pull saw. Do this carefully.

Trimming the small diameter end of the bell to length.

I made these templates out of 1/4” plywood. I will use them to trace the bell OD and ID onto the wood.

With the two halves clamped (but not glued!) together just right, I traced the final bell shape onto the ends using the templates I had made.

Then I used a mortise gage to mark the wall thickness along the length.

Carving out the inside of the Alphorn bell with chisel and mallet! I had an odd number of laminations, so this “half” of the bell is less than half of the bell.

I have left the OD uncarved as I carve out the ID, in attempt to maintain strength of the wood as I chisel away from the ID. The strength of the chisel blows will surprise a person, as this Sitka is strong. WATCH THE TREE GROWTH LINES and understand that that woods splits along the grain. After a short time carving, a person will understad this and use it to their benefit. I am using my straight chisels for almost all of this carving because straight chisels are soooo much easier to sharpen. As I get closer to the finished ID I will use my curved chisel.

Still carving, carving, carving. Getting there. Soon I will start rough carving the outside of the bell.

Now I have to sand them smooth, but first I will carve the outer surface of the bell.

This half of the bell is flipped over and I will start rough carving the outside with a chisel.

Chipping away at the outer surface of the Alphorn bell.

Sitka is pretty tough, especially for a softwood tree. Working with sharp tools is a necessity. Today I took a break to sharpen chisels.

With chisel carving done, I will now smooth the exterior of the bell with a Shinto Rasp. The Shinto rasp is an amazing tool.

Here is one half of the Alpenhorn bell, with ID rough carved , and OD carved and rasped smooth.

Now I will start carving the outside of the other half. One tricky aspect of carving this bell is holding it tight so that it doesn’t move as one carves it. Note the support blocks that I have screwed into the work table. After implementing this method of securing the workpiece, the carving became more efficient.

Here are the two Alphorn Bell halves, resting together. Next I will sand the insides, and then I will glue the halves together.

I used a 3" diameter x 3" long sanding drum, chucked in a 1/2" handheld electric drill to sand the ID of the bell.

Titebond III glue applied to both halves of the alphorn bell.

Moment of truth! It fit together nicely, this was a big moment in the project.

I selected a nice local wood, a dark hardwood, Black Walnut, for the ring at the end of the bell. This is a 10.5" x 10.5" x 3/4" glue-up.

The exterior of the bell has been rough sanded with a random orbit sander.

The ring assembly on the end of the bell will consist of two hardwood rings, a Black Walnut ring will fit up to the face of the endgrain of the bell, and the hard Maple ring will fit over the OD of the end of the bell.

Cut the OD of the ring, then I used a router to round over the edge, then used a sabre saw to cut out the ID.

Maple ring ready for installation

Black Walnut ring, ready for installation.

I used a two part epoxy to glue the rings to the bell and to each other. It's tough to see in the photo but the small end of the bell is resting up against a wooden brace to hold it in alignment so that the big face of the bell is laying flat on the ring. Be sure to wear latex gloves when working with epoxy.

Using a rasp to shape the flare of the ring at the end of the bell.

Sanding, sanding, sanding...

Rough sanding is all done.

I measured out the approximate size of the space available for artowork on the top of the bell, and arrived at approx 8" Long x 2" at the narrow end x 5" at the wide end. I sketched out that area on a piece of paper and then sketched out the floral theme I will use. I drew springtime wildflowers that are native to my home here in Wisconsin; from left to right: Wood Violets, Trillium, and Buttercups.

At the large end of the trunk and the small end of the bell, I will epoxy Black Walnut ring flanges over the O.D. for reinforcement of that joint. Here are the rings in contruction.

Hardwood flange dry-fit on the end of the bell.

Making the long trunk of the Alpenhorn

4/4 x 6" x 10.5 foot rough sawn Sitka spruce being ripped into three 2" wide pieces. I cut one more 2" wide strip from a second board of Sitka Spruce.

Then I carefully ripped each of those four pieces down the middle to wind up with eight 1/2" x 2" x 10.5' pieces.

I will call these pieces that make up the trunk of the Alphorn, Staves. At this point I surface planed the staves to precisely 1cm thickness.

The staves are ripped to 43mm width. So now I have eight 10mm x 43mm full-length staves.

To cut the "birdsmouth" into the staves, carefully set the depth of the tablesaw, and carefully set the angle to 45deg and the fence in place. Test the cuts first on a piece of scrap wood cut to the exact same dimensions as the blank staves.

Here are the eight staves with the birdsmouths cut in.

I used a long straight-edge to draw out the taper onto the first stave.

I cut the taper into the stave using a Sabre Saw and then traced out the taper on the remaining 7 staves.

Here are all eight staves with the birdsmouths cut and the staves tapered to shape.

I cut three cradles from scrap plywood to assist in assembling the birdsmouth staves. I made sure they were perfectly level and straight.

First two staves of the birdsmouth Alphorn trunk glued together. Use ample glue and work fast!

Three staves in place.

The staves are vertical on either side. I made an inner support circle to help place the final staves on top, you can see this in the next photo, below.

I made the inner support circle from scrap wood including a little handle to make it easy to retrieve, and will remove it once all the pieces are locked in place.

Using zip ties to clamp the pieces together. Some jostling and pounding of the staves is necessary to make sure they are all seated in the birdsmouths. I am working down quickly with the zip ties from the large end to the small end.

The trunk of the Alphorn is glued up using the birdsmouth technique. I pushed a damp rag through the bore to remove any glue blobs. I will let it dry a good and long time, and then will get to work planing the OD round.

I used the Japanese pull saw to trim the big end of the trunk to length.

I let the glue dry a full 24hrs and then planed used a plane to round off the Alphorn trunk.

Birdsmouth Alphorn main trunk, planed to round, and sanded.

The finished walls of my alphorn are 5mm to 9mm thick.

The large end of the trunk and the small end of the bell, will both be fitted with hardwood ring flanges on their outer diameters. These will be epoxied on, and will in turn be epoxied together to attach the trunk to the bell. Here are the Black walnut flanges being made.

Hardwood flange, dry-fit on the O.D. of the large end of the Alphorn trunk, where it will meet the bell.

Attaching the Bell to the Trunk

First I used two part epoxy glue to glue on the hardwood flanges to the trunk and bell. Be sure to wear latex gloves when working with epoxy.

I let the epoxy on the flanges cure for about an hour. At that point it was well set but not at all fully cured. This was the point I wanted to glue the trunk to the bell, as I will get a good chemical epoxy bond on all faces of the epoxied joint. I gathered up a bunch of spring clamps. See the plastic covers on the jaws of the spring clamps? Take those off beforehand....they were too slippery and kept allowing the clamps to slip off, so I had to remove them in a hurry during the glue-up.

Alpenhorn bell epoxied to the trunk using a flanged joint.

So for the first time I got a view of the whole alphorn! Next I will tune it by cutting down the length at the mouthpiece end of the horn.

Tuning an Alphorn

The Mouthpiece-End-Ring,  the Foot, and Wrapping the Alphorn with Rattan

I found this nice thick solid piece of scrap Cherry in the shop, it is the center drop from a hole saw cut from a project a couple years ago. I will use it to make the little reinforcing ring near the mouthpiece.

Boring out the ring using the drill press, the only drill bit I had that was close in size to what I needed was a spade bit....not the best drill bit for this type of cut in a chunk of hardwood, but it's what I had. I was at least sharp, and it worked.

The hole from the drill-bit was too small, so I used a little drum sander chucked in the drill press to enlarge the ID to fit the Alpenhorn. I decided I wanted this ring to be about 75mm (3") down from the inlet end of the horn, which is a bit farther down that shown on my drawing.

I used the drum-sander chucked in a hand drill to carve the concave curve into the ring, then I handsanded the piece down and rounded the edges.

Finished ring, made of solid cherry, for the inlet end of the Alphorn.

Here is the ring glued in place with Tightbond III glue.

I rasped and sanded the flanges where the bell attaches to the trunk.

The foot of the Alphorn

I carefully cut a template out of cardstock and made sure that the curve of the top of the foot matched the bell perfectly.

I made the foot from 4/4 Sitka Spruce, with Black Walnut pads on the bottom. The cradle of the foot is cut at an angle so that the feet will be level with the ground when the horn is played.

The foot is adhered to the bell with two-part epoxy glue.

I rounded off the sharp edges of the foot pads.

Wrapping the Alphorn with Wood Reed

This is 1/4" Flat Oval Reed, which is used for basket making or chair-wicker, this is what I will use to wrap my Alphorn.

The reed arrives in coiled up bundles. Each piece is 8-14' long. (240-430cm)

I started wrapping the Alphorn trunk at the mouthpiece end, just down from the hardwood ring. Notice where the wrapping just starts on the left that I carved a long taper into the reed to start the wrap. I glued and clamped this down with a spring clamp and started wrapping. I watered down Titebond III glue applied it to the OD with a toothbrush prior to wrapping on the rattan. I applied about 5” of glue at a time. I don't want messy blobs of glue squeezing out onto the OD of these wraps, It would be a nightmare to try an sand the outside of these wraps while maintaining their curved profile. The watered down glue has worked perfect.

This is a photo of a 14 foot (430cm) length of reed wrapped around the narrow end of the Alpenhorn. As the diameter gets larger the horizontal coverage of each length of rattan will decrease. One learns many things building an Alphorn, and one of those things is just how many splices of reed wrapping it takes to wrap an Alphorn.

The spring clamp is holding the starting end of the rattan. Here I am applying watered down glue with the toothbrush on a section of the trunk prior to wrapping that section.

The clamp on the left is holding the starting end of the rattan wrap, the clamp on the right is the end of the length of the piece of rattan. I am using spring clamps which I leave in place for an hour, after which I splice on the next piece and move forward.

For the splice I taper down the reed from the top of the reed to the bottom on both pieces to be joined, then I use Titebond III (not watered down for the 1st inch of the wrap, and clamp the splice joint for an hour before unclamping. In the middle of this photo you can see a splice of the reeds. There will be more of these than I thought, as each reed only gets you 6-10" of distance along the horn length. I am locating all the splice joints on the bottom of the Alphorn trunk.

I saw some horns with a short section of wrapping on the small end of the bell, and I liked the look of that, so I did that. The spring clamps at the bottom of the picture are not being used to clamp the walnut flanges together, they are being used to press the narrow leading edge of tapered rattan wrapping against the trunk to keep it from moving. I located the end of the wrapping on the bottom of the bell where it will not be seen.

The diameter exceeded to jaw capacity of the spring-clamps, so at this point I am using adjustable c-clamps. You can see the typical coverage I am getting from each reed. The length-wise coverage is getting shorter and shorter as the diameter increases.

Whew, done wrapping the Alphorn tube. As the diameter got larger the horizontal coverage per strip of reed got smaller and smaller. I wound up using 32 individual strips of reed which were about 390 feet long combined (approx 12' long each).

Varnishing the Alphorn

Final little bit of sanding.

I planed down the end of the stick of wood and used it to hold the small end of the Alphorn during finishing.

I will finish the outside of the horn with Spar Varnish. This is actual regular spar varnish, not one of the many types that has this or that polyurethane etc... Just actual spar varnish.

I varnished the bell first, inside and out, then I flipped the Alphorn over and rested the big end in the cradle shown in the photo. I varnished the bottom of the trunk first, then flipped it back over onto its foot and varnished the top.

Even the first coat of varnish brings out nice color and depth of the wood and reed. After six coats, I wound up with a nice warm tone, and glossy surface. Pictures of the finished horn are at the bottom of the page below.

Looking down the Alpenhorn after the first coat of varnish.

Here she is after 4 coats, two more to go, but the final two coats will be after I paint the bell.

Painting an Alphorn Bell

I will use modelers enamel paint for painting the bell.

First, I sanded down down the varnish to provide a good surface for the enamel to adhere to. Here I am painting on a phrase in script.

I sketched the outline of my painting on a piece of paper, then I laid the paper on the bell and traced the lines while pressing into the wood with a ballpoint pen. The pen did not mark the wood, but I pressed hard enough to leave an indent in the wood to help me with painting.

Here is my sketch, after tracing along it with a ballpoint pen to indent the outline into the wood below.

I had the primary colors and made my green and purple by mixing colors in bottle caps.

Here is a photo of the painting in progress. The white and yellow will need a couple coats. The varnish was sanded down to provide a good surface for adhesion of the paint.

Completed Alphorn bell painting. The flowers are all local native wildflowers that bloom in Spring. The white one is a Trillium, the purple ones are the State flower of Wisconsin, Wood Violets, and the yellow ones are Buttercups.

Oiling the interior of the Alpenhorn

I carved a tapered bung to plug the mouthpiece end, prior to filling the horn with oil.

Here the Alphorn has been filled with 1 gallon penetrating wood oil. I turned the horn over and sloshed the oil all around inside. 1 gallon is not enough to actually fill the horn so one needs to rotate it around in order to get good internal coverage. I then removed the bung and poured the oil out the mouthpiece end.

Photos of the Finished Alphorn

Handmade Alphorn, built of Sitka Spruce, in Wisconsin in March and April of 2020.

I absolutely love the way the Alphorn sounds, and I love playing it!

Build Log 2 of 2: Making an Alphorn from Common Spruce/Pine/Fir Construction Lumber

Here is a photo of the bell of my second alpenhorn, the build log for which , is below.

Raw materials for my 2nd alphorn: One 2x6x12 (38mm x 140mm x 3658mm), One 2x4x12 (38mm x 89mm x 3658mm), and Two 2x10x6 (38mm x 235mm x 1829mm).

Cutting the pieces that will become the staves of the Alphorn trunk. These were cut from the 12' long 2x6 and 2x4 lumber. Carefully make your cuts to remove as many knots as possible.

I cut the staves blanks with the grain in mind, to wind up with staves with as vertical a grain as possible. Orient your cuts to achieve this. Here you can see that I got a decently vertical grain, though in the stave on the bottom the grain is not as good. I find that the last couple inches of the birdsmouth cut can waver a bit, and these imperfect birdsmouth ends can be seen in this photo. I cut of a bit of both ends off when cutting the stave to length to remove these imperfect ends.

This picture shows the long tapers.

Glued up birdsmouth joinery Alphorn trunk. This photo is deceiving I as there is actually more taper to the trunk than what appears in the photo, this is due to the small end being so close to the camera making it look bigger, vs the big end which is far away making it look smaller. The pieces went together well. It is always a messy affair assembling these and it is tricky. Be determined and work deliberately and don't give up if the pieces flop and fall around. I did this solo, but if it is your first time assembling one, you might benefit from a second person helping. It is a bit hectic as the glue is drying. I started at the big end, got the joints in place, quickly threw on a zip tie, and then worked my way down to the skinny end with a zip tie every foot. Then I came back and added additional zip ties every 6 inches.

I cut little wedges and pounded them under the zip ties to close up any gaps.

Rough planed trunk of the Alphorn. Some gaps in the birdsmouth joints are visible, but I was glad to see them at least full of cured glue.

There were 4 loose/empty knot holes in the alphorn trunk. I drilled them out with a 3/4" forstner bit and plugged them with plugs that I had cut from the same exact material, with the grain going the same direction.

Decided to make a template of the side view of the bell. I drew the shape slightly different from my drawings above. On the upper curve , I kept the bell narrower until closer to the bell end, and then flared it up more.

I traced out 6 full-size bell pieces onto the 2x10

I planed down both sides of each 2x10 on my surface planer to flatten out the construction lumber. There's only a little that can be planed off before the pieces will get too thin to make the full OD of the bell, but planing them will help flatted them out for a good glue bond. This picture is after planing, and also after I sketched the plan-view shape of the bell onto the pieces.

Carving away the wood of the bell is a huge amount of work, so removing any wood now is a benefit. When looking at the plan view of the shape of the bell, it was clear that I could chop the outer pieces short as shown.

Here are the two halves, individually glued together into each half. Clamps removed. I cut out some material from the innermost slab, to make carving quicker. Now I will carve them, then glue them together to form the finished bell.

Rough carving the bell with a chisel and mallet.

I used a very coarse sanding wheel on my right angle grinder to rough sand the inside and outside of the bell halves to their finished shape.

Clamping the bell together. Glue up with Titebond III glue.

I needed a little localized clamping force at the top of the bell end, and this photo shows how I did that.

Sanding bell with 80 grit sandpaper on a random orbit sander

Tracing hardwood flange on a piece of 3/4" thick solid hickory.

Bell progress and also the end of the main trunk is shown in the photo.

This will be a more simple looking horn than the first one I built. The bell end will not have any hardwood rings, but will have a single wrap of wooden reed. Here is a photo of gluing on the reed.

Measured the full length and divided by three and now cutting the sections with a thin-kerf pull-saw.

Here are the three sections of the alphorn. The larger diameter, shorter section, will have the bell attached to it, after which it will be the same length as the others.

I fashioned an alphorn foot from a white-tailed deer antler that I found near our house. I epoxied a reinforcing oak pin into it, and I ground a radius into it to match the horn.

Epoxy glue was used to glue the Hickory flanges around the tube parts, and then also to glue the bell to the tube. I found it very useful to clamp a wooden stick in the bench clamp, and then to put the tube over the stick in order to keep it upright.

Hickory flange, epoxied on, and I sanded the edges round.

I clamped the sections in the correct orientation and drilled 4 holes for #10 wood screws.

Epoxied the foot onto the bell. There is a pin epoxied into the center of the foot and into the bell also.

Current status of the three sections. Now I will apply the gloss finish and paint the bell.

Finished flange joint. Note that I offset the flange joint a bit, which creates a "Socket" type joint for ease of assembly and added strength.

Here is the other section showing the socket end of the section joint.

Here is the assembled joint, including a 1/16" rubber gasket. I painted little flowers to allow easy visual alignment when assembling the sections. The joint is quite tight even without the 1/16" circular gasket, so I will test the horn with and without this gasket.

Homemade alphorn in 3 sections.

​How to tune an Alphorn!

Alphorn by cutting it shorter. I used a sharp, fine toothed Japanese pull-saw.

Final Finishes to My Second Alphorn:

Here are broomcorn stalks. I have soaked the ends which I will plait, in hot water for an hour or so. I am cutting off the tassle-ends of the broom corn (the tassles would be the broom material , which I don't need).

Here is the broom corn plaited (woven) on. Compressing the stalks at the ends makes them flare out as shown in the photo.

I use pipe clamps to compress the stalks tight against the horn. These will dry firmly in place, and then when dry, I will trim them off.

And here I have cut the broomcorn flush with a sharp knife and removed the clamps.