Both , pretty much just like boiled horns .But boiled horns get stiff quickly as they cool. The soaked horns get stiff as they dry. And as mentioned earlier , if you heat the soaked horn a bit (in the milk or hide glue) it gets even more flexible .You can hold one end and it will flop over like a wet noodle.
The previously soaked horns, when I sized them with thin hide glue , soaked it right in .And the horns that were just sanded flat the glue kinda sat on the surface for a while ,it took three wettings with thin glue for it to seep in . You can see it in the above picture , The top and the third from the top horn strips are strips of horn that were soaked in milk .Notice how smooth and evenly wet they look . The other two horn strips in the picture are just sanded . If you look you can see puddling and dry spots ,were the wet glue has already pooled around like water on a counter top.
I didn't have any boiled horn to try this time . Horn doesn't like to be glued . But I think the process of soaking them helps in this regard .
Ralph
