Thread: Antler turning

I have used antler as pen centres. I drilled it slowly like drilling plastics and kept cleaning the drill by going in & out to get rid of the waste. It smells awfull when turning and drilling use a mask to keep the smell out. I used thin CA over it as a finish it still dulled a little but I only put 2 coats on it
Regards Michael

Here's a trick for you for deer antler - from a old taxidermist.

The dark brown color between the pearling on deer antler comes from the sap in the trees that the male deer rubs its antlers on to strip off the outer furry skin called "velvet' just prior to the mating season. This exercise toughens up the neck muscles ready for fighting for female deer harems with other male deer during the mating season or rut as it's called.

Deer raised on deer farms where there are no trees to rub their antlers on - often have white / cream colored antler between the raised white pearling which detracts somewhat from the natural appearance.

What taxidermists do to get that brown color between the raised pearling, is this.

Get hold of some good old Condys Crystals (Potassium permanganate) from the chemist / pharmacist!

Dissolve some (like a tablespoon) in a 20 liter (5/6 gallon) metal bucket / pail...of warm water and put the antlers into the bright PURPLE solution!

The antler is a bit porous and will soak up the bright purple color and look absolutely dreadful.

When you remove it however, and leave it to dry - the Purple Potassium Permanganate solution soaked into the antlers - will oxidize in contact with the air and turn a dark "timber like" brown color!

Then to get back the white look of the raised pearling, rub it with 1200 grit wet and dry paper and remove the brown stain... and you have bright white bone color raised pearling against a dark brown timber hue in the recessed background of the antler.

Shape it into whatever your going to by turning it.... Imagine pen blanks with raised white pearling against brown timber color for the finger grip parts and bright smooth cream color where the tapered section are down to the nib of the pen and at the rear where the pocket clip fits etc...

Same technique can be used for when making knife handles etc even walking stick tops out of the cast antler coronets part....

Your welcome. (I learned a little bit from my 20 years hunting & farming deer).

I finish my antler pens with CA.

I dont notice any smell, my cyclone sucks it all away, but I have been told its pretty bad.

hey cookie
when you cut the blanks the length check out and depending on if you want the natural colour or change it to a pure white by soaking the blank in hydregen peroxide , you will then have to let it dry and see if the centre is solid and hard if not i like to drip CA on it letting it soak in till it drips out bottom then spray both ends with accelarator and put it down to set ( IT WILL GET HOT ) then drill it out and glue tube
oh and the MOST important because of the STINK set up a fan no further than 4" from your elbow blowing the shaving away it smells like burning hair
hope this help

Cookie I drill low speed and keep clearing the drill bit on turning I do that at high speed finish as per a acrylic blank but seal and polish with WOP. If you run the drill to one side when drilling you get the outer pearl finish. Smaller pieces you will get the entire bit pearl. It also doesn't hurt to have a concave part on the pen to show off the bark. Stabilizing the core before drilling is a great idea.

Bit more for you about antlers.

All deer species cast their antlers annually and regrow a new bigger better set a they age, until their prime, afterwards - the antlers decline in size and conformation as the male deer gets into old age.

In most deer species only the males grow antlers (reindeer and caribou a couple exceptions where the gals sport a set as well).

Aside from mushrooms - Antler is one of the fastest known to man growing organic materials in the world! When male deer grow antler in ideal conditions it can grow over an inch a day! If you ever keep deer - you can watch the green antler grow! It has a huge amount of blood vessels feed it...and when growing has the texture of a carrot - i.e. if the owner isn't VERY careful of it, he can break it very easily an of broken while growing it bleeds profusely.

When it's ready to harden into antler like bone material the blood vessels all dry up and the antler calcifies...

The interior has a porous honeycombed appearance which are all the dried up blood vessels...its only a thick layer (or shell) around the outside that is smooth and hard...and contains the pearling effect.

That's why - when you turn it to make pen blanks - the inside isn't solid bone right thru!.

The makes grow antler and apart from using it to fight other males for a harem of females...when it falls off in the wild - the female deer EAT it, with relish and its unusual to find cast antler in the wild for this reason (unless you stumble on one minutes after its owner broke it off at the end of the season - to grow a new set). Even on deer farms unless you collect the cast antlers every day in the season they cast them, the females eat them.

Why do the females eat them?

Calcium.

Deer are long lived species like horses, 22 - 25 years isn't uncommon.

When you look at their design - they have long thin legs that run at a gazillion miles an hour and jump tall fences & amazing distances at a single bound!.

This spindly little thin legs have to be incredibly strong - to do this and then stop and turn on a dime to evade fast predators - without breaking.

Because the female deer lives so long and can produce 1 or 2 fawns each year from age 2 onwards right up to age 22 etc - it has to consume huge quantities of calcium in order to cannibalize it's own skeletal calcium reserves each year to form a skeleton for its annual fetus / fetuses production - and yest still maintain the strength of its own spindly little legs.

The male deer eat grass and branches and store surplus calcium from it - in their antlers - which are then cast off in the 3rd trimester of the female deers 8 month gestation period, when the demand for skeletal calcium is highest in the pregnant females.

In effect the males supplement the females annual calcium requirement!

That's why you don't generally see a lot of hard antler around, except for the recent increasing numbers of deer farms where it's sometimes collected. (Better to leave it for the females to eat if your a deer breeder)!

One of natures 'Miracle materials' - deer antler!

Hopefully after reading all this, you'll revere it all the more, when turning it!

Cheers

Timeless Timber.
Thank you for that. It is not something I knew, and it was very interesting. I certainly will make sure it is turning with your info in mind.

Timeless, thanks for a very informative lesson, I now have a little more knowledge to pass on. Well done sir.