Box of whitetail antlers. Do they have any value?

[RWT]

I am just curious as I found a box of whitetail sheds along with some fallow sheds in the barn this afternoon. Do they have any value to a maker? I would place their condition as fair. I revived old ones for rattling horns by wiping them down with vegetable oil in the past.

 

[hammon172]

Depends on their porousness and how straight they are. That being said voids can be filled with epoxy and antlers can be straightened with a soak and a vice. A pic says a thousand words so they say.

 

[amflud]

Sell them to a pet store. For dogs they're a better alternative than bones.

 

[GHEzell]

Shape and texture are the key features that determine if they are usable to me or not, good color and solidity are nice but both can be adjusted by dye or liberal amounts of epoxy....

 

[jdm61]

I was told a couple of years ago by a guy who does traditional stuff for black powder folks that if you use the heated tang method, it actually changes and solidifies the pith.

 

[sunshadow]

I use whitetail antler for handles, usually the crown stick

-Page

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Tapers and especially crowns are sought after for handles on frontier style knives. Small crowns are a preferred handle for sgian dubhs.

While it is a minor problem that is rarely enforced, most states prohibit the sale of any white-tail deer product. You might want to call the game and Fisheries Dept. and check about selling sheds and using them for knife handles. Thousands of knives have been sold with white-tail antler handles, but every once in a while someone gets fined by a zealous game official at a show. I even heard a seller at a rendezvous was busted for selling white-tail jerky.
The commercial antler sold for knife handles is from other deer species, and mainly from farmed animals.

 

[RWT]

I have seen that issue and that is why I am not trying to sell them. As most of these are sheds I should be OK. I will take pics later to see if anyone can use them.