Elk Antler

J

jvholt

Joined
Mar 2, 2008
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88
I recently got a shed elk antler. It is pretty dry with a few cracks. Does anyone know if it is still good for handles? How can I restore it a little bit? Thanks for any advice or info.
 
I have no first hand experience, but I have heard from folks that do that saturating it with a thin CA "glue" will fill and repair cracks in that kind of material. You keep applying it until no more soaks in. Rough your handle out of it and do it again. You don't leave any on the surface as a finish, the idea is to fill the cracks.

Hope this helps, perhaps someone with some direct experience could chime in.
 
first get some potassium permanganate and use it to color the horn. don't worry that it looks purple when you first put it on it will darken and brown as it dries. several light coats work better than one heavy one. stop when you like the color. then do as nathan has suggested. if the cracks are kinda big put horn dust in them before applying super glue for a more natural look.
 
I agree with what Bill Burke said 100%:thumbup: I just used some antler that my dad picked up waaaay back when I was a kid - he was the assistant director of a national forest in Montana, and there was a fire at a place called Horse Praire. He had to go out with firefighting crews. After the fire was out, he was walking through a field of burned sagebrush, and walked up on a massive pair of horns( really huge 6 pointers), that were bleached to a light tan. They were the only things left unburned for miles. He lugged those horns ( and others) around for 26 years, and gave them to me about a year ago. I just started using the stuff for handles, and it works great if you just fill small cracks, etc. with thin super glue. If you want to use it light, it's beautiful when polished and just sealed up with super glue. If you want it dark, you have to dye it before you seal it. I'm going to try dyeing some green, red, or blue after bleaching it a little bit...
 
I'm with Nathan on the super-glue.


If it's already bleached out, I like to leave it that way though. I think a bleached out horn with a stainless guard and some black/ss spacers is real swift.

About the only coloring I've seen that didn't look phoney to me was the amber dye that Culpepper (Mother of Pearl) uses on stag.

Most home-made dye jobs end up looking purplish or an odd brown that just doesn't look natural to me.

Threads like this usually have examples where people say "Oh yea, look at this horn I dyed!"

And I think, "Yea!!! And it looks like $hit buddy!!!" :)

That's just my opinion though :)


Edited to add... for clarity and lack of pissing off TOO many people... I have seen some stag Russ Andrews dyed chocolate brown, and it looked really nice. And, I have never seen any stag that my friend Bill Burke dyed. :)
 
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Here's a knife with a bleached out blacktail or mule deer crown with one of my phony dye jobs. :D

IMG_0690.JPG
 
Ray,

With appologies to Nick.......

That looks like $hit, buddy! I'll give you a hundred bucks for it so you won't have to look at any more.:D

Seriously, that's a great looking knife!

-Mike-
 
Edited to add... for clarity and lack of pissing off TOO many people... I have seen some stag Russ Andrews dyed chocolate brown, and it looked really nice. And, I have never seen any stag that my friend Bill Burke dyed.
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Thanks the commentary Nick. I think you are right about most of the dye jobs out there but there are a few that look ok. I guess if you have never seen any of the dye jobs that I have done then they must have been good ones.
 
I gave up trying to dye antler. I never had any luck trying to play God and mother nature. I sent a batch to Culpepper and really like the look but now I wonder if I can have it stabilized too. Elk is really pretty after his dye job but a little soft. I should call WSSI and see if they can stabilize it.
 
I dye antler (elk, stage and deer) with Fieblings leather dye (light brown or Medium brown). The finished product is fantastic. I have use Potassium permanganate in the past. However, I feel the Fieblings dye accomplishes a superior finish.
 
Bruce Bump said:
I gave up trying to dye antler. I never had any luck trying to play God and mother nature. I sent a batch to Culpepper and really like the look but now I wonder if I can have it stabilized too. Elk is really pretty after his dye job but a little soft. I should call WSSI and see if they can stabilize it.
Click to expand...

Bruce, I noticed that Alpha Knife Supply has stabilized elk antler for sale. I don't believe its got that natural Culpepper dye job though. I have never noticed elk antler being any softer than any other antler I have used. Maybe you got some of that punk elk antler.
 
Here is a small elk brow tine with the Culpepper amber dye job. I like it.
100_1909_edited.jpg


I used super glue to stiffen up and fill the end pith
100_1910_edited.jpg
 
I use Krazy Glue with antler dust also to fill in voids/hairline cracks in aged elk. I get my darker browns on the buffer. I let it burn the anlter when buffing. Here's a bowie with some really aged/bleached elk.
Scott

bowie.jpg
 
Bruce, It looks pretty phony to me. :D They really do look good but anything you touch turns to gold anyway. I was thinking there dye penetrated deeper than that. I'll stick to doing my own dye jobs. I enjoy doing it.
 
well since Bruce and Ray put up some pictures here are a couple of my dye jobs. I try and make them look as natural as possible. How did I do?
shopexd.asp
 
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Well, you screwed up posting the image, but the knife looks awesome :D ;)

Here it is... That does look natural to me Bill. I love the dark lows and polished high spots like they actually look on the animal.

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Black magic! ;)


I went to BladeGallery in another tab (window) and clicked on your knife.

Once the picture opens on Bladegallery, I right click it and scroll to properties.

A new window pops up. Scroll down to the address of the picture and left click it three times. Then once the whole thing turns blue, right click it and scroll down to "copy" and left click.

Come back here, type what you want to, then hit the image tag. It looks like a postage stamp with a mountain and sun on it.

It will pop up a little window, and you just right click and then "paste" the image in the url box.

You probably know most or all of that, but I wrote it down just in case anybody didn't know.

Sounds complicated, but it's just a few clicks here and there.
 
Another post to say that I'm happy to eat crow when I need to. :)

I think Bill's knife looks great, and I'm pretty sure I DID see that back when he sold it and didn't realize it was dyed antler... cuz it does look so good.

But for the most part, I will stick by my feeling that other than Culpepper most dye jobs just aren't MY THING. But if everybody liked the same thing it would be a really boring world. :)

Ray, you've got me on the fence with that one. I think you are one of the handful of makers around here that REALLY "gets" the idea of flow and line. I love your style and work in general (you already know that) but I'm not sure about the dye. I'd like to see that knife before you dyed the antler just to see. It's definitely a great knife though. :)

I won't show you guys any of the stag I've dyed, cuz it really does look like $hit ;) :D
 
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