Elk horns for handle material

L

Lo/Rez

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Feb 10, 2013
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A buddy of mine gave me some horns as I want to try some for handle material. One was a shed so it's pretty white and the other set he had on the wall in his garage. Would the weathered one have to be stabilized prior to use? Any tips or tricks when working with this material would be appreciated.
 
I'm no expert by any means, I can only speak from my personal experience but I've made a few antler handles and I've never had any of mine properly stabilized. It definitely couldn't hurt if you did, but what I've done is to coat mine with minwax wood stabilizer. It has worked just fine for me. YMMV
 
Elk has a lot of pith that you will have to remove. After it's removed fill the void with a piece of wood (glued in), then drill and broach the tang hole out of the wood. I tried just filling the void with epoxy, and it must have expanded slightly on me, because it caused cracks in the handle.
 
Thanks. I was going to try using the flat parts for scales. Maybe on a folder and screw them on (2-56 screws) instead of pinning them
 
Folks have been using elk antler for knife handles for centuries if not longer.
 
I used Elk Antler for this knife, it was a large piece and I was able to use only the hard white portion, otherwise elk antler is fairly porous.
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Elk is fine and the older the better! It actually solidifies as it ages, the last piece I used only had about a 1/4 " pith channel. if its chalky white, stain it then seal it with super glue then sand it down, looks like fossil ivory
 
What do you stain the horns with? These are the horns that were given to me. I don't know how old the dark set is, but probably several years. If I use them on a folder or for scales I want to finish them to 600-1000 grit and then buff them smooth so they are shiny and smooth.

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That bleached one looks pretty old, the other hard telling but I'm guessing by color around a couple years to fresh. Use leather stain
 
I use a lot of elk. All cut into scales. I've never had any stablized and don't see a reason too. I use the whole horn as long as its big enough to make a scale out of. I cut the horn on a 14" bandsaw (be very very careful) into say 4 to 5 to 6" pieces. What I do is take the least attractive side of the horn piece and grind a flat on it using a 36 grit ceramic belt on a 6x48" grinder. I then put the flat on the saw table and can safely cut off the other three sides as scales since I have a flat to keep stable on the table. Does that make sense? So out of say a five inch piece I will get 3 scales. I then sand off any excess on the scale with the 36 belt and get true flatness on a 9" disc with a 60 grit ceramic psa disc. Most elk does have a lot of pith and so with this method I'm cutting off basically good horn and leaving a pith center that I throw away. I then dye the elk in potassium pomerate. Ya mix this with water and put your scales in there for about 20-30 mins. They'll come out as a dark purple but they dry to that dark brownish blackish color we associate with Sambar (which has had this samd dyeing treatment too btw). Sometimes I'll give em another bath if the color isn't particularly dark. The potassium pomerate besides dyeing the horn that cool color we all like is a disinfectant too. I seal with a good coat of Deft clear satin wood finsh spray. Stick on your knife and work.

This is one of my Ranchero models with elk horn scales processed as described.

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This method works very well if your horn has some color or has been sun bleached.

Very cool knife Daniel!
 
I cut some elk horn with my band saw, but was struck by the smell. Is there something to do about this?
 
I wear a respirator when cutting and sanding elk. Bout anything else too.
 
Aww, I see. I actually do all cutting and grinding etc outside. Everything is on wheels.
 
Elk makes excellent handle scales, or stick tang handles. Dye with Potassium Permanganate.
Ken.
 
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