Ran an experiment this afternoon.
This is a piece of sun bleached elk antler. Chose a piece with some cracks in the antler. Used a tooth pick to put black leather dye into the cracks. Sometimes following the "valley" past the cracked area. Then used brown leather dye over the black, making sure to go past the black area with the brown a slight bit. After these dried, I submerged the whole antler piece in tan leather dye diluted in a 3 to 1 ratio with leather dye reducer. Was hoping to get a cream color. Then applied vacuum for about 1/2 hour.
After removing the antler piece and wiping dry (it was a horrid yellow color), I hand sanded to 220 grit to get the following. Was going for a fossilized ivory look.
This will be for the back 2/3 of a Scagel style handle. The colors go really well with some paddock I plan on using at the front of the handle.
I kind of liked it until my 7 yr old daughter asked "why did you paint the horn?"
Note: the photo gives everything a bluish tint, that's a white towel in the background. The black veins do have a slight blue color but not as bright as shown in the photo.
Opinions? use it? or too fake?
Barry
This is a piece of sun bleached elk antler. Chose a piece with some cracks in the antler. Used a tooth pick to put black leather dye into the cracks. Sometimes following the "valley" past the cracked area. Then used brown leather dye over the black, making sure to go past the black area with the brown a slight bit. After these dried, I submerged the whole antler piece in tan leather dye diluted in a 3 to 1 ratio with leather dye reducer. Was hoping to get a cream color. Then applied vacuum for about 1/2 hour.
After removing the antler piece and wiping dry (it was a horrid yellow color), I hand sanded to 220 grit to get the following. Was going for a fossilized ivory look.
This will be for the back 2/3 of a Scagel style handle. The colors go really well with some paddock I plan on using at the front of the handle.
I kind of liked it until my 7 yr old daughter asked "why did you paint the horn?"
Note: the photo gives everything a bluish tint, that's a white towel in the background. The black veins do have a slight blue color but not as bright as shown in the photo.
Opinions? use it? or too fake?
Barry
