Reindeer antler?

[NickWheeler]

Has anybody used this stuff?

I figure it's fairly unusual to come by. My dad delivers feed to dairy farms for Land-O-Lakes, and some of their customer list includes farmers that like to keep some odd-ball animals.

One farmer has Reindeer. The females are shedding their antlers now, and the guy gave my dad half of a female's set that dropped yesterday. That's fresh.

Just curious if there's any experience with it. The color is a white and pinkish hue, it seems to be rather pretty.

Thanks,
Nick

 

[AchimW]

It's a very common handle material in Scandinavia. Not only for customs, but even a lot of production puukko and lappinleuku are made with reindeer antler handles and even sheaths. If dried well it is a nice, hard, dense handle material that looks like smooth ground deer antler. It is much better than european deer antler because there is a lot less spongious mass in it. I love to use it.
Take a look at this one:
http://albums.photopoint.com/j/ViewPhoto?u=575309&a=4202329&p=19341782
or this one:
http://albums.photopoint.com/j/ViewPhoto?u=575309&a=9215500&p=29979106

Only problem is that the antlers of most house-reindeer are very small. Wild reindeer, called caribou in the USA, is much better and bigger.

Achim

 

[L6steel]

I love it! Thats what I used on my d-guard bowie and I wish I had a steady source for it.

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Take care!! Michael

Always think of your fellow knife makers as partners in the search for the perfect blade, not as people trying to compete with you and your work!
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