Selecting Stag on traditionals...

10-15 years ago absolutely beautiful stag could be had for a few dollars. Now...a so so taper or pr of 3” scales may cost up to $150. I would say less than 1 in 100 pieces are very nice. Lots of blah stag even years ago. Sign of the times.....
 
glennbad said:
I have such respect for makers that can get their stag thin on their builds. Seems to me you'd have to start out with quite a fat piece so as not to have a lot of curve and taper at the edges of the liners. That's the biggest hurdle I have when fitting stag, the battle between thinning it out enough, but still having enough width to cover the liners/scales. Here's one of my more decent attempts, on this Miller Bros. re-do. You just can't cheat on a knife this thin and skinny. While not as good as I wanted to achieve, it was acceptable IMO.


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Glenn, you're being too hard on yourself buddy, that stag looks fantastic, especially on such a long knife. It looks like it's been on there since the day the knife was made. You need to remember that the old knife shops had storerooms filled with stag back then, plenty to chose from for each pattern. I remember seeing a picture of a storeroom in one of the old Sheffield cutleries that had antlers stacked to the ceiling!

Eric
 
My understanding is that Sambar Deer can be bred and reared on farms and this could help alleviate the shortage and be sustainable. However, most people have no idea that Sambar is a prized item for handles, moreover, I suspect that the hunting of these deer is largely for some stupid trophy display! Once gone, gone forever. :thumbsdown: Recycling old Stag from table knives, carving sets is another possibility too.
 
Leslie Tomville said:
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Cambertree Cambertree , Hello Chin! Great opportunities await you!

waynorth waynorth We have to be missing something. There are Sambar Deer all over the place, yet there is a shortage of antler. I wish I had the time and resources to try to figure this out. There has to be a profitable solution.
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Leslie, I'm very sorry for the late reply, my friend - seems I've been so busy lately, I've barely had time to scratch myself. This is an interesting discussion, thanks for tagging me into it.

Sambar are notoriously elusive natured, and stealthy deer in their natural habitat. While Red deer and other deer can end up acting like a herd of domesticated livestock, when farmed commercially, Sambar seem to strongly retain all their wild instincts. The ones I have seen here in a captive, fenced off environment, still required a large forested area, only coming out onto the fringes of improved pasture to feed between dusk and dawn. There's no guarantee of finding every cast off antler in this kind of setting, and the antlers of each side are not necessarily cast off in the same place. It was interesting to read earlier in this thread, that the Indian operations just burnt large areas to recover cast off antlers, and the deer were presumably still wild, or semi-wild. I would think that most Sambar farming operations starting up here, would probably also be 'behind the wire' operations, usually catering to overseas hunters on short stays, with the attendant accommodation, food, guiding and trophy costs the farmer is able to make. Often the antler from the culled deer taken by the farmer, to improve the genetics of the herd, are also sold for knife handle slabs.

I believe Australia and New Zealand are the only countries where Sambar can be hunted in the wild.

I certainly keep my ears open for opportunities to get hold of Sambar antlers now.

The antler my trusty Crownlifter is resting on in this pic is a Sambar 'castie'.

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There's a bit more info on Sambar here.
 
Cambertree Cambertree No problem about the delay Chin. I find this topic incredibly interesting for some reason. It has to be that the knife and gun handle market is not lucrative enough for the economic forces to work out a solution. The existing stock piles must be large, because we keep seeing new knives produced with Sambar Stag antler handles. However, there will probably be a point in time when the price of antler becomes great enough to encourage some of these large game operations in the United States and Australia to fill the need. How they could do it would be fascinating to study.

Hope you are well my friend. Enjoy the rest of the weekend!
 
I have found antlers from the feral Rusa in my region. Sometimes they are still attached to dead beasts head. These are the best.
The cast antlers are nibbled at by the other deer apparently for nutrition. These are not the best. If found when freshly shed they can be excellent.
 
Leslie Tomville said:
Cambertree Cambertree No problem about the delay Chin. I find this topic incredibly interesting for some reason. It has to be that the knife and gun handle market is not lucrative enough for the economic forces to work out a solution. The existing stock piles must be large, because we keep seeing new knives produced with Sambar Stag antler handles. However, there will probably be a point in time when the price of antler becomes great enough to encourage some of these large game operations in the United States and Australia to fill the need. How they could do it would be fascinating to study.

Hope you are well my friend. Enjoy the rest of the weekend!
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Thanks Leslie. I agree - as the cost of Sambar antler keeps increasing there will be a greater focus on cast antler farming and harvesting.

I had a very enjoyable weekend, I hope you’re having a good one too.

meako said:
I have found antlers from the feral Rusa in my region. Sometimes they are still attached to dead beasts head. These are the best.
The cast antlers are nibbled at by the other deer apparently for nutrition. These are not the best. If found when freshly shed they can be excellent.
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Interesting, Meako. I wonder what the antler core density is like, given Sambar and Rusa deer are so closely related, and can even interbreed to produce viable offspring? I’ve seen Rusa antler used on a custom knife before. In fact, I recently noticed the scientific name of Sambar has been changed to Rusa Unicolor, from Cervus Unicolor.
 
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Hey mate
They are closely related.
Rusa smaller beast but has large antlers.
They are very solid with a pithy soft core.
A good sized piece can be split by sawing.
I go slow with a hack saw.
One disadvantage is the brow tine. It kind if gets in the way of the crown if using as a feature.Unlike Red deer the antlers dont seem to grow new point each season. They get to 3 and just get bigger.
There reports/myths of a sambar rusa hybrid in nw vic.
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