Stag Saturday - Let's See Some Traditional Stag!

paulhilborn said:
Thank you Gary, have a Merry Christmas :)
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Thanks, Paul, and same to you and yours!
I have to confess I'm enjoying the 50 degree weather we're having today and tomorrow, rather than the blizzard we had a year ago on the 3 days leading up to Christmas. :rolleyes:

- GT
 
Could anyone please direct me to the post where differences between natural stag, genuine stag, etc. were explained? No luck with searching. I am almost sure it was you, Charlie waynorth waynorth , but couldn't find that post! Maybe we could pin that precious information somewhere as a top post or something...
 
Alex.Y. said:
Could anyone please direct me to the post where differences between natural stag, genuine stag, etc. were explained? No luck with searching. I am almost sure it was you, Charlie waynorth waynorth , but couldn't find that post! Maybe we could pin that precious information somewhere as a top post or something...
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I can't find it, Alex - don't remember where I posted it! Natural and Genuine Stag are often the same thing; either not treated or minimally treated! Most imported Stag is supposed to be treated with Potassium Permanganate, which can darken it considerably, to avoid the spread of disease or micro-organisms!! But it is still called Natural, or Genuine!!
Burnt Stag is treated with a flame, which also darkens (chars) the Stag details to good effect!! Different species have different appearances!!a trio of Stags 1.jpga trio of Stags 2.jpga trio of Stags 3.jpg
The top Knife (Scagel) has genuine Sambar Stag, The middle knife has untreated American Elk, and the bottom has untreated New Zealand Red Deer!
Below is nicely worn Genuine Sambar Stag!!IXL hawk 1.jpg
And here below is some premium cut and applied Sambar Stag from 1940 to 1964!!!5299s 1.jpg5299s 2.jpg5299s 3.jpg
 
Alex.Y. said:
Could anyone please direct me to the post where differences between natural stag, genuine stag, etc. were explained? No luck with searching. I am almost sure it was you, Charlie waynorth waynorth , but couldn't find that post! Maybe we could pin that precious information somewhere as a top post or something...
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In addition to what Charlie has said, the type of tree the stag rubs makes a difference to the colour.

The darker one here rubbed out on wild cherry and black wattle, the lighter one on more stringybark. Both red stags shot by me not too far from one another.

You can actually see bits of bark still stuck in the antler of the one on the left from rubbing out. The tannins in the bark is what stains the antler.
IMG_3584.jpeg
 
Hatchet_Jack said:
In addition to what Charlie has said, the type of tree the stag rubs makes a difference to the colour.

The darker one here rubbed out on wild cherry and black wattle, the lighter one on more stringybark. Both red stags shot by me not too far from one another.

You can actually see bits of bark still stuck in the antler of the one on the left from rubbing out. The tannins in the bark is what stains the antler.
View attachment 2434651
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Looks like one could get some nice handles out of that Stag, Jack!!!
 
waynorth said:
I can't find it, Alex - don't remember where I posted it! Natural and Genuine Stag are often the same thing; either not treated or minimally treated! Most imported Stag is supposed to be treated with Potassium Permanganate, which can darken it considerably, to avoid the spread of disease or micro-organisms!! But it is still called Natural, or Genuine!!
Burnt Stag is treated with a flame, which also darkens (chars) the Stag details to good effect!! Different species have different appearances!!View attachment 2434583View attachment 2434584View attachment 2434585
The top Knife (Scagel) has genuine Sambar Stag, The middle knife has untreated American Elk, and the bottom has untreated New Zealand Red Deer!
Below is nicely worn Genuine Sambar Stag!!View attachment 2434588
And here below is some premium cut and applied Sambar Stag from 1940 to 1964!!!View attachment 2434613View attachment 2434614View attachment 2434615
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That's some real beauties, sir! Maybe the time spread is too wide between all of those to compare their stag naming. If we limit ourselves with only GEC stag classification, what would be the defining difference between Natural and Genuine? I almost remember something about one being more polished, and another being mounted as is. They are not first cut and second cut, right? They'd write "second cut stag" in that case?

P.S.: nice bear! ;)

Hatchet_Jack said:
In addition to what Charlie has said, the type of tree the stag rubs makes a difference to the colour.
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I would never assume that, thank you for the info!
 
Hatchet_Jack said:
Tule Elk knives! Now that is a rare treat.

I’m building points to hunt elk in WY, but Tule is something else.
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When I lived in Concord in the Bay Area the was a sizable herd of Tule Elk on the Concord Naval Weapons Station, I saw them occasionally when I took the road through the station going over the hill to Pittsburg. At that time the herd had become too large, and the Navy proposed selling tags to hunters. You can imagine the firestorm that generated in the Bay Area.
Horsewright said:
Most of the elk around are Rocky Mtn elk. I've never seen a Tule even though we have a reserve for them close by.
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Where are there free roaming elk in California. I live not too far from you (Visalia) and I go through Tehachapi occasionally but I have never heard of any elk in this part of the state. Perhaps up north in the Modoc area?
The closest reserve with Tule elk of which I am aware is San Luis NWR in Merced county. Is there one closer than that?
 
lambertiana said:
When I lived in Concord in the Bay Area the was a sizable herd of Tule Elk on the Concord Naval Weapons Station, I saw them occasionally when I took the road through the station going over the hill to Pittsburg. At that time the herd had become too large, and the Navy proposed selling tags to hunters. You can imagine the firestorm that generated in the Bay Area.


Where are there free roaming elk in California. I live not too far from you (Visalia) and I go through Tehachapi occasionally but I have never heard of any elk in this part of the state. Perhaps up north in the Modoc area?
The closest reserve with Tule elk of which I am aware is San Luis NWR in Merced county. Is there one closer than that?
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No not Modoc, there is the Wind Wolves Preserve here in Kern Co. While it is not just a Tule elk preserve exclusively, they are certainly part of the habitat there, but I've been by there many times and never seen a one. There are several herds of elk up Hwy 395 south of Bishop that are right along side the roadway. They hang out in some of the alfalfa fields on the west side of the roadway. These are huntable but drawing a tag is tricky. Hard to get one. The Tejon ranch also has hunts for elk but they are very spendy.

Here locally there is a gated community at the west end of the Tehachapi valleys called Bear Valley. They have a very large elk population for their area and there was talk of an archery only hunt there to reduce the population this year. To the south of Bear Valley is Stallion Springs. We were out there a couple of months ago looking at some property that was for sale. There were elk everywhere and they were a bugling. Didn't think much of the property but then we were just driving around looking at the elk. Probably saw 50-60 spread out through the area. Have a friend that lives out there and he says they come through his yard all the time. Traditionally, in this area most of the elk were south of Hwy 58. However, our ranch was on the north side of 58. We had some game cams set up and we would get pics of elk although the only one I ever saw in person was a bull jumping the fence onto the neighbors place to the north of us. That was 15-17 years ago. There's a lot of them around and some BIG bulls. Many are on private land and kinda like us cowboys most of the time ya just can't see us from the road.
 
5W5ENlN.jpg
 
Had this one made at Bucks custom shop last year. 112 with Nickel silver bolsters & elk scales. Ordered it after we had to put one of our dogs down (declining heath issues). Just a little way to remember him.
IMG_20231118_160151553.jpgIMG_20231118_160203665.jpg

He was a mastiff/lab mix we adopted. Pretty much just a lab with extra muscle lolIMG_20220618_144256916_HDR.jpg
There's not much bark on the scales, but there is a mark deeper than the rest in the shape of a #7 on the pile side. Which is interesting because he had a dark spot on his tongue in the exact same shape.... Coincidence???IMG_20231118_114305278.jpg
 
lambertiana said:
When I lived in Concord in the Bay Area the was a sizable herd of Tule Elk on the Concord Naval Weapons Station, I saw them occasionally when I took the road through the station going over the hill to Pittsburg. At that time the herd had become too large, and the Navy proposed selling tags to hunters. You can imagine the firestorm that generated in the Bay Area.


Where are there free roaming elk in California. I live not too far from you (Visalia) and I go through Tehachapi occasionally but I have never heard of any elk in this part of the state. Perhaps up north in the Modoc area?
The closest reserve with Tule elk of which I am aware is San Luis NWR in Merced county. Is there one closer than that?
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A huge local (Kern Co) set of elk sheds I traded for with a local cowboy:

nUIqq0H.jpg


The smaller set on top is from New Mexico. I was there picking up a filly we had bought and traded the rancher/breeder of the filly, out of this set:

Xmptm9O.jpg


"I can't find it, Alex - don't remember where I posted it! Natural and Genuine Stag are often the same thing; either not treated or minimally treated! Most imported Stag is supposed to be treated with Potassium Permanganate, which can darken it considerably, to avoid the spread of disease or micro-organisms!! But it is still called Natural, or Genuine!!" From Charlie.

Here's what elk scales look like after treatment in Potassium Permanganate as Charlie mentioned above:

rKd92Eg.jpg


The lighter coloring we see on a finished knife comes from the working of the scale:

ed7LXKM.jpg


ezja9f0.jpg
 
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