Deer Antler Smorgasboard

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stoneman

stoneman

Member
Joined
Sep 17, 2007
Messages
481
Location
Waterbury, VT, USA.
Finally got back at the lathe after cataract surgey on both eyes in May.
I can see again. [8D]
Over the past week I managed to get some deer antler Sierras completed for a friend. He supplied the antler (three in all) and the pens sure do run the gamut in color and texture. The pictures are not my best (and my best ain't that good anyway). But I think you get the idea.



2008621163654_Deer1.jpg



2008621163719_Deer3.jpg
 
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Good God, man, your shop must stink to high heaven! I'm working on an antler/bone segmentation order right now, and it's all I can do to keep from throwing up when I fire up a tool. Gah!

Great looking stuff, keep it up. :)
 
Originally posted by karlkuehn

Good God, man, your shop must stink to high heaven! I'm working on an antler/bone segmentation order right now, and it's all I can do to keep from throwing up when I fire up a tool. Gah!

Great looking stuff, keep it up. :)
Click to expand...

Karl,
It is kind of interesting hearing all the down side smell comments about antler. My experience has been quite different. The stuff I've used (thus far moose, deer and a touch of elk) has had a bit of an odor when cutting on the band saw (though not that serious). And it is a little more pungent when drilling. I get nearly zero odor when turning or sanding. There may be a few things that affect this.
First, I have used only antlers that have had a chance to "dry" for at least a year. The three deer antlers used for these pens were decades old. I can tell you from first hand experience that fresh antler sheds (moose antlers) stink to the high heavens just handling them. We left a pile of fresh moose sheds in our camp for a week and when we returned the place smelled as bad as the north end of a southbound skunk.
Second, I have a 16 gallon shop vac I use for a dust collector (in a spare bedroom no less) but it has a blower port and I vent it outside through a homemade port in a window. That may remove some smell and might explain why I get the most smell when drilling. My lathe had a hood and I connect the band saw to the dust collector, but the drill is only vented passively if I turn on the dust collector on the lathe beside it.
At any rate, I've yet to get a serious smell problem from most of the antler I've used.
Then again, I'm half deaf from years of shooting and factory noises and I just had surgery to fix my poor vision so maybe it is just a case of also having a broken "smeller"[?] :D Nah, if that were the case I would have noticed my wife putting my severed limbs through a wood chipper.[B)]
 
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