Frank,
I've not found anyway to really successfully use a vice for antler... most of the time I just hold mine on a 1 x board with a pair of slip-joint pliers... I cut the antler a little overlength so if I do wobble a bit, it's usually only in the first little bit of the hole and I can cut it away.
My biggest failures comes from drilling through the sides of the antler... I do lose about 20% of my antler doing it this way.
ozmandus,
This is my first post here!!!:biggrin:
I have been making pens for about 2 weeks now. I've made about 12 pens so far. (I may be new but I'm "All In". )
Today I made my first antler pen. When I drilled it yesterday, I kind of blew out the side but I was able to salvage the blank by using it for the top of a slimline and "shortening" it up a tad. This gave me enough of the blank to fit the bushing. I have been thinking about this ever since the blow out and here is what I came up with for a quick accurate fix on future antler blanks. It worked great on the next two blanks that I drilled tonight.
I drove a nail through a board. I took the undrilled blank and made an indention on the bottom of the blank where I wanted the drill bit to exit.
Next I put the board with the nail under my drill press table and lined up the drill bit with where the nail tip protruded just above the dp table. Clamp with small clamps. Next I took my blank and put the indention I made and put this on the tip of the nail. I drilled about 2/3 the length of the blank, stopped and disassembled this contaption and put a backer board on the dp table and finished the hole that I had already started, wah lah, the exit hole right on the money. I used another small clamp to hold the blank as I drilled, just as you used a pliers.
Hope this makes sense and helps someone save some antler blanks.