Thread: Elk antler scales

I have a good supply of Elk antler that I would like to make scales out of can anyone give me some tips on how to work and finish them.

Thanks in advance

I turn a lot of Elk and Deer Antler handles for shave brushes and DE razors. The down side to Elk is it is very porous once you get to the center. I seal mine with CA, I would eventually like to build a vacuum chamber to do this instead.
Anyway I use a lot of CA to fill voids with Elk. I would probably think about backing the Elk up with something on the inside of the scales and seal with CA. "IF" the ELK antler would get wet and it's not sealed well, all the dried blood that is caught in the porous part will bleed out, and it's not a pleasant smell. Other then that wet sand, buff, seal, wet sand and buff again

Originally Posted by Trimmy72

I turn a lot of Elk and Deer Antler handles for shave brushes and DE razors. The down side to Elk is it is very porous once you get to the center. I seal mine with CA, I would eventually like to build a vacuum chamber to do this instead.
Anyway I use a lot of CA to fill voids with Elk. I would probably think about backing the Elk up with something on the inside of the scales and seal with CA. "IF" the ELK antler would get wet and it's not sealed well, all the dried blood that is caught in the porous part will bleed out, and it's not a pleasant smell. Other then that wet sand, buff, seal, wet sand and buff again

For making scales I assume I would be using the outside slab would I cut this on a table saw ,band saw or some other method?

band saw would be the best route if you have a guide to keep it fairly straight. I would like a brush handle myself, might make for an interesting brush, all we have here are whitetail deer.

On thing I an contribute, if you look at old Sheffield razors, the few with elk, or staghorn scales, they leave the gnarly exterior pretty much alone. Modern makers I've seen have the unfortunate tendency to buff the exterior too smooth. Takes the character that makes them desirable out of them IMHO.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

On thing I an contribute, if you look at old Sheffield razors, the few with elk, or staghorn scales, they leave the gnarly exterior pretty much alone. Modern makers I've seen have the unfortunate tendency to buff the exterior too smooth. Takes the character that makes them desirable out of them IMHO.

I agree that's what I would like to do.

Other downside (at least for me) is,if you leave the outer grain intact,they tend to be rather heavy.

Originally Posted by 430pat

I agree that's what I would like to do.

There was another thread on this recently - so I'll add the same photo here. This is stag antler, I used a japanese pull saw to divide the length, then flattened the insides on a bench sander. The profiling will depend on the actual piece of antler you use - you can see that I had to take the ends down but it still left some nice outer.

I also used CA to seal the honeycomb - be careful when profiling - I went a bit too far and exposed the honeycomb at the wedge end.

430pat - never split an antler to make scales. I would think a band saw would do the trick as was all ready said.

UkRob - beautiful work!

I know trying to split deer antler was a pain as it is much narrower , I cut some slabs off of some on the band saw one time and what I did was clamp a 1x1 to the saw , and screwed 2 screws into the antler leaving them far enough out for a safer place to grip the antler , keep it from spinning and keep my fingers out of the way .. and using the 1x1 as a guide for a straighter cut also as the screws rest even on the 1x1 while going through the saw .. bad part is you need two pieves of antler do to having holes in one side
I threw it together real quick just to mess around and see how hard/easy it would be for future scales ..

I did make a solid set where I just split it down to where a wedge would be and was lucky enough to have everything balance out right