Anler scales!

Gliden07

Gliden07

Well-Known Member
That's right, antler scales. I have a customer that wants an EDC knife with antler scales (was last deer granpa harvested with my customer before he passed). I had never seen them? Have seen Antler handles but never scales. I decided to try and make them! I had read an article about boiling antlers to straighten them so I tried it. It was not easy and the whole antler would not get flat enough for full tang scales. I split anler in half.with cut off wheels on my Dremal and a flat blade screwdriver, then boiled the halfs about an hour to soften them, clamped each half into a vice to straighten. Real PITA, As long as they don't crack, they look good, but I have to let them dry a few days! Wish I had taken a pic of how curved the antler was! It had about a 21/2" radius! Hard to see in pic but in the middle is the antler! 20240228_175043.jpg
 
Gliden07 said:
That's right, antler scales. I have a customer that wants an EDC knife with antler scales (was last deer granpa harvested with my customer before he passed). I had never seen them? Have seen Antler handles but never scales. I decided to try and make them! I had read an article about boiling antlers to straighten them so I tried it. It was not easy and the whole antler would not get flat enough for full tang scales. I split anler in half.with cut off wheels on my Dremal and a flat blade screwdriver, then boiled the halfs about an hour to soften them, clamped each half into a vice to straighten. Real PITA, As long as they don't crack, they look good, but I have to let them dry a few days! Wish I had taken a pic of how curved the antler was! It had about a 21/2" radius! Hard to see in pic but in the middle is the antler! View attachment 84150
Click to expand...
Interesting. My daughter gave me some deer antler quite a while back. I never thought they would be large enough to use. But with your method, maybe.

Following along.
 
Gliden07 said:
That's right, antler scales. I have a customer that wants an EDC knife with antler scales (was last deer granpa harvested with my customer before he passed). I had never seen them? Have seen Antler handles but never scales. I decided to try and make them! I had read an article about boiling antlers to straighten them so I tried it. It was not easy and the whole antler would not get flat enough for full tang scales. I split anler in half.with cut off wheels on my Dremal and a flat blade screwdriver, then boiled the halfs about an hour to soften them, clamped each half into a vice to straighten. Real PITA, As long as they don't crack, they look good, but I have to let them dry a few days! Wish I had taken a pic of how curved the antler was! It had about a 21/2" radius! Hard to see in pic but in the middle is the antler! View attachment 84150
Click to expand...
Good luck. I haven’t tried this method but I
it can be hit or miss with the end result.
Deer antler can be used for small slip joint.
 
Update, I let these dry for a week they took some of the curve back so I have to boil and clamp them again. I did get 1 crack not gonna be a problem though. The problem is I used a Sharpie on the antler to rough cut the slabs and it stained the antler! I think there is enough to cut around though? The other problem is I am going to have to stabilize and fill the void in the back with epoxy. Way to much time and material spent on something that is just an antler! I won't be doing this again unless I get at least $100 for a pair. Pics to follow! I did it for the right reason but I'm gonna loose my shirt on this build!
 
Gliden07 said:
Update, I let these dry for a week they took some of the curve back so I have to boil and clamp them again. I did get 1 crack not gonna be a problem though. The problem is I used a Sharpie on the antler to rough cut the slabs and it stained the antler! I think there is enough to cut around though? The other problem is I am going to have to stabilize and fill the void in the back with epoxy. Way to much time and material spent on something that is just an antler! I won't be doing this again unless I get at least $100 for a pair. Pics to follow! I did it for the right reason but I'm gonna loose my shirt on this build!
Click to expand...
I believe you can use super glue or the equivalent on the pith rather than epoxy.
 
Boiled and back in the vice! Hopefully the curl that occurred after I removed it from the vice will be gone or removable with some sanding?? These are a lot of work and as I said I won't be doing them again. Does it work yes but a jigged bone would be a better choice IMO? Anyway I will follow up with finished pics when I get there!
 

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We used to raise sheep, and I had a surplus of ram horns to use as scales, so I started to do some research on ways to flatten the material. I thought boiling was more than likely the way to go, but what I found in my research was that boiling adds too much moisture, and likely the material would bend again as it dries. The suggested method I found was to heat the scales and straighten them. Not wet heat but dry heat like an oven or a heat gun. My thoughts on that were I would have to experiment to find out what temperature the material could be heated to without burning it. Then, how much force could I apply per heat without breaking it? The logic sounded right to me but I never tried it. Maybe it would work with deer antlers? If you try it on some other pieces and it works, please let me know.
 
Have one side roughed in but the other side is giving me a PITA!! Boiled it again today back in the vice! Spending way to much time on these! Learned a bunch though! If I ever do this again I'll do things a bit differently for sure. I can't see me doing them in the near future though! Gonna need to stabilize and add liners.
 

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Making some progress! Much bigger challange than I expected! Antler was stabilized then Epoxied to some White liners. Rough fit right now! I'm friggin paranoid it's taken me it seems forever to get here!
 

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Front and back polished, need to epoxy them on now. Have to get some Mother of Pearl fret dots to cover pins (customer request). Anyway a paring knife and a Trout n Bird knife all ready for epoxy too!
 

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Well coming along Mother of Pearl inlays done! I epoxied these in first cut very short SS pins and epoxied those into one of the scales. The MOP went in way easier than I thought it would! I used a Brad point kinda drill bit to countersink the pieces. Very happy how they came out and would consider doing the MOP inlays on the right project again (no antler scales though!! LOL!!)
 

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