Coloring Deer Horn

[D. Crawford]

Hi Dogs,
I recently came into a nice supply of Axis horn.
The problem was it was sun-bleached and in real
need of some color. I saw lots of threads on coloring
horn but not many pictures of the end result.

I decided to try potassium permanganate as many
had suggested so I ordered 4 oz from a compounding
pharmacy. I put just a little sprinkle in a bowl with 1/4
cup of warm water and used an old toothbrush to gently
scrub the surface of some clean horn. After about 5
minutes of scrubbing I had a nice golden brown piece of
horn. Since only the surface is oxidized you can do some
light sanding on the high spots to get down to bare horn
and have some contrast. I left the tip untreated so you could
see the before and after. Here's a pic:



Hope this helps someone,
David

 

[gobblergetter]

thanks for posting this i was wondering about coloring antlers myself. looks good

 

[Brett Mathews]

I would leave it in there aleast over night and im sure you will like the results.