You can change the looks of a piece when getting it fitted but, in some cases it needs to be smoothed. Case in point I picked up a white shed that had so much character it hurt your hand to hang on to it!! Once I removed a bit of the character it sure felt better in the hand. So I think using antler is a give and take process! Goes back to old saying
"you can take more off but, you can't put it back"!!
I have screwed up a piece or two by going too far.
That is when I refer to the other old saying,
"damn I am glad that wasn't ivory"!!
Antler was one of my go to when I first started. After I used everything I had. I could buy a bunch at one time off of eBay! A word of caution there.
Ask the seller if what you are seeing is what you are bidding on??
I study the lot and based on what I see is how I would bid on it! With good pics you can envision what is useable! I bought one lot and when it got to me, not one antler was what I had been looking at! I emailed him and told him I base my buying on what I am looking at and now I don't have as much useable materials to work with!
Come to find out he made his sales using the same stock photo over and over!! Lesson learned, ask if the photo is a stock photo or actually what I am bidding on!
