COLORING ANTLERS

badtothebone

badtothebone

New member
Hey ya'll. Here's a picture of some bleached anter I've been working on. I boiled black walnut wrappers and made a black stain. I soaked the antler in it for three days, and this is the warm brown it turned. I refroze the 'soup' and will use it over and over, until fall when the new nuts drop. This call still has some work to do on it. The bell end and the mouth piece will get polished up a bit with 0000 steel wool, and should lighten up as the 'soup' doesnt stain too deeply. Pop in an enclosed reed set (from THO) and off we go.

By the way, got one last night, coy pup in distress with some agressive barks laid over it.

Rudy
P4300033.jpg
 
Ever try potassium permanganate? This is an oxidizer found at pond/lake shops or online. The substance is purple but when disolved in water and added to antler it will oxidize it. Then simply rub with abrasive as if the animal would have done it himself. I have done this with several skull mounts that I have found in washes here in Southern Nevada..... Good luck Paul
 
It turned out pretty good. I would assume you could resand the exhaust and intake areas and make them white again to look more natural.

Tony
 
Yep, I'm going to go to work on it tonight with 0000 steel wool. Do you think the lanyard groove would look better around the 'thumb' or the 'wrist'?

Thanks!
Rudy
 
If you are going to put the call on a normal lanyard, then I'd cut the groove above center near the mouthpiece, so that it hangs properly.

If you are going to build it's own lanyard, then I'd drill a hole through the 'thumb' tine, into the barrel, and run a cord through it, with the knot inside the barrel. That makes a neat looking lanyard for it. If you do this, make sure you seal the knot up with something like epoxy, so that moisture can't buildup on it and turn into a big slobber-sickle inside the barrel, in the winter.

Tony
 
Thanks for the tip, Tony. I buffed up the whiter parts of the call and it lightened up a bunch.

I put a bunch of new bleached antler rough cut blanks in the 'soup' to darken 'before' I make the call instead of 'after', as with this one. Should be able to keep the lighter areas a lot lighter.

The next couple will be with open reeds.

My idiot buddy make a call like these and used a piece of rack that had a really long brow tine. He jabbed his eye pretty good. Now I have the call. Ha!

R
 
If anyone has followed this thread, I have an update for you. I think I found the best way to do the walnut dyed antlers. If you cut up a rack into pieces of call blanks, soak them in the walnut dye BEFORE you start to work on the call instead of AFTER. I dyed some antler and got it a nice brown color (the longer you soak it the darker it gets), then started on the piece with a file, sand paper, dremel, and steel wool. You go right through the dyed layer and the light, cream color comes through. Very nice contrasting colors. I'll post a pict of one after I finish it.
 
At the custom knife factory I work at ( Canal Street Cutlery) we lightly boil the antler peaces in food dye for about 15 mins or so. It will set in strong and barely come off with a high speed buff. Dave
 
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