Antler

[montmill]

I've made pens using whitetail deer antler but recently came into possession of some red deer antler. It's much straighter and longer than the whitetail and I would think easier to drill a hole in. Has anyone used red deer antler and if so, how did you like it?

 

[Kenny Durrant]

I haven't actually used the Red Deer but I've used several different types of antler to make pens. What I've found is that most can be porous like White Tail. I like Axis deer the best. It's a solid bone with a single small hole that runs through it. The only issue is that it's not necessarily in the center or close to the center at times. I like the color which is mostly an off white with shades of grey or a light blue tint. Not sure if this helps any but density of the antler is the only thing I've had issues with and that varys from piece to piece.

 

[crokett]

I used red deer once, several years ago. Someone sent me a piece and I made a pen for him. It was straighter, so easier to work with. The piece I had seemed to be denser than white tail, which is already pretty dense IMO. Admittedly my sample size of 1 is very small. It didn't seem to be different enough that I had to change technique.