Antler Powder Measure?

[MSW]

great looking work!

 

[dbutch]

Jethro--very simple to do...the curved ones are my favorite here's the latest....90 gr. thin walls...

kind a looks like a snake!

done with a drill and 2 sizes of rat tail files..if I can do it with bear paws any one can!

Louie-- Just use your imagination and start cutting! This one is very thin and light..some times little antlers do work!

 

[dbutch]

Jethro--very simple to do...the curved ones are my favorite here's the latest....90 gr. thin walls...

kind a looks like a snake!

done with a drill and 2 sizes of rat tail files..if I can do it with bear paws any one can!

Louie-- Just use your imagination and start cutting! This one is very thin and light..some times little antlers do work!

here's the leather dye stained version

 

[jethro224]

That one is way cool. I think I liked it natural better. :hmm: How do ya get the deer to grow them lil bitty antlers? :haha:

 

[El Lobo]

I recently took up carving powder measures for fun. I prefer the low tech approach so no electric powered drill or grinder for me. I did some research and found that it if you boil the tine for 1 hour it will soften up enough so that you can easily ream it out with a small paring knife. As you get deeper inside the tine, it will get harder to carve. Just pop it back into the water for a few minutes to soften up the next little bit. I work on two tines at once, alternating one then the other in the hot water.

I also made a little tool out of a piece of banding steel that looks kind of like a miniature crooked knife on a piece of broken ramrod about 12 inches long. I use that to get at the deeper end of the tine. I use a small triangle file and a small tapered half round file for shaping the exterior of the antler. Works for me. I think you might find making powder measures is a lot of fun. I am getting ready to start doing a little decorative scrimshaw on my next one.

Good luck.

Lobo

 

[dbutch]

That one is way cool. I think I liked it natural better. :hmm: How do ya get the deer to grow them lil bitty antlers? :haha:

Jethro... I only use the sticker points off of the bucks I shoot. :rotf:

 

[dbutch]

LoBo ..like the idea of your scraper..Haven't tried the water method yet ..can you over warm them ? does that make the horn more brittle later in life?...Thanks Great picture.

 

[El Lobo]

Well, I do boil them for an hour. That pretty much guarantees that they reach a temperature of around 212 degrees fahrenheit and no more. As far as I know, boiling antler is a method that has been used as long as we have had the use of fire. It doesn't seem to make the material more brittle. I carve some of mine pretty thin. They are powder measures, not pry bars, so structural strength is not a big issue for me.

Give it a try. If you don't like it, try something else.

Lobo

 

[dbutch]

Thanks for the tips El Lobo will try that method next..heres a couple more I have been working on ..I have some very old and weathered antlers--found them in the cattails after a very hot marsh fire had to scrub the green growth off them to start...Left one in the white for comparison.Just talked with Trailchef(The LeatherMan) going to try a rawhide leather wrapped handle next!

 

[ohio ramrod]

You can carve it with a SHARP knife. I make my cavity in the measures using a drill and then a dremel with a long burr. The oldtimers used a flatened iron rod heated red hot and slowly turned. This drilled/burned out the cavity. And the smell "burned " out their sinuses as well!

 

[Snow on the Roof]

What are you using to stain and finish antler? Wood dyes, leather dye? Urethene as a finish?

John

 

[sepiatone]

The Way Horner75 describes it is the way I did it making my first powder measure. You might want to put cotton balls in your nose, so you don't have to smell burned bones, however. Its pretty nasty smelling.

I wish someone had suggested this before I started drilling my measure. I came very close to vomiting all over the antler. :redface: Smells even worse than Ballistol.

 

[LRB]

Ahhh, ya gets used to it. If it really gets to you, wipe some Vicks Vapo-Rub just under your nose.

 

[Snow on the Roof]

The Way Horner75 describes it is the way I did it making my first powder measure. You might want to put cotton balls in your nose, so you don't have to smell burned bones, however. Its pretty nasty smelling.

I wish someone had suggested this before I started drilling my measure. I came very close to vomiting all over the antler. :redface: Smells even worse than Ballistol.

Ballistol smells?!!

 

[dodgecity]

Sure it does. I use it for after shave. Can't hardly keep the ladies away.

 

[dbutch]

Snow--using Fiebing's Leather dye--color Dark Brown--no other finish.

 

[dbutch]

The Way Horner75 describes it is the way I did it making my first powder measure. You might want to put cotton balls in your nose, so you don't have to smell burned bones, however. Its pretty nasty smelling.

I wish someone had suggested this before I started drilling my measure. I came very close to vomiting all over the antler. :redface: Smells even worse than Ballistol.

The smell reminds me of a friend's hunting socks after a week of chasing those round ball repelling flea and tick infested percussion nipple plugging flatlander whitetail deer.. :rotf: :rotf: :rotf: :rotf: :blah:

 

[paulvallandigham]

I would agree. Your description comes about as close to the truth as any I have read to date! :blah: :shocked2: :idunno: :surrender: :hmm: :thumbsup:

 

[omarick1948]

You guys hadn't smelt nothing real bad yet!...Make a powder horn or measure out of buffalo horn! MAN!, every time I work Buff horn it smells more like Buffler Butt! The smell could punk a buzzard off a gut wagon!....HUUUWEEEEE!!! :barf:

Rick

 

[bwhoffman]

Wait till you going and set a knife blade into goat horn using stock same as blade and a torch.

Ive branded and dehorned 1000's of cows and calves, but goat horn is in a class all its own!