Point Creep
Well-known member
One I did a few days ago. I don’t have a before pic but the burrs and a couple inches up on the outside lost most the color when simmering in a pot for a few days.
Restoring color to Antlers
- Thread starter marshman
- Start date
Point Creep
Well-known member
Another one I did a couple years ago
Point Creep
Well-known member
A before after of a white deadhead elk
Nick87
Well-known member
@Irrelevant I pretty much use the same process as greenhorn but with the bri wax you just have to decide how far out to fade it in depending on your antlers. His results look good as well. I've used stains and other things in the past and agree with him they suck. The briwax has worked out very well for me. Ymmv
Nick87
Well-known member
In the chance that you do a little 220 sandpaper will take it out.
Irrelevant
Well-known member
What are my ratios?
And are you serious about the sticks?
How do you handle blending across the natural antler section, do you worry about over darkening the natural section?
Do you wash it after the stick work?
Point Creep
Well-known member
A dash of this and a pinch of that, whatever makes it apply easy. Dead serious about the sticks - I cut a branch off my alder or lilac bushes that have good green bark - maybe 3/4” diameter. Just wipe them off or brush them afterwards. The degreasing is the magic trick and I haven’t found a way that’s fast. They always look great at first - but if you skip degreasing some animals turn yellow eventually. I don’t degrease elk. Almost all bears will turn yellow if not degreased, it’s a 3-6 month process. Most people don’t give a shit.
Point Creep
Well-known member
Wtf you talking about?
When an animal tears into a tree there’s no worry about ratio or blending and it always looks just real.
Irrelevant
Well-known member
What do you mean degreasing? Like dawn dish soap and hot water?
Point Creep
Well-known member
Yeah - it’s the key, and I mean KEY for them to look good permanently. You can redo it later but it can be a pain in the ass. Here’s an example..
The goat was not degreased but for the first 3 or 4 years it looked as good as the other skulls. The other skulls, wolf and 2 bears, were even more yellow than the goat, but I soaked them in 93 degree water with clean dawn for 6 full months. Cost was maybe 150 gallons of water, $30-$40 in soap, and time. I can whip out a great looking skull in a week, but some critters bears, goats, sheep, antelope and some deer have a high probability of turning yellow in a few years. Look at some of your old ones.
Point Creep
Well-known member
I sometimes use acetone also, but it’s not much better or faster, just doesn’t take all the damn water
Point Creep
Well-known member
A six month degreased in warm dawn bear skull vs. a 4 month (mine this year). You can see there’s still grease in it. Easy fix - just another month or 2 in dawn or acetone.
Point Creep
Well-known member
I’ve got a dozen huge antelope that are bondoed onto skulls that I didn’t degrease. It’s a total bummer. I’m testing what 6 months in hot soapy water does to horns. It doesn’t look like it’ll mess with them much but my acetone experiment wasn’t great.
Testing on a couple of my own dinks as experiment.
72 hours in acetone won’t degrease but will turn antelope horns white.
Soap for 2 months and no horn damage yet.
Point Creep
Well-known member
I’m gonna leave that in there for 6 months and I’ll report back. I predict it’ll be just fine, but acetone totally removes color. acetone might not hurt the horn texture and some stain would fix the color thing - not sure.
Do you change the water daily? I only degrease for about a week. Seems to be plenty for elk, but I can tell my deer skulls could stand to be degreased for longer. I change the water daily but doing it every day for months would be a pain.
El Jason
Well-known member
@Point Creep are you beetle cleaning those or simmering?
Point Creep
Well-known member
Only change water when it’s starts to smell bad enough to bother people in the house. When you first start, even if they’ve been in your house and totally fine zero smell for decades - they’ll smell when grease comes out. It takes a week or two, then later you can go longer. You’ll see the grease floating and sticking to the edges of the container. The 100+ gallons of water consumption is from the evaporation. I usually add 5 gallons or so every 3-4 days. I’m at 94 degrees- max for my fish tank heater.
Irrelevant
Well-known member
Oh so when you say degreasing you don't mean the coloring you just did to the antlers but the skull.
I've been using oxyclean for that along with dawn and it seems to have worked really well. But I'll have to compare an old one to a recent one to see how much yellowing I'm getting
I've been using oxyclean for that along with dawn and it seems to have worked really well. But I'll have to compare an old one to a recent one to see how much yellowing I'm getting
