Shed restoration project

[Spitz]

This was my first restore. I can't find the before pics, but imagine a crusty white chunk of bone that had been sitting in the yard for a number of years. The big dropper had been busted off and somewhat reattached with hot glue. Various parts were dried out to where bone would flake off just from being touched.

So, once I located the bone, I just had to steal it out of somebody's yard. (Yeah, what kind of jackass would leave a B&C non-typical mule deer shed sitting in their front yard piled up with a bunch of old elk sheds? You'll have to ask Greenhorn, I have a hunch he knows.)

The bulk of the work was making the antler strong again with some apoxie sculpt and sanding back down to the bone. The frustrating part was getting the right color to the shed. Learned some lessons that will make next time easier, but I think the finished product didn't turn out too bad.

My thanks to Bugler for his advice early on.

 

[Dinkshooter]

Looks really good. Your a sick puppy to go through all that work...............I can appreciate it. Any tine repair/replacement?

If you ever come across the before pics post em up.

 

[The Hedgehog]

Nice work! ..looks like a perfect bedroom piece.

There's a booner non-typical whitetail antler in the same pile somwhere, feel free to come salvage it from the mice and elements..

Oh and Thanks!

 

[IdahoBugler]

good job spitz, it looks real good. The hard part is making sure the vein marks are in the horn and all the small groves are there. The low parts hold the stains and the high parts get buffed out. The coloring is definitly the hardest thing to do.

 

[Oak]

Yep, looks good. Post up the picture of the whitetail when you finish it.

 

[ELKCHSR]

Nice work, looks like you may have another trade in the making when you get tired of the one your doing now...

 

[TheTone]

Looks nice. I've got a small but cool whitetail rack I'd like to do, plus a good size elk shed I'd like to try also. Way to nice of a shed to leave to the elements.

 

[ashersdad]

Looks great Spitz. I am working on a busted tine on one of my mounts right now. I can't seem to get the coloring to look good. Do you have any suggestions or secrets? Thanks.

 

[Spitz]

IS it a busted tine that you rebuilt with some sort of material or was it just a reattachment?

I haven't had to color match new stuff to existing antler and think it could be a pain to get it right. To get even color I found that using a primer first helps stain take and keeps it true to its tint. Then just get to Home Depot or somewhere and find the right color or buy a few sample packs and find the right mixture of colors and coat the primer to match. Good luck.

 

[ashersdad]

It is a busted tine. Looked for two hours but never could find it.

So I used the same epoxy that IDBugler used to recreate it. That turned out good. BUT, getting the coloring to match the rest of the tine has not turned out so well. I will sand it down and try the primer idea. Thanks for the help.

 

[thecrittergitter]

nice work, looks good. I'm going to spend some trial and error time with a real nice set of elk sheds i found this year...............actually, will be doing some testing on some smaller ones first.