Author Topic: bending antler. (Read 28237 times)

holzwurm · « **on:** March 18, 2009, 03:51:32 AM »

Is bending a piece of antler even possible?

Cory Joe Stewart · « **Reply #1 on:** March 18, 2009, 04:09:31 AM »

I have never even thought about it. I think it would be very difficult to bend a solid piece. A section maybe. The ancient Greeks bent ivory by soaking it in vinegar. Give that a shot, has to soak for a while, I have done it on horns and it takes a couple of days soak.

Coryjoe

C Wallingford · « **Reply #2 on:** March 18, 2009, 02:31:11 PM »

You can bend (straighten) antler by soaking in vinegar. Like Coryjoe says, let it soak for a few days (2-3). Then you can put it in a vise and let it dry for a day or so.

Tim Crosby · « **Reply #3 on:** March 18, 2009, 05:21:04 PM »

I gotta try this. I wonder if heating the vinegar would speed up the process or make it work better?

Tim C.

robert gene · « **Reply #4 on:** March 18, 2009, 05:33:12 PM »

I put an antler ring on a horn by boiling it in water and vinegar. for about an hour. that was a thin piece. it was still hard to bend, but it worked.

keweenaw · « **Reply #5 on:** March 18, 2009, 07:11:19 PM »

This will also work by simply soaking the antler in water for a couple weeks or by boiling it in plain water for about an hour. You can move a piece quite a lot when it's hot.

Tom

Tim Crosby · « **Reply #6 on:** April 02, 2009, 09:33:43 PM »

Ok, I put a couple of pieces of antler in a container with apple vinegar on the 18 or Mar. They both had about a 1/2" of bent to be taken out to make them straight. Yesterday I took one out, put it in a vice and cranked down, it did straighten out. Today, after it was dry, I took it out and it is straight. Now comes the test, to see how long it will stay that way. I will give it a week or so and see what happens. I put the second piece in the vice today and it was soft enough to straighten.
The pieces were white/antler color when they went in they are now a medium brown color.

Tim C.

T*O*F · « **Reply #7 on:** April 02, 2009, 09:41:27 PM »

Tim,
Congrats! You've figured out how to make antler pickles.

Tim Crosby · « **Reply #8 on:** April 02, 2009, 10:07:34 PM »

Quote from: TOF on April 02, 2009, 09:41:27 PM

Tim,
Congrats! You've figured out how to make antler pickles.

No kidding, instead of using a sick or tongs to pick up the pieces I used my fingers, man it is hard to get rid of that smell. I kind of goes with the stain, dye, finish and various and sundry other smells and colors I have on my hands.

Tim C.

msblacksmith · « **Reply #9 on:** May 08, 2009, 06:49:17 AM »

did the vinager stain the antler?

Tim Crosby · « **Reply #10 on:** May 08, 2009, 04:03:56 PM »

Quote from: msblacksmith on May 08, 2009, 06:49:17 AM

did the vinager stain the antler?

Yes it did. I have not had a chance to use any of the pieces I straightened. I am still a little leary of them thinking they will return to their natural shape if worked to much. One piece cracked on the end, maybe it was not soft enough yet. I will drill one today for a powder measure and see what happens.

Tim C.

G. Elsenbeck · « **Reply #11 on:** May 09, 2009, 01:13:53 AM »

Tim, what a great idea about straighten antler pieces. Tim, I suppose the next experiment if you think they will stay straight is to chuck em on the lathe and see if a couple of tips will be turned. Got me thinking of doing the same thing now. I wonder if the CEO has any stock and if she's turning her back.......
Gary

Roger Fisher · « **Reply #12 on:** May 14, 2009, 09:03:22 PM »

Good timing I've recently dug out some 'nearly' straight antler tynes and will now try the vinegar idea. Useage will be ol tyme 'horn' tip on wood r rod. !

omark · « **Reply #13 on:** May 16, 2009, 06:47:47 AM »

i used some vinegar to straighten horn the other day. first, it was cider and did stain the antler, but it was not deep at all. second,i had some trouble with cracking and egg-shaping, but i may not have let it soak long enough. think it was 2-3 days. FWIW mark

D. Taylor Sapergia · « **Reply #14 on:** May 20, 2009, 03:07:37 AM »

Mark, we're talking about antler here - not horn. Horn is easy. I'm watching this thread on antler bending with much interest.

omark · « **Reply #15 on:** May 20, 2009, 05:51:29 PM »

d taylor, i am too. just sometimes use the two terms interchangeably. mark

Smiley · « **Reply #16 on:** May 30, 2009, 05:28:51 AM »

Gentleman

Does this work with heavier pieces for knife handles also?

Smiley

Tim Crosby · « **Reply #17 on:** May 30, 2009, 06:56:38 PM »

Earlier in the month I drilled a piece of antler that I had straightend, 1/4" hole completely through the length. As of today it has not moved.
Here are a couple of before and after pictures, it is a crown piece about 5 X 5/8". It had been in the bath for about a month and a half, put it in a vice and let it dry a couple of days. You can see how much curve came out of it.
I have not tried turning a piece that has been straightened nor have I tried a heavier piece, I will.

Tim C.

jasontn · « **Reply #18 on:** July 28, 2009, 08:04:06 AM »

i gave this a try myself. i have a lot of curved nice crowns. i lost the before image, but it had more curve than the one tim c just posted. it soaked in the vinegar for about 5 weeks. i took it out and clamped it in the vice for maybe a week. now we all know how antler smells when you get it hot working it, well vinegar soaked antler smells even worse, never thought it got worse than hot antler. my piece took a nice color and the finishing stains i used came out better than normal, at least to me. it never moved or tried to return to shape, even after drilling, having a pin peened in and the solder poured on it. im glad i found this, ill be able to salvage a whole lot of good knife handles now. wish i hadnt lost he before pic, but heres an after.

Roger Fisher · « **Reply #19 on:** July 28, 2009, 05:04:36 PM »

Quote from: Smiley on May 30, 2009, 05:28:51 AM

Gentleman

Does this work with heavier pieces for knife handles also?

Smiley

Well now Smiley - Would you not want at least a slight bend to the knife handle to fit the hand?? I do!

jmforge · « **Reply #20 on:** July 29, 2009, 07:40:24 AM »

Okay, now the bad news. IF you get the pith wet, forget about reinforcing it with Super Glue. Wet pith is nasty, stinky stuff and it won't dry out any time before St. Patricks Day of say 2011.

I scrape it all out anyway and replace it with West System epoxy for my knife handles, but I'm not sure how PC that would be.

Whitetail antler is notorious amongst knifemakers for having a LOT of pith and not a whole lot of hard bone, so what you would end up with most of the time is a big slug of epoxy and an nice bone shell. Horn is supposedly much easier to bend because it is more like fingernail material. I have seen tutorials where guys bent solid African antelope horn a LOT by steaming it.

Chuck Burrows · « **Reply #21 on:** July 29, 2009, 07:51:04 AM »

Joe - When any antler has pith there is absolutley NO need to remove it or use modern methods to stabilize it.-
1) drill a hole in the middle slightly smaller than the tang
2) then boil it until the pith is "soft"
3) While it's still hot jam the tang down into the hole - heating the tang helps - I lock the blade in my vise tang up, heat with a torch and when teh antler is ready jam it on and pund it down tight with a rawhide mallet....

the pith turns to a nice solid glue when cool - it's one method our ancestors from way back when (aka the stone age) used before epoxy was invented and it has held up well on /most originals made this way.....I also use cross pins, but then I wear a belt and suspenders....

Some (often) times the old ways work as good or even better than the modern ones...i.e epoxies generally have a lifetime of less than 50 years and most much shorter, on the other hand many old methods such as described or cutler's resin have held up quite well for millenia.......

jmforge · « **Reply #22 on:** July 29, 2009, 08:15:32 AM »

Quote from: ChuckBurrows on July 29, 2009, 07:51:04 AM

Joe - When any antler has pith there is absolutley NO need to remove it or use modern methods to stabilize it.-
1) drill a hole in the middle slightly smaller than the tang
2) then boil it until the pith is "soft"
3) While it's still hot jam the tang down into the hole - heating the tang helps - I lock the blade in my vise tang up, heat with a torch and when teh antler is ready jam it on and pund it down tight with a rawhide mallet....

the pith turns to a nice solid glue when cool - it's one method our ancestors from way back when (aka the stone age) used before epoxy was invented and it has held up well on /most originals made this way.....I also use cross pins, but then I wear a belt and suspenders....
Some (often) times the old ways work as good or even better than the modern ones...i.e epoxies generally have a lifetime of less than 50 years and most much shorter, on the other hand many old methods such as described or cutler's resin have held up quite well for millenia.......

But that pith is just so NASTY!!!

I do the burning trick on hidden tang maple handles. Does heating the antler and the tang cause a "cooking" reaction because I have cleaned out the pith from a piece of stag that had gotten wet while cleaning a couple of weeks before and it was still wet and nasty and didn't seem like it was going to dry out in this oppressively humid Florida climate anytime in the near future.

I'm a "belt and suspenders" kinda guy too. I have yet to make a stag handled knife that did have a threaded tang and buttcap. As for the smell, I don't think that antler smells all that bad when you grind it. Now Micarta is another story altogether!

Chuck Burrows · « **Reply #23 on:** July 29, 2009, 08:46:24 AM »

Heating the pith in antler to above 170°F changes it at the molecular level - it turns it into something completely different - a real nice solid when done right.
Heating the tang ( just below dull red is fine) helps in keeping the pith "soft" until the tang is completely inserted - a cold tang tends to draw off the heat in the pith which may go solid before the tang is completely inserted if cooled too quickly. Also I like to drill my cross pin hole before inserting the tang - that way any steam has a route to escape.

and yep I don't mind the smell of ground antler or bone either.......

jmforge · « **Reply #24 on:** July 29, 2009, 08:53:41 AM »

Quote from: ChuckBurrows on July 29, 2009, 08:46:24 AM

Heating the pith in antler to above 170°F changes it at the molecular level - it turns it into something completely different - a real nice solid when done right.
Heating the tang ( just below dull red is fine) helps in keeping the pith "soft" until the tang is completely inserted - a cold tang tends to draw off the heat in the pith which may go solid before the tang is completely inserted if cooled too quickly. Also I like to drill my cross pin hole before inserting the tang - that way any steam has a route to escape.

and yep I don't mind the smell of ground antler or bone either.......

Interesting. My wet pith was caused by me having to clean the dried velvet and "field crud" out of the crevasses on some pieces of sambar with a LOT of popcorn. I figured that I could pay $35 per stick and do it myself instead of paying $70-80 for someone else to do it.

That heating method sure sounds like it would make for an easier time working with crowns.

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Author Topic: bending antler. (Read 28237 times)

holzwurm

robert gene

keweenaw

msblacksmith

omark

omark

Smiley

jasontn

jmforge

jmforge

jmforge