sun baked antlers

[azhunter79]

i recently found two nice sheds that had obviously been sitting out in the sun for a while. they were pretty white and chalky, but still in good shape and all intact. they were good size sheds to i wanted to keep them, but without the ugley white chalkyness. i washed them off as best i could and sprayed them with clear laquer a couple real good coats. it hadnt dried last night when i did it and i didnt check them this mroning so i dont know how it turned out. but i was wondering if anyone else had tried this on theri old bones or knew of anyone that has, and how it worked out.
az79

 

[AntlerKing]

I have a set of 8x7 sheds that go 34" wide; they have had 1" of the ends chewed off. They were white and a little chalky, I lightly sanded them down and sprayed them with white/tan spray paint. Then stained them, first off I filled in the cracks with wood puddie them sanded them. It took some work and time, at 10' they look natural. At 3' you can tell they have had work done on them. Good luck with them, a Taxidermist would save you time, I'm not sure what they would charge you.

 

[Cass]

I found an old elk horn a while back on monroe. Nothin big was just a 5pnt. But 2 of the points were broken off. I have sort of a desert / mountainous front yard and i set it so it looks natural in my front yard with the quakes and the colorado blue spruce / river / pond. It gets hit by water every day and i went and picked it up the other day. The Bone Marrow(SP) part is turning pink. I've never seen that before. THe part where the Inside of the Horn is exposed is actually turning pink.



-Cass

 

[AntlerKing]

I've seen that happen, mostly in yards. I don't have any pink antlers that I've picked up, my uncle has some in his yard that have a pink color on them. Something to do with the amount of water and sun light

 

[azhunter79]

both of the ones i picked up the other day had a lot of pink in them. one actually cleaned up when i washed it, some of hte pink kinda got slimey and i was able to rub it off, but i didnt know what it was or where it came from?

 

[monroemtnshedfreak]

I have found quite a few sheds that have started to turn pink in color, I have only seen it on the really old sheds though.

 

[NVMDF]

I have a big non typ. set that I found that were white
and cracked and I hit them once with a stiff wire brush
and then filled all the cracks with good old elmers glue
and then did the color, the elmers will take the color
of what ever stain you decide to use. You may need to
coat them 4 or 5 times with the glue, but it works great and it's cheap.

NVMDF

 

[AntlerKing]

NVMDF,

I never thought of that, I'll be giving it a go.

 

[Cass]

It's really neat. At first I thought it was from the red rocks it was covered in. Then I looked on the rest of the antler and saw it wasn't on there. It's pretty neat.



-Cass

 

[Cass]

Hmm That's an interesting tip.
Never heard of that one.



-Cass

 

[berto]

sounds sticky. glad it washes off with water.

and Cass, use elmer's glue NOT super glue, okay?

berto

 

[muleyqueen]

The pink stuff is actually a type of mold that only grows on bone. I know the name but can't spell it. No, really, I'm serious.

 

[RuttCrazed]

I've done the elmers glue trick before, but I mixed sawdust into the glue first. The sawdust helps to thicken up the glue and also absorbs the stain.

Rut

 

[azhunter79]

could i just use wood glue? it dries clear and is designed to absorb wood stain anyway?
mike

 

[RuttCrazed]

Yeah, I used wood glue. I put the saw dust in to make it more like putty, so I could apply it with a putty knife.

Rut

 

[NeMont]

I found an old scull with a 4x4, 31 antlers and took them to a taxidermist friend to ask what he suggested. He said to to the wood glue and sawdust thing. Then he said to rub in used motor oil. Find the oldest, dirtiest used motor oil you can find to get the color right. Sounded like BS but it worked. My .02cents
Nemont