Antler Restoration

[135inchsingle]

Does anyone else on this forum do antler restoration? I finally got serious about it 3 years ago and have restored quite a few. Here's the biggest to date. I did this one for an out of state collector. It had been chewed real bad. Even the base was 1/2 gone as were the end of the beam and the tips of all the tines. As restored it scores 114! That's my son holding it. Wouldn't we all like to find one like this!

 

[deershed]

Looks like you did a good job restoring that antler!! Do you have a before and after picture showing the difference?
I might have some work for you.

 

[deershed]

I never thought about restoring any of my sheds til I found my 14 pt. single.(see thread "has anyone found any sheds"-this forum)It has some minor chews and is faded alittle,but over all is in good shape.
The rodents starting working on it,but I believe you can still tell exactly what antler had.No tines were chewed completely off or huge chunks off the main beam.
How much do you charge to do then antler such as mine?

 

[marmot]

I've restored quite a few antlers and horns.

I use epoxy, paint, stain, Kilz, steel, fiberglass, etc. to make them look new again.

 

[135inchsingle]

Marmot, Glad to hear I'm not the only one here that does it.

 

[baddison]

135inchsingle,

Great shed. I to would love to see the before and after pictures if you have them.

 

[135inchsingle]

Here's the before pics. As you can see it had been attacked by tree rats pretty hard. Aside from the non typ. pt. at the end of the beam I feel it's very close to how it was originally.

 

[deershed]

What a difference!! Great work.
Do you pretty much guess how antler was before you
start on a antler with that much damage?

 

[135inchsingle]

Some of it is guesswork. The rest is approximate estimates. If you study alot of antlers some common traits are apparent, such as most tines all taper approx. the same amount on the same given base size. I find a tine thats the same size where it's missing from and pour a new one and apply.. Tine length is the easiest estimate of the repairs. With this shed I did sort of have to "wing it" on the main beam end. I had one in my collection that was an exact match to fit up so I used it. The pic doesn't show it very well but on the inside of the g1 you could see it was forked. Same with the g2.. Thanks for asking. I allways enjoy talking antlers.