It Sure Does Stink........

[Spiel]

I spent the afternoon carving out another Deer Antler Reel Seat and now the house stinks like burnt hair ..... 😕


 

[Barry Willis]

Hi Spiel, it's been a spell. I'm not sure if I was to comment on this and I don't expect I am about to mention anything you don't already know but here goes anyway. I've done a lot of work with antlers and the only way to avoid it at least somewhat is to just do a bit at a time and then let it sit for a while to prevent it from heating up. I know it's a pain and very time consuming but the warmer it gets the worse the smell. At least that's what my wife tells me, she would know, I swear she has a nose equal to that of a Blood Hound. Many times when we've been Elk hunting she will smell them long before we see them. My kind of hunting partner.  Haha.  Not that it comes as a surprise, your pics, illustrate very nice work as always, second to none. Thank you for sharing them.  Cheer's - Barry.

Edited October 15, 2023 by Barry Willis

[HTHM]

What about doing it on a wood lathe? You're welcome to try it out on mine. Using chisels rather than metal cutting points. 

[smitty55]

4 hours ago, Barry Willis said:

Hi Spiel, it's been a spell. I'm not sure if I was to comment on this and I don't expect I am about to mention anything you don't already know but here goes anyway. I've done a lot of work with antlers and the only way to avoid it at least somewhat is to just do a bit at a time and then let it sit for a while to prevent it from heating up. I know it's a pain and very time consuming but the warmer it gets the worse the smell. At least that's what my wife tells me, she would know, I swear she has a nose equal to that of a Blood Hound. Many times when we've been Elk hunting she will smell them long before we see them. My kind of hunting partner.  Haha.  Not that it comes as a surprise, your pics, illustrate very nice work as always, second to none. Thank you for sharing them.  Cheer's - Barry.

Getting of topic here but Barry, I only found this out a couple years back but it's a biological fact that women have a better sense of smell than men. My propane furnace was going on the fritz back then and my wife mentioned that the outdoor exhaust was smelling funny while to me it seemed normal. So I have a neighbour who has a gas license and installs furnaces for a local company. So he comes over and the first thing he does is gets me to turn the furnace and he takes a deep breath of the exhaust and says it burnt his throat a bit so yes I have issues. Turned out the furnace was off grade and the acidic water was pooling under the heat exchanger and it was rotting out. I mentioned to Jordy that my wife could smell it but I couldn't and he said that they were taught in school that women naturally have a better sense of smell than men, hence why he had to actually inhale the exhaust and feel the burn to be sure something was wrong. I got lucky too, the original install company had to cough up for all the repairs.

4 hours ago, HTHM said:

What about doing it on a wood lathe? You're welcome to try it out on mine. Using chisels rather than metal cutting points. 

Antlers are so much denser and harder than wood, pretty sure that's why metal bits are needed.

 

That's looking good Spiel, neat to see the different steps in the process. How many hours in total you figure to do the handle?

[Spiel]

12 hours ago, HTHM said:

What about doing it on a wood lathe? You're welcome to try it out on mine. Using chisels rather than metal cutting points. 

Thanks for the offer Albert but for this task a machine lathe is the way to go. 

8 hours ago, smitty55 said:

That's looking good Spiel, neat to see the different steps in the process. How many hours in total you figure to do the handle?

Thank you Sir, what's shown in the pictures is about an hours work. A complete handle for this build will take about 3-4 hours by the time it's installed onto the blank.

[lew]

Pet food stores get crazy prices for bits of deer antlers for chew toys for dogs Chris. Local store to me sells 4" pieces for around $25.

[Spiel]

11 minutes ago, lew said:

Pet food stores get crazy prices for bits of deer antlers for chew toys for dogs Chris. Local store to me sells 4" pieces for around $25.

I'm clearly in the wrong business Lew.  😄

[lew]

42 minutes ago, Spiel said:

I'm clearly in the wrong business Lew.  😄

And I'm sitting here with 3 antlers on my fireplace hearth that I could get a small fortune for LOL

[Barry Willis]

Hi Lew, how ya doing there young fella? I don't know that I still do but at one time I had the largest collection of antlers in Canada and parts of the US. Just shy of 400 whitetail antlers, about 200 mule deer antlers and a combined of about 100 moose and elk antlers. These were all, as most call them shed antlers, I call them drop offs. I was one of the first to go out looking for drop offs and only drop offs.  Almost twenty years ago we were moving and I neglected to lock the back gate and while we were at our new house someone entered the back gate and stole most my antlers (my favorites of course) that were packed in two custom built tool boxes that go in a truck box behind the cab. Every chance I had since 1981 I walked countless miles for years to find all these antlers. I think someone knew that they were there and obviously wanted them for bragging rights or to be ground down into who knows what. One day I'll send an off topic pic of what I have left and some other interesting ones from other parts of the world that I hope you and some of the other forum members will enjoy. So long for now.

[akaShag]

On 10/17/2023 at 1:16 PM, Barry Willis said:

Hi Lew, how ya doing there young fella? I don't know that I still do but at one time I had the largest collection of antlers in Canada and parts of the US. Just shy of 400 whitetail antlers, about 200 mule deer antlers and a combined of about 100 moose and elk antlers. These were all, as most call them shed antlers, I call them drop offs. I was one of the first to go out looking for drop offs and only drop offs.  Almost twenty years ago we were moving and I neglected to lock the back gate and while we were at our new house someone entered the back gate and stole most my antlers (my favorites of course) that were packed in two custom built tool boxes that go in a truck box behind the cab. Every chance I had since 1981 I walked countless miles for years to find all these antlers. I think someone knew that they were there and obviously wanted them for bragging rights or to be ground down into who knows what. One day I'll send an off topic pic of what I have left and some other interesting ones from other parts of the world that I hope you and some of the other forum members will enjoy. So long for now.

Tagged for interest.  WOW, just freakin' WOW!!!

Doug