Antlers ?

[neil cooney 10,416]

With it pissing rain all day I dug out a pair of ten year old Sika antlers, brushed them off and stained them using tea and coffee to see the result and to be fair, they looked good .

Just wondering have any of you chaps used tea and coffee and if so did the colour last ?

 

[jok 3,213]

You,ve just answered, without knowing it, a question I was preparing to ask. Thank you. Also, what pre-empted you to randomly get out a pair of Sika antlers after 10 years. Must surely be a reason?? Jok.

[neil cooney 10,416]

Jok, I have an eight pointer that's a real nice head and I made a plaque to put it on and cleaned the skull but want to put some colour back into the antlers so I used a lesser pair to test.

[jok 3,213]

Ah. I understand now. Just done exactly the same with left and right roe antlers. I wasn't entirely sure how the colouring would work. What I'm going to do is a mock with antler 1 and then hopefully present the proper article with antler 2. Jok.

[neil cooney 10,416]

I've seen them Larry. But the tea and coffee was effortless and they came up nice. I was just wondering do they stay stained or revert to bleached white after a short while.

[j j m 6,536]

sounds good

[The one 8,466]

While we where pulling them off the hill we used to rub them in peat , cant see it lasting but it looked nice at the time and helped the gun get the hip flask out and maybe helped the tip at the end of the week

[neil cooney 10,416]

Well I painted the antlers in the tea / coffee mix, the skull is bleached white and I put them on a mahogany plaque and it looks well.

Lets just see if the colour stands the test of time ?

I have an 18 point Red Deer head I'm tempted to do but it's not a very even head and it's bit big for the house.

 

I have a full fox skull from a dog fox that took some fowl on me. I bolted him and dropped him at nearly 70 yards with a no.4 and the skull is perfect.

I have nice plaque for it but I'm wondering would it be a little morbid for in the house.

I have masks done but can't ever remember seeing a skull on it's own.

[Squirrel_Basher 17,100]

Get it on the wall Neil .Were the sika shot in velvet for them to be white .All hard antler we see are lovely dark bracken stained .As yet I've not got a decent sika on the wall but do have one from a beast in velvet ,stripped of course and that's how it will stay .

[Squirrel_Basher 17,100]

[neil cooney 10,416]

It's on the wall and looks good.

They are white from exposure to the elements. It's not to unlike that one in your pic.

[Squirrel_Basher 17,100]

Mine was shot in velvet but remains the largest to date .As soon as a contender in hard antler is grassed I will replace it .

[Waz 4,252]

It's on the wall and looks good.

They are white from exposure to the elements. It's not to unlike that one in your pic.

 

A friend in Germany has some skulls nicely presented. glued in the jaws open position and then mounted onto a plaque, belt sanded the back of the glued skull to get a flat to glue (I assume) to the plaque.

Think he has a set of 4 he has done. Fox, Badger, Raccon & and I think a feral cat. I think I should do something like this myself, no racoons here. So itll be Badger, Fox and a Coypu, got a few of each, hopefully not misplaced loose teeth.

[Squirrel_Basher 17,100]

Sounds like something I'd like as well .Have to get on it .Just need a few road kills

[Waz 4,252]

I stumble across the odd roadkill.. no hysteria over here about it, apart from some of my fellow immigrants,