Antler and horn

[Lord Farquhar]

I got some questions about this stuff

How do you cut it/sand it?
Do you sand to finnish?
Do you coat it with varnish Danish oil etc?
Some stuff seems to be hollow what’s hollow and what’s not
What’s the best glue/fixative to use on it?
Where can I get thuga nut from?

why am i soft in the tribble when my wife is so hard?

[ZDP-189]

Tagua nut: Only place I know is a market here. I can on-sell it at cost. Something ca. 50p for a small one and 75p for a large one. Nuts (esp) large have voids inside.

[PS_Bond]

How large is large? My assorted bag are all roughly the same size, so I don't have any real comparison.

[keith_beef]

I got some questions about this stuff

How do you cut it/sand it?
Do you sand to finnish?
Do you coat it with varnish Danish oil etc?
Some stuff seems to be hollow what’s hollow and what’s not
What’s the best glue/fixative to use on it?
Where can I get thuga nut from?

why am i soft in the tribble when my wife is so hard?

Tagua nuts are available from Craft Suplies (Buston, Derbyshire), and from a variety of other suppliers.

You can get tagua nut slices from here (http://www.woodcarvingstore.com/TaguaNuts/TaguaNutsandKits.asp) .

They look like this:
http://www.woodcarvingstore.com/TaguaNuts/TaguaSlices.jpg

Working them has been discussed here on BB several times. Look at the pommel on Luuppää in the gallery, for an idea of what it can look like.

Horn and antler are two quite different materials.

I've not worked these two very much, so any advice I could give is very basic.

Reindeer antler has a core that looks like the center of a maltezer. It isn't very strong, and I consolidate it with Liberon wood hardener.

Moose antler has a solid core.

Both reindeer and moose have a quite hard, brown outer layer that you can cut through with a sharp knive, graver, chisel, inorder to shape or carve it. Saw it with a fine-toothed saw (coping saw or fret saw work for me).
Finish with abrasive paper, from 120 grit, through 240, 320, up to 400 grit. They are fairly sensitive to heat, so avoid power tools (one for Dave, there).

Cow's, goat's and ram's horn is fibrous, and carving can be difficult, as the blade seems to want to bite very aggressively, sometimes, and "follow the grain" rather than go where you want it to go. Bear this in mins when carving.
I got crappy results trying to sand to a smooth finish. I got a lot of very fine white powder, and a streaky, scratchy finish, even going up through the grits.
I found I got a much better result, very quickly, by using a very sharp Brusletto as a scraper, followed by rubbing with 000 steel wool.
Then, nourish the horn by giving it a liberal dose of glycerine.



KKK.

[ZDP-189]

How large is large? My assorted bag are all roughly the same size, so I don't have any real comparison.

Small is about as big as a large pommel. Large is full sized - 3-4cm across.

Keith: Great answer BTW!