Anyone ever stain antlers?

[nycredneck]

I left my deer head hanging in a tree over the winter because critters kept digging up preventing the worms from doing my redneck euro.

So now that I buried it again I will soon have my euro but the antlers have gotten white, not so sure I like it. I may want to use stain, I've heard it works well, any advice on this tactic?

[Terry]

It's pretty simple. Just apply a small amount of stain and rub it in until you get the desired look. After it dries, reapply if you want it darker. There isn't really any more to it than that.

[Woodsman20]

Agree - just experiemnt with lighter and then darken it up - you can get them to macth up pretty good.

[wooly]

What you'll want to use is called potassium permanganate.

I've personally never attempted to re-finish an antler, but you may want to check with members Sam Potter, or WNY Bowhunter... I know those guys have restored some weathered old horns right back to showroom condition.

[nycredneck]

Wow wooly sounds like a miracle product. I can't really be spending money on a head that will just hang in my shed so I will try a walnut stain or maybe I should refer back to the photo I took at the time of killing him and try to match that color.

Thanks for all the cool replies.

[sinjelam]

If you do give it a try please take some pics I would love to see the outcome!!

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[josephmrtn]

If you do give it a try please take some pics I would love to see the outcome!!

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+1

[sampotter]

Be careful with the wood stain! If the antlers have lost their shiny, hard outer finish, a little bit of wood stain will make them look black, but if they are still shiny, then you may be able to get away with it. Just go slow.

[ants]

I recently stained a rack from a deer I shot in the early 90's. They were hanging outside for years and had turned bleach white. The full skull had pretty much fell apart. I just used some Minwax, that I had laying around. It was called "Early American #230" it came out great. Added the right color and shine back to the horns. I just put it on with a paper towel. I'll keep the rack in the garage from now on.

[nycredneck]

Great idea about the pics, I think I will do a "before and after" photo session.

Hope the worms are working hard right now getting that skull cleaned, that may turn out to be the more difficult thing to do with the way the meat got dried out and hard.

[Meat Manager]

I have an old euro mount experiment from a few years ago hangin down at the lake frontage.

Yesterday after seeing this thread I thought I'd give it a try with some oak I had layin around, the antlers had been as white as the skull:

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Edited June 4, 2014 by Meat Manager

[wooly]

I have an old euro mount experiment from a few years ago hangin down at the lake frontage.

Yesterday after seeing this thread I thought I'd give it a try with some oak I had layin around, the antlers had been as white as the skull:

 

That doesn't look half bad MM!

I know a guy that restored an old weathered elk shed antler by manually rubbing it on trees by hand.

He's a bit of an antler extremist though,lol

[Bone Seeker]

Wooly is right. Potassium permanganate. get it at a plumbing store. Mix up about a teaspoon in water. It turns Purple. Each coat you put on gets them darker and darker. Just don't go wild. Everywhere your brush goes will make it a shade darker, if you make a drip on them, that will be darker...I do taxidermy and this is how I restore the color to antlers. Ive done deer and caribou with this stuff. If the horns are unequally discolored, you can put a coat of Gesso on them. Its sold in wal mart in the crafts section. This will make the horns equal, and ready to receive the Potassim P

[sampotter]

Wooly is right. Potassium permanganate. get it at a plumbing store. Mix up about a teaspoon in water. It turns Purple. Each coat you put on gets them darker and darker. Just don't go wild. Everywhere your brush goes will make it a shade darker, if you make a drip on them, that will be darker...I do taxidermy and this is how I restore the color to antlers. Ive done deer and caribou with this stuff. If the horns are unequally discolored, you can put a coat of Gesso on them. Its sold in wal mart in the crafts section. This will make the horns equal, and ready to receive the Potassim P

 

 

Good tip on the Gesso, Bone Seeker. I had a couple of old racks that I repaired using Antler Sculpt but after I painted them with regular primer I struggled with the potassium permanganate. I finally got it to work of by mixing the PP with rubbing alcohol, but that didn't leave me much of a window to work with.

[Bone Seeker]

Yea, that's the trick Sampotter. Another taxidermist turned me onto the Gesso, PP method years ago. It always scares you to paint them white with Gesso first, and then putting purple water on them. You would never think they would come out looking like bone, but it does. Just have to be careful for runs because they become darker than the rest.

[stevenjackson]

interesting and I'd def be scared with the first step

[landtracdeerhunter]

I use wood stain in the deep groves of the stag knife handles. I have to use a very light stain to obtain the results I want. I did find out that bone will stain differently, just like woods do.

Edited October 8, 2014 by landtracdeerhunter

[Zem18]

Had a friend over bleach the base of antler last year. I shot a doe and he came running over with a zip lock bag and asked for some of the blood. He used it to rub into the over bleached area and it used a touch of dirt as well and you couldn't see the mistake afterwards. Just another idea to throw out there.