Recreating an Antler from Scratch

[Rusty]

Our daughter shot a nice 5.5 year old, 130" 8 pointer during winter bow but it had dropped its left side.  After the shot it dropped its right side as well.  I couldn't find the left shed so I'm attempting to recreate it from scratch.  The buck was extremely symmetrical so I just need to copy the right side.

I've never tried this before so this could be an epic fail.  

Here's how we found the buck after she shot it.  

 

Framed it out with heavy gauge wire. 

 

Added a layer of epoxy.

 

Fleshed it out with more epoxy.

 

Finished putting epoxy on the tines.

 

Working on the base.

 

Finished the browtine.  Now it's time to sand it down, add the details, then color it.

 

3 hours of sanding later.

 

Added details to the base. 

 

Almost got the coloring right.

 

All done.

 

Epoxied the antlers back onto the skull.

Edited May 2, 2018 by Rusty

[Lunatic]

Looks good, can't wait to see how it goes 

[Thunderchicken]

That's great Rusty!!  

[hemlock]

Very cool! 

[rocky]

Not laughing Rusty.  I like your willingness to try to do something new and different. My only fear is that it will take a lot of epoxy to fill the mass. If you can weld a little maybe starting off with thin rebar may be a better option. I am looking forward to the finished product.

 

Plus the epoxy will stick a lot better to the rebar compared to the smooth wire.

Edited February 7, 2018 by rocky

[Live to Hunt]

Good luck Rust

[LPJR]

Best of luck Rusty. You can do it. Keep in mind, I was talking to ASFTAX earlier and he said he was repairing two broken brow tines on a customer's deer head he is mounting. He was saying the reason why it is so costly to repair tines is because of the cost of the epoxy and materials used to create the points...

Edited February 7, 2018 by LPJR

[Rusty]

Not laughing Rusty.  I like your willingness to try to do something new and different. My only fear is that it will take a lot of epoxy to fill the mass. If you can weld a little maybe starting off with thin rebar may be a better option. I am looking forward to the finished product.

 

Plus the epoxy will stick a lot better to the rebar compared to the smooth wire.

 

You are right about the amount of epoxy needed Rocky.  Fortunately I've got 4 lb. of Apoxie Sculpt and as Jay pointed out, it doesn't have a good finish or color for replicating antlers.  So the plan is to use the Apoxie to lay down a thin base, then when that is hard I'll fill it out and complete the details with Antler Sculpt.  

[Rusty]

Best of luck Rusty. You can do it. Keep in mind, I was talking to ASFTAX earlier and he said he was repairing two broken brow tines on a customer's deer head he is mounting. He was saying the reason why it is so costly to repair tines is because of the cost of the epoxy and materials used to create the tines...

 

Yeah it probably would have been cheaper to get a shoulder mount done.  

[MightyOak]

You might want to bend a loop in base of wire so it doesn't spin when you attach it to skull. Looks like a good start to a fun project. Good luck can't wait to see it finished .

 

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[Buck154]

Looks like a good start Rusty. Good luck. Lot of work ahead of you.

[JerseyJaysTaxidermy]

Looking good.

My only thought is it will flex because your wires are not thick enough..

Me reccomendation is to use a threaded rod, the largest size you can bend for the main beam.. then the largest size you can for the tines.

 

At this point, I would continue to wrap 10ga wires along what you have to build up mass, then pack the epoxy into the layers of wire.

 

Beef it up, the epoxy is heavier than you think.

 

Can you please do it at my shop, I wanna watch

 

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[Rusty]

Looking good.

My only thought is it will flex because your wires are not thick enough..

Me reccomendation is to use a threaded rod, the largest size you can bend for the main beam.. then the largest size you can for the tines.

 

At this point, I would continue to wrap 10ga wires along what you have to build up mass, then pack the epoxy into the layers of wire.

 

Beef it up, the epoxy is heavier than you think.

 

You are right Jay, I was worried about that.  Normal antler repair wire is too thin and flexible for this project.  The wire I am using is much thicker and stronger than it looks in the picture.  I had to use bolt cutters to cut it and pliers to bend and shape it.  The main beam is 3 strands thick.  In addition the antlers are so thick that the shear volume of epoxy is going to give it strength.  I hope.     

 

 

 

Edited February 7, 2018 by Rusty

[SPEARFISH]

Looking good.

Just take some DNA and clone the deer.  Then you can just take the antler when it sheds next year.

[Rusty]

Added the first round of epoxy.  Yes I know it looks hideous, another layer of epoxy is going to cover it all.  The next layer has a more natural color, it will be added very slowly, one section at a time.

 

Edited February 7, 2018 by Rusty