Bearbait 1
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In a thread from a month ago, staining caribou antlers was mentioned. I've never seen antlers that were stained that looked natural, maybe I've seen some that were done well and didn't realize they were stained, I don't know. This got me thinking, how does an antler get it's color naturally? I always assumed they got their color from rubbing on trees, brush, and dirt. I figured it would be pretty simple to duplicate the process using limbs to rub the antlers, are you with me? Well, as luck would have it, one day recently I found myself in possession of a set of still warm, velvet covered caribou antlers with high hopes of rubbing the white out of them and coming up with a great new antler coloring method and becoming everyone’s hero! Well folks it don't work. I washed off all the blood and rubbed with branches for all I was worth and very little color was imparted to the antlers. Hmm, I was stumped but came up with a plan. The very next day another set of caribou antlers presented themselves only 150 yards from the tent in which I was sleeping. Luckily my bladder was alerted and awakened me to this fact, so utilizing my many years of acquired hunting skills and wisdom I unzipped (the tent), and convinced the aforementioned antlers that they should remain with me. This time instead of washing the blood off the antlers when the velvet was stripped I rubbed the blood around and made sure the antlers were completely covered. When I got home I experimented with different ways to rub in and polish the blood and here's what I found.
Antlers get the vast majority of their color from blood, not from rubbing trees like your grandpa told you, grandpa was full of BS. I spent awhile rubbing and polishing the antlers with water, green scrubbers, and spruce branches. Some areas were very light so I added some blood donated by a local squirrel and kept working at it. I used a set of natural slick antlers as an example for color and color distribution. When I was done I had spent about six hours and the antlers are indistinguishable from real natural slick antlers. I showed them to many people and nobody could tell that they were not naturally colored.
Here are a few details.
1. On the antlers I used, most of the bone was smooth and fully formed but there were a few spots that obviously had a few days of growing to do and the surface was porous. These areas readily absorbed the blood and were difficult to lighten the color. If you kill a caribou very early when the whole antler is still growing, the antler will turn out dark if done this way.
2. Rubbing the blood with spruce branches, or a small piece of lumber, turned the blood from red to brown. Whether it is the heat and friction or a chemical thing, I don't know.
3. I checked some deer, moose and elk antlers and looking closely it was obvious that the color was of the same origin.
4. I think sometimes rubbing trees can be more important in adding color. When looked at closely it is obvious that there is pine sap imbedded around the very dark bases on some of my whitetail antlers where they really rub hard, so I am not completely discounting vegetation in coloring antlers. However, I think it plays a minor part
5. On parts of antlers where the animal rubs hard such as tips and crotches, the coloring is rubbed off and they become much lighter.
6. The grooves on antlers where the large veins were are naturally light in color. Using my method, these grooves are very dark. Here's another of my crackpot theories. If the velvet is left to die naturally the walls of these large blood vessels prevent blood from adhering to these grooves and when the velvet comes off the grooves are left white. As you rub the blood around using my method the grooves are filled with blood and become darker than the rest of the antler. This is easily cured by scraping the blood out of these grooves when finished.
Well there it is. I am open to any questions you might have. Maybe you think I am as full of BS as I accused grandpa of being, it won't be the first time! If someone wants to see a picture, you'll have to explain a real simple way to make that happen.
Antlers get the vast majority of their color from blood, not from rubbing trees like your grandpa told you, grandpa was full of BS. I spent awhile rubbing and polishing the antlers with water, green scrubbers, and spruce branches. Some areas were very light so I added some blood donated by a local squirrel and kept working at it. I used a set of natural slick antlers as an example for color and color distribution. When I was done I had spent about six hours and the antlers are indistinguishable from real natural slick antlers. I showed them to many people and nobody could tell that they were not naturally colored.
Here are a few details.
1. On the antlers I used, most of the bone was smooth and fully formed but there were a few spots that obviously had a few days of growing to do and the surface was porous. These areas readily absorbed the blood and were difficult to lighten the color. If you kill a caribou very early when the whole antler is still growing, the antler will turn out dark if done this way.
2. Rubbing the blood with spruce branches, or a small piece of lumber, turned the blood from red to brown. Whether it is the heat and friction or a chemical thing, I don't know.
3. I checked some deer, moose and elk antlers and looking closely it was obvious that the color was of the same origin.
4. I think sometimes rubbing trees can be more important in adding color. When looked at closely it is obvious that there is pine sap imbedded around the very dark bases on some of my whitetail antlers where they really rub hard, so I am not completely discounting vegetation in coloring antlers. However, I think it plays a minor part
5. On parts of antlers where the animal rubs hard such as tips and crotches, the coloring is rubbed off and they become much lighter.
6. The grooves on antlers where the large veins were are naturally light in color. Using my method, these grooves are very dark. Here's another of my crackpot theories. If the velvet is left to die naturally the walls of these large blood vessels prevent blood from adhering to these grooves and when the velvet comes off the grooves are left white. As you rub the blood around using my method the grooves are filled with blood and become darker than the rest of the antler. This is easily cured by scraping the blood out of these grooves when finished.
Well there it is. I am open to any questions you might have. Maybe you think I am as full of BS as I accused grandpa of being, it won't be the first time! If someone wants to see a picture, you'll have to explain a real simple way to make that happen.
