First pen from Caribou antler

Blow it off with some compressed air first. The bone is pores, so all your dust is still trapped. The pen looks good.

-- Andy Stark

Nice job, great idea. I think a burnished wax finish would highlight the contrasts.

-- Grumpy - "Always look on the bright side of life"- Monty Python

nice lookin pen !

-- if you aint the lead dog the scenery never changes

Great Pens Rikkor. A nice job. I’ve never used anything but wood in any of my pen making.

-- Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com

Looks good. Any trouble staying away from the marrow cavity? Was there much of a smell associated with turning it?
You could use CA glue as a finish.

-- "Bordnerizing" perfectly good lumber for over a decade.

The aroma was that of the dentist’s office as you are getting a tooth drilled. I put my respirator on and it wasn’t so bad. I just got some “medium” CA today, and what I’ve read so far is that I should practise on a few before I try a ‘good’ pen.

By the way, Karson is now one of my favorite guys on the forum.

-- Maplewood, MN

Mine too.

-- "Bordnerizing" perfectly good lumber for over a decade.

Rikkor, I’ve made a bunch of antler pens and I used to use Shellawax on them. Don would appreciate this, the Shellawax is one of those Aussie products that works great. You can get it at Hut, I think – but you can just do a Google search on it. I might suggest that you try to get some Reindeer Antler – it is magnificent and really takes a nice shine. When working with any of the animal bone type materials you really need to use a respirator or at least a good dust mask.

I’ve also made a few with elephant ivory. I still have a small amount of “pre-banned” ivory and will try to make another pen or two and post them. The Ivory was banned in the U.S. in 1964 – anything here prior to that is legal.

And you are right about Karson- he is one of my favorites too.

-- Bill - "Suit yourself and let the rest be pleased." http://www.cajunpen.com/

Very nice :) Looks good to me the way it is :)

-- Dana,Texas

I’ve been carving baron ground caribou (reindeer) and moose antler since I was about 14. It was plentiful where I grew up in NWT, Canada. If you’re not using the marrow area, just polish it with jeweler’s white polishing compound (other colors are different grades but they’ll stain the bone) and a cotton wheel on a Dremel or drill. The marrow area is ok for sculpture, but I wouldn’t use it for anything practical.

I don’t have many of my bone carvings on line, but what I do have is here.

-- Michael R. Harvey - Brewster, NY - RusticElementArt.com - SpaceAware.org - AnConn.com