Deer antlers and collecting

[bilko]

I understand that The male red deer ( stag ) sheds it's antlers by knocking them off in October to December?.
I would love to go out and find a set or at least try. I have this idea or getting a custom knife made for me ( probably by one of you guys lol ), but to find the antler myself would be an absolute joy. As well as having a wonderfull time in the forest.
Also got an idea to get some sort of matching flint napping tool made to resemble the knife in decoration or something.
Do any of you go collecting?, where are the best places to look?, ie which parks of forests have the highest population or stags.?

I am in the south east and can't realy travel up to scotland.
Any ideas or comments on the practice of finding/searching would be great

 

[Buckshot]

Does it have to be Red deer antler? If not I'm sure there will be Roe/ Fallow not too far from you.
Sometimes when walking in the country you can be lucky and find an antler that's been cast. If it's been there any length of time they're often knawed though. Also keep an eye out for any roadkill - you might be lucky... You can quickly take the head off with a knife and then deal with it when you get home. Don't know if a cast antler would be better for knife making though as the blood flow is naturally restricted so the core would be harder (the lack of blood is what causes the antlers to break off)

Red do live down south too, but in the west rather than the east I'm afraid.
You could contact some local country parks that have deer herds to see if you can look for/ collect cast antlers. They must do something with them...

Cheers

Mark

 

[bilko]

Hi Buckshot
To tell you the truth i was just going from a quick scan of an internet page i found to see what time of year deer cast their antlers.
Which sort of antler would be suitable for knife handles and which for flint napping?
I got the impression from the link ( which i can't find now ) that i am not the first to have this idea but that there are several keen collectors that search every year.

 

[beach bum]

I'll tell you a little story............
About three years ago I was wandering around the forest of dean when I found a cast antler. That was when all the trouble started........... my immediate thought as I walked along was that there was a knife handle in there just waiting to come out.Some time later watching "TRACKS" I saw the chubby chap fit a a length of kelp stem to a very nice blade, it had never occurred to me that there were other people like myself,in my quest for a knife blade I had to start to use my son's computer. Eventually I found British Blades & BCUK and the rest is, as they say history.
Now i sit here at my computer, previously I had no use for one, surrounded by knives, knife blades and handles in various stages of completion, steel stock,brass, exotic hardwoods ,fibre spacers etc., etc.,leather etc.,

Oh and the stag antler in still down in the garage, cos I can't decide which blade to fit to it.

regards

beach bum

 

[george]

Bilko

The red deer sheds it's antlers about March or April in this part of the country.

I have stacks of them and if you're unsuccessful in your hunt then PM me and we'll see what we can do.

The best places to look for them are where deer have to jump over something or run up or down a short steep bank to get too or from their usual feeding places. The antlers gradually come loose - like a wobbly tooth on a kid - and I find that places where they have jumped or changed direction up or down tends to shake a wobbly antler loose.

There is and old drystone wall near me with a gap in it that a lot of deer use to move between their evening feeding place and their daytime place higher up the hill. Every year I've found antlers around this gap that have fallen off as they jump through the gap.

I don't know any good places near you for red deer, but I'm sure someone will point you in the right direction.

George

 

[bilko]

Thanks george
BTW ( by the way ) any idea of the size, lenght of antler one would typically find?

 

[bp1974]

Have you thought about the herds in Richmond park? Plenty of deer in a relatively small area.

 

[Dorian Gra]

I'm good friends with a couple of gamekeepers and as a result i have a bucket of antlers in my garden, which i use to make walking sticks and priests for fishing, but have never thought of a custom made knife, great idea

As for you getting a hold of a set, try any estates nearby and ask, as they usually don't use them anyway.

 

[george]

Thanks george
BTW ( by the way ) any idea of the size, lenght of antler one would typically find?

The deer actually eat cast antlers to try to regain some of the minerals they contain. In my experience if you dont get them quickly then you will only find damaged ones - though they usually start with the tines and you'll find the crown is probably undamaged.

As to the size - it depends on the size of the deer in your area. All the stags will cast, from the smallest spiker through to a royal ( a stag with 12 or more points on it's antlers).

The set I've got that I'm most fond of are those from a Switch or Murder Stag as they call them around here. They're comparitively rare and have only two points - a brow tine and a single long spike about 80cm long. They call them murder stags as during the rut they they will still butt with other stags, however normal antlers will clash and cause little damage but the long beam on a murder stag will slip through the others antlers and inflict terrible damage on the stag it is fighting.

George

 

[Stew]

The deer actually eat cast antlers to try to regain some of the minerals they contain. In my experience if you dont get them quickly then you will only find damaged ones - though they usually start with the tines and you'll find the crown is probably undamaged.

I didn't know that!


As they say, you learn something new every day!

Thanks.

 

[Buckshot]

It's not just deer that eat them, a lot of animals will have a knaw... I seen squirrel and other rodent teeth marks in them.
It seems to happen more in areas where there are few other souces of calcium I think.

Cheers

Mark

 

[Stew]

Mark, what would be their "normal" sources of calcium?

 

[Bob]

I've seen rodent teeth marks on lumps of chalk in the past!!

I also picked up a cast roe antler a couple of years back which has dozens of teeth marks down it made by mice / voles. I use it for 'tracks and signs' type events - kids love the idea of mice chewing on an antler!!

Bob

 

[Buckshot]

Mark, what would be their "normal" sources of calcium?

tbh Stew I'm not sure. Is it present in some plants / trees? Or perhaps they would just eat the ground ! Anyone any ideas of natural sources of minerals in the UK?

I suppose the british landscape has been managed and farmed for so long in areas where livestock are they would just eat the mineral blocks given to cows and sheep. Much easier.


Cheers

Mark

 

[innocent bystander]

Bird's too. Our resident sparrows are gnawing away at the houses around here...

 

[arctic hobo]

Mark, what would be their "normal" sources of calcium?

You get calcium in the normal deer food, grass + legumes. Obviously young deer get it from their mothers milk. I'm not sure but I think vitamin D helps the uptake of calcium too. Obviously vitamin D deficiency gives the deer ricketts, which would make sense if it was calcium based as it gives the deer weak bones.

 

[arctic hobo]

And a quick look on google says that antlers are apparently 22% calcium

 

[Stew]

You get calcium in the normal deer food, grass + legumes. Obviously young deer get it from their mothers milk. I'm not sure but I think vitamin D helps the uptake of calcium too. Obviously vitamin D deficiency gives the deer ricketts, which would make sense if it was calcium based as it gives the deer weak bones.

Do Deers (and other animals) produce Vit D in the same way we do?

 

[arctic hobo]

Do Deers (and other animals) produce Vit D in the same way we do?

Almost certainly - we also get some in our diet, from grains mostly (deer obviously eat grains too). It's trickier with people as since we evolved for Africa (well, an equatorial climate), living far north as we do we get much less sunlight (especially since we all seem to live indoors nowadays), so less vitamin D. This causes terrible ricketts, and indeed has and does (most well-known cases in Indian immigrants in the UK), so our western food has added D, which hopefully makes up for our low calcium too. We have adapted however to a certain degree, meaning that we will get skin cancer should we be exposed to the sun too much. I digress! The answer to your question is yes

 

[Beer Monster]

The best place to look for red deer antlers up here in Scotland is in burnt heather patches. Normally the antler is hidden by all the heather but when it gets burnt back for the grouse then they tend to stick out quite a bit! The fire doesn't seem to damage them to much either.