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01-14-2013, 08:19 AM
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Skilled
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Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Lansing MI
Posts: 471
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Stabilizing horn
Question about horn stabilization.
Shout out to Ricky Arthur for the big ol Elk horn, i cut some scales from two sections last night. I put them in my stabilizing unit with some ZK-TR 90 i got from Jon Kennedy ( FYI great product). Under vacuum until no more bubbles came out of the horn (about 45 min). i baked them in the over at 175 deg for 3 hours. When i got them out this morning they felt greasy, i know the resin cured because i can see hardened resin. Is this oily residue normal when stabilizing horn?
Also, can anyone recommend a product to dye horn?
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01-14-2013, 10:04 AM
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Founding Member / Moderator
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Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Wauconda, WA
Posts: 9,840
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I don't know anything about the product or process you're using but I can tell you that if you want to dye the horn it needs to be done before the stabilizing. If your stabilizing process is any good the stabilized item will not absorb moisture. So, you might manage to stain the surface a little but the dye should not be able to penetrate the horn ...
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01-14-2013, 10:09 AM
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Master
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Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Saskatoon, Saskatchewan Canada
Posts: 859
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How old was the antler? It might have had some moisture in it.
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J, Saccucci Knives, JSK
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01-14-2013, 10:23 AM
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Skilled
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Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: Utah
Posts: 524
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Quote:
Originally Posted by metal99
How old was the antler? It might have had some moisture in it.
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I can answer that. It was a shed from 2 years ago. I found it last year and it has sat drying since then.
I was also going to say what Ray said. The horn I stabilized with wood hardener would not accept any stain after stabilizing. To get more color in it after stabilizing (because sanding sometimes went further into the white than I liked) I had to use a torch and very carefully and slowly burn the color back in. Too much heat will crack the horn and melt the epoxy so do a little at a time. You dont need to take it to black, the torch will color it a nice brown. Then sand lightly.
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01-14-2013, 10:34 AM
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Skilled
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Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Lansing MI
Posts: 471
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The horn I stabilized was at 8-9% moisture. It was vacuum pressurized at 28.5 inches for 45 min with ZK-TR 90. One of the pieces went from 34g before stabilizing to 36g after baking in the resin.
Would it still need to be dyed prior to stabilization if the stabilizing resin was dyed?
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01-14-2013, 10:41 AM
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Skilled
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Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: Utah
Posts: 524
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jdale
The horn I stabilized was at 8-9% moisture. It was vacuum pressurized at 28.5 inches for 45 min with ZK-TR 90. One of the pieces went from 34g before stabilizing to 36g after baking in the resin.
Would it still need to be dyed prior to stabilization if the stabilizing resin was dyed?
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I would say that dying the resin would be the ticket That way the color would be all through it. However as I type that I wonder just how much penetration you would get with the resin in the outer hard horn where the color is most needed. I don't know. But If you need more horn to test let me know. I have a friend or two that I can get a horn from.
The color I found to be closest to natural horn (besides the taxedermy dies that are designed for it and might be a better option) is Dark Maple Minwax stain. Applied and wiped off.
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01-14-2013, 12:20 PM
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Master
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Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Saskatoon, Saskatchewan Canada
Posts: 859
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I've heard that leather dye works well for antler.
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J, Saccucci Knives, JSK
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01-15-2013, 03:36 PM
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Enthusiast
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Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Spicer, Minnesota
Posts: 76
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Jason, the reason for the greasy fingers is that the resin is coming contact with moisture! Get the moisture down more on the antler by placing it in the cure oven at 170 or a few hours prior to stabilizing! Let cool and then stabilize, if the antler is very porous on the inside stabilize it twice including cure cycles, as far as dyeing goes you can stabilize it with color in the resin but like these guys are saying it might not transfer into the real dense areas of the antler, you can also place color in DNA and pull vacuum on that and it will suck it in, you will need to add more drops of color to DNA than resin to get the color you are looking for, DNA will also get rid of some the moisture issues quicker that air drying , don?t place DNA directly in to chamber you are using!!
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Tags
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antler, back, dies, horn, leather, resin, scales, stabilization, stabilizing, surface, wax, wood |
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