I trimmed the bottom of the deer antler to be in line with the hair line, or base of the anter. I then cut each anter to length of about 2' each.
Next was the "tricky" part. Using my dado blade on the table saw, I ran about a 9/16" groove on the "inside" of each antler. Please be careful! This was pretty scary using such small pieces of material on a dado jig. Maybe someone out there can come up with a simpler (and safer) way to do this.
I then "Rounded" off the top of the cut antlers and polished them. I predrilled holes through a piece of walnut and mounted the two antler bases apart the width of a business card.
I then took a tip from a whitetail antler and cut an angled base to it so I could again predrill a hole in the wood and antler to use as a pen holder. Drilling a small angled hole in the wood where the tip of the pen would fit finished off the project.
Took a bit of time and some "yankee inginuity", but overall I think the project turned out pretty good.
Would be interested in hearing how others found uses for deer antlers.
Thanks, Don




































Is the pen in the first picture made from a spent shell?