Desk Set Pen and Business Card Holder - Whitetail Deer Antlers

Not being the one to let any of my "scrap" go to waste, after turning a couple pens from deer antlers, I was eager to come up with a use for the base of tne antler that I had not used.

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