More correctly, I should say that I'll likely have to give up on this idea unless one of you has a suggestion that could solve the problem.
Before I moved again for work I had a little set up playing around with a little coal forge making a few blades. I wasn't really any good at it but it was a fun pastime and someday will likely start up again. The biggest reason I started doing that was because I like to shed hunt with my dog for whitetail antlers and had a whole pile laying around that I wanted to do something with them.
For lack of a better idea at the time, I thought I'd start off with knife handles and the like. Not so original but something different for me. However, I sort of wanted to do something besides just chopping them up and gluing them to my inferior blades. So I decided to try using a wood burner on the antlers for small drawings. Since some of these little "decorations" were no bigger than a dime, I had quite the hilarious concoction of magnifying equipment set up to aid my aging eyes. You would have been amused. I started out with small things like pine bows, leaves, feathers and the like for practice. My wife discovered my secret new hobby and claimed she was impressed. (heard that before, what does she want now?) At her behest, I started making a bunch of small pendants, pins, necklaces and crap like that for her to add to her craft show table addiction that she had going. It was good practice for me and surprisingly enough, sold like gangbusters. Enough that I was relieved when her "craft season" was done.
With the craft thing done I started working on knife handles and sometimes just a shed by itself. Some of them turned out ok and I was satisfied with my progress even though I have a long way to go. The challenge with wood burning antlers is the texture. You can't just draw a line, it really ends up being just a series of a thousand dots and color is achieved by the length of time the tip is held on that dot. Pixels, if you will.
So now the problem...they fade over time. I did not see that coming. Crap. Although I can't help an evil grin when I think of a bunch of ladies whose deer horn pendants with a feathers burned into them now being blank, (I know, not nice) the handles and horns were a bigger project.
I have tried UV spray and brush on barriers in case it's a UV issue. I've tried spray and brush-on clear coats in case it was a moisture on atmospheric thing. And both.
I could be wrong (my way better half is very prudent in providing frequent reminders of such instances), but I think the darkening of the burning is just being naturally absorbed into the antler. So I don't know what to do about it and am open to any and all suggestions to try. I hate to give it up because it's a rather fun challenge but it's a bit pointless if it just disappears over time...don't ya think?
I'm going to show you a couple of very early examples of a couple of handles and one shed. Keep your expectations low. Very low. Low like my (now) wife did back in the dating days, she's the queen of keeping expectations low...obviously.
The first pics are of a knife I gave to my buddy in SA when he and his wife came here to visit a couple of years ago. On the side is a drawing of an antler shed lying in the grass and on the end is a fawn also lying in the grass. I tell you this because when you witness it for yourself you may not recognize what it's supposed to be. What is in my head does not always transfer completely to the hot end of the stick. The fawn is about the size of a quarter.
The next pics are of a stand alone antler (3/4 completed when they were taken) of three American Buffalo. Again made for a friend who worked on a Buffalo ranch.
I have not seen what these two items look like now. I hate to. But the last pics are of a little knife handle with a bear cub in a tree that is about dime-sized. They look better at a distance, unfortunately I need you to see close-ups if anything is to be resolved. Here you will see what it looked like when finished 4 years ago and what it looks like now. Ignore the blade on this, it was just stuck in the handle as a holder in the vise.
Before I moved again for work I had a little set up playing around with a little coal forge making a few blades. I wasn't really any good at it but it was a fun pastime and someday will likely start up again. The biggest reason I started doing that was because I like to shed hunt with my dog for whitetail antlers and had a whole pile laying around that I wanted to do something with them.
For lack of a better idea at the time, I thought I'd start off with knife handles and the like. Not so original but something different for me. However, I sort of wanted to do something besides just chopping them up and gluing them to my inferior blades. So I decided to try using a wood burner on the antlers for small drawings. Since some of these little "decorations" were no bigger than a dime, I had quite the hilarious concoction of magnifying equipment set up to aid my aging eyes. You would have been amused. I started out with small things like pine bows, leaves, feathers and the like for practice. My wife discovered my secret new hobby and claimed she was impressed. (heard that before, what does she want now?) At her behest, I started making a bunch of small pendants, pins, necklaces and crap like that for her to add to her craft show table addiction that she had going. It was good practice for me and surprisingly enough, sold like gangbusters. Enough that I was relieved when her "craft season" was done.
With the craft thing done I started working on knife handles and sometimes just a shed by itself. Some of them turned out ok and I was satisfied with my progress even though I have a long way to go. The challenge with wood burning antlers is the texture. You can't just draw a line, it really ends up being just a series of a thousand dots and color is achieved by the length of time the tip is held on that dot. Pixels, if you will.
So now the problem...they fade over time. I did not see that coming. Crap. Although I can't help an evil grin when I think of a bunch of ladies whose deer horn pendants with a feathers burned into them now being blank, (I know, not nice) the handles and horns were a bigger project.
I have tried UV spray and brush on barriers in case it's a UV issue. I've tried spray and brush-on clear coats in case it was a moisture on atmospheric thing. And both.
I could be wrong (my way better half is very prudent in providing frequent reminders of such instances), but I think the darkening of the burning is just being naturally absorbed into the antler. So I don't know what to do about it and am open to any and all suggestions to try. I hate to give it up because it's a rather fun challenge but it's a bit pointless if it just disappears over time...don't ya think?
I'm going to show you a couple of very early examples of a couple of handles and one shed. Keep your expectations low. Very low. Low like my (now) wife did back in the dating days, she's the queen of keeping expectations low...obviously.
The first pics are of a knife I gave to my buddy in SA when he and his wife came here to visit a couple of years ago. On the side is a drawing of an antler shed lying in the grass and on the end is a fawn also lying in the grass. I tell you this because when you witness it for yourself you may not recognize what it's supposed to be. What is in my head does not always transfer completely to the hot end of the stick. The fawn is about the size of a quarter.
The next pics are of a stand alone antler (3/4 completed when they were taken) of three American Buffalo. Again made for a friend who worked on a Buffalo ranch.
I have not seen what these two items look like now. I hate to. But the last pics are of a little knife handle with a bear cub in a tree that is about dime-sized. They look better at a distance, unfortunately I need you to see close-ups if anything is to be resolved. Here you will see what it looked like when finished 4 years ago and what it looks like now. Ignore the blade on this, it was just stuck in the handle as a holder in the vise.