The Metamorphosis of Roe Deer Antlers from Rheinland, Germany

 

 

Two years ago I came across an old box in an antique store that said “old bones”. Of course that piqued my interest to check the content.

There were small deer antlers and skulls, and I immediately recognized the European Roe buck antlers. The owner of the store told me the box has been there forever and if I wanted it I could have it for a small price.

Which I did.

Back home I found two tags that clearly stated that these were harvested in Rheinland, and area along the Middle Rhine River bordering Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands. What were most interesting were the dates on these tags – 1956 and 1979!

Here is one of the tags and the antlers. Sixty five years later the bones were petrified and lost any luster, but I decided to restore and use them for various art works.

Here is one restored specimen. The Roe Deer, or roebuck, are not found in the US so not only they are rare to come across but given their age, have some historical value.

… So, I use one antler as the stem for a mountain man pipe as my first experiment (https://vaheark.blogspot.com/2021/03/a-pipe-made-of-deer-antler-what-every.html). I received comments from Germany and Belgium asking about the antlers’ origin. Therefore, decided to make another pipe using the second antler on that same skull and provide a background about their origin.

Here is the skull after I cut the second antler. Inside there is a pencil written name and a date. Hmm, maybe someone who reads this page knows about that man since the date says 1979.

 Ok, so, I had an old American White Tail deer antler that had a nice crown, although time had leached the antler and petrified it as if stone! Just the challenge I wanted to see if I can restore colours and cut, drill, grind and sand the petrified bones to make a new pipe.

The first step was to cut the crown up 3 inches where the pearling ended. The pedicle was prominent and I decided to carve it out to cover the base of the bowl I was going to make out of the 3 inch cut. The coronet, or crown, had a lot of texture so it would be the top of the bowl.

 

The plan was simple – the White Tail’s antler would give me the bowl and the mouthpiece, while the Roe Deer antler would constitute the stem.

Easy to say! The handheld tool I have struggled in cutting and drilling for long while. Eventually I was able to get the three parts ready. I was not sure about the best fit of the mouthpiece so I cut two of the white tail antler tips to experiment with.

Next was the process of restoring colour and luster. I do not use artificial colouring. My favorite is to rub the antlers with boiled coffee grounds and then to let them sit in the solution overnight. The abrasiveness of the grounds allows the tannins to seep in and for the oils in the coffee to restore a certain shine.

And the final product looks like this:

 I hope I was able to answer the question about the Roe Deer antlers I used.

 

May 5, 2021

© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2021