Staining stripped antlers

Hey just shot a nice fallow buck I wanted to mount with his velvet on but after the shot he took a good fall and started peeling his velvet as he fell . So not really being a huge fan of staining them I know it looks great but I was hoping for a more natural look but I can't really do anything now but stain it so I was wondering has anybody before ever sanded the high knobs and smoothed out the tips of the antlers like they do naturally on trees etc to get a more natural antler look before staining . And if you have done so what did it turn out like . Any ideas would be much appreciated

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Originally Posted by Phill243

Hey just shot a nice fallow buck I wanted to mount with his velvet on but after the shot he took a good fall and started peeling his velvet as he fell . So not really being a huge fan of staining them I know it looks great but I was hoping for a more natural look but I can't really do anything now but stain it so I was wondering has anybody before ever sanded the high knobs and smoothed out the tips of the antlers like they do naturally on trees etc to get a more natural antler look before staining . And if you have done so what did it turn out like . Any ideas would be much appreciated

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condes crystals does a good job available from chemist -looks purple when you first put it on but dry's a nice shade of brown - sand lightly after staining to expose white points especially on tips - you could try hard rubbing with some of the native barks they would naturally rub on - tanekaha for example -or manuka or toatoa but I suspect it would be a slow process - now I have not tried this but worth a shot -soak bark in turps and see if you can get colour out or boil bark to see if you can extract colour - but taxidermists generally use condes chrystals

Condys Crystal's (Potassium permanganate) is what I use. Start with half a teaspoon to 1 cup hot water to dissolve them. Let dry between coats. You can get it from Mitre10 too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52lwDzx0Xk8

Quite a good vid.