Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Antler Ring

Polished antler ring with antler behind.
As some of you may know if you read my previous post "Snowy Adventures" I came across a deer head with antlers still attached (see post for photo of antlers.) Well I actually carried the antlers with me back home, and I've been meaning to do something with them for quite some time. After a few hours of browsing the interwebs for ideas and coming up with nothing but hat racks, and gun racks I decided to go it alone. I finally decided on a ring for my fiance (not engagement, she already has one of those, an antler engagement ring would be kinda tacky I think.)


The end of the antler was wide enough to make a ring out of so I started sawing with my ryoba (double edged Japanese pull saw.) After about 5 minutes of that I was off the the store to buy a respirator, the smell of antlers dust is worse than burning flesh and I can't imagine it being good for my lungs. Once cut it was then clamped down and a hole was bored using a spade bit in the drill press. Drilling the hole was quite easy since the marrow was a bit soft in the center, like a gross chewy caramel core. After that it was just a few days worth of hand sanding the outer part of the ring to refine the shape and smooth it. The finishing touch was a few hours of polishing compound and cloth to give it a nice shine (difficult to see in the photo as I don't have the proper setup to take amazing photos of jewelry.) Anyway I think it came out well and has a really amazing unique texture to it, I hope she likes it.

21 comments:

  1. If you've got photos of the process or can describe it, you should post an instructable on how to do it! The end result looks great.

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  2. Wow thats sweet, had no idea people made rings out of antlers :P

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  3. I've always liked rings made of natural materials rather than precious metals. Really cool

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  4. The ring came out pretty sweet, I hope your girlfriend/fiance likes what you've made her.

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  5. i love it ill have to make one

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  6. Cool invention! I tried to make a sword once out of wood when I was little, but failed miserably lol

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  7. This is great work, I once made a cool walking stick when I was young, It felt natural. I of course didn't need a walking stick, but it made me feel like a wizard.

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  8. that is actually very beautiful! I hoped she liked it!!

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  9. Sounds like a cool idea. But I agree an engagement ring made of antler would be a little tacky.

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  10. It's really amazing! I would never have thought to do this with an Antler!

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  11. Dude, that's so cool! I'm proud you found a new way to use an old material! you also might find a small market for antler rings? haha turn it into a small side business.

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