Antler Craft Ideas: Tables, Pencil Holders, Bookends and More

Image Gallery   PHOTO: FOTOLIA/DEEPSPACEDAVE

Whether you have a supply of antlers left over from hunting or have collected winter-shed racks during hiking and camping trips, the horns can be turned into numerous craft items either for your own use or for sale.

Even if you don't already have a collection of antlers to work with, you can probably locate some at auctions, garage sales or secondhand stores. Of course, it's much more fun (and less expensive) to gather them in the great outdoors. Regardless of how you come by your raw material, though, I'm sure you'll agree that antler craft objects can be both unique and lovely — and can also provide constant reminders of the miraculous cycles of nature.

Antler Craft Ideas

Antler-supported tables: These can be unstable, so it's best to build them low.

Elk- and moose-horn chairs: These types of chairs require plenty of antler material, a few well placed bolts, and more than the average person's share of perseverance and ingenuity.

Deer-horn salt and pepper shakers: These can be made with an electric drill using a rotary rasp attachment, which slowly hollows out the inside of antler butts. The bony domes on can be smoothed with the rasp ... then holes were drilled for seasonings to sift through. Cork stoppers plug the bottoms and white enamel paint adds identifying letters.

Pencil holders: Pencil holders can be carved from a piece of elk antler (a large caribou or moose horn would also serve this purpose). To make one, use a hacksaw to sever a section of the main beam, and hollow out the softer center with a rotary rasp. Glue a piece of felt on the holder's underside to prevent it from marring the desk top.

Hatbands and bolo ties: To make the band, simply saw thin chips from an antler . . . drill four 1/8-inch holes to form a square in each one . . . pull two strips of leather bootlacing through the holes and crisscross them over each chip's face . . . and knot the double string of evenly spaced "buttons" into a circle, leaving "tassels" a couple of inches long. Start the bolo tie by cutting the beam of an elk antler diagonally to form an oval . . . again, make four 1/8-inch holes in the chip's face . . . then drill two more holes, running from the top to the bottom, for the tie to slide through. Make the "X" across the chip from a short strip of leather lacing, trimming any excess flush with the back side. Now, file the edges smooth, and do the same for the surfaces of two antler tips — which will dangle from the tie's ends — before drilling them with a single hole each. Thread the slide onto an appropriate length of lacing, add the tips, knot each end of the leather thong and you're done.