Parker & Field (Prussia) Serpentine Whittler

[kootenay joe]

Charlie, that was a lot of Work. Thank you for taking on this project.
If the results end as inconclusive a forensic lab would be able to test chemical composition and then say "as in xxxx" bone, antler, or whatever.
kj

[LongBlade]

Thanks Charlie for taking the time and doing that investigative work ...

Given the pressed horn pruner in this thread that I posted just before you began this work I would have bet NOT horn... and your results seem to indicate bone or stag which I personally thought would be hard to differentiate. I am not sure what a forensic lab would tell us other than the genetics behind the handle - perhaps it would say cow vs deer... or do we need a microscopic anatomist to look at slices of each handle and say bone or antler? In the end perhaps either bone or stag were used to press... still interesting and at least horn is out... BTW - you note horn was very hard to heat and press - as I found out after acquiring the knife above horn was cut into multiple slices and layered before being pressed - and you can see the layering of the horn on the outside edges of the handle of the Haywood pruner... perhaps the layering of thin slices allowed it to be heated sufficiently in order to be pliable enough to take a pattern in the mold

[LongBlade]

Again thanks Charlie for doing all this work ... I think you did a great job ...

Just wanted to add after reading this morning about bone vs antler - it appears that both bone and antler have spongy bone and Haversian canals... antlers are really grown from the bony peduncles on the skull of the deer... so not sure how much of a difference would be found visually... However as you allude to Charlie it appears at certain stages antlers would be more easily compressed than bone which I think matches your observations.... just as an aside it is amazing to me given that many examples exist of the handles in question yet there appears to be no definitive documentation anywhere in terms of what it is or exactly how it was done... I’m leaning towards it being a second rate stag that was heated and molded and subsequently dyed to produce the end product of handle covers.. it seemed you were leaning that way as well Charlie ...

[kootenay joe]

Well done Charlie. I think for an in-home set up, your methodology is good and results reliable. I think it is now safe to say: "not horn", so you have moved the search along for what this mystery substance is. Now all that remains is: antler or bone.
kj

[wlf]

Thanks Buddy.

[wlf]

Well, for me, at least we've dispelled the notion Stag or bone cannot be pressed.