nut from antler

by stuckinthemud1 Mon Jun 25, 2018 4:00 am

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Post n°1

nut from antler

by stuckinthemud1 Mon Jun 25, 2018 4:00 am

Hi guys, I don't have access to moose/elk but I do have red deer and fallow deer antler; does deer antler make decent nuts - it seems like it might be a bit too porous?

by **Geezer** Mon Jun 25, 2018 7:23 am

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Post n°2

Re: nut from antler

by Geezer Mon Jun 25, 2018 7:23 am

Some sorts of deer antler make excellent nuts: axis stag, taken from the very base, is as good as anything I've seen. If the antler has pith in the center, and there's not too much, you can drill it out and insert a plug of hardwood. American Elk, on the other hand comes in big manly pieces, but it's almost ALL pith, with only a thin layer of ivory around the outside edge. It's useless for roller locks, though it might make a nice stick for nobbling your enemies. Geezer

by stuckinthemud1 Wed Jun 27, 2018 1:36 am

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Post n°3

Re: nut from antler

by stuckinthemud1 Wed Jun 27, 2018 1:36 am

Thanks Geezer, I'll press ahead then

by c sitas Wed Jun 27, 2018 6:23 pm

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Post n°4

Re: nut from antler

by c sitas Wed Jun 27, 2018 6:23 pm

Stuck, I'm thinking the key here is horn, not so much antler. Although , if large enough you can get away using antler.

by **Geezer** Wed Jun 27, 2018 7:04 pm

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Post n°5

Re: nut from antler

by Geezer Wed Jun 27, 2018 7:04 pm

Ahh, we may be looking at a semantics problem. What you want is Antler, with lot of ivory and little or no pith. Different from horn, like cow, ox, or goat. Horn is mostly keratin, like fingernail. What you want for a roller nut is Bone/ivory. Does that make sense? Geezer.

by c sitas Thu Jun 28, 2018 8:51 am

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Post n°6

Re: nut from antler

by c sitas Thu Jun 28, 2018 8:51 am

Ah. I new I had that backwards after I got to thinking about it.Horn is mostly forever ,antler is not. Some animals loose antlers every year. Some never loose their horns. Not smart enough to know what this is called. A small problem here when you start to get old."Don't be to sure what you remember. Sorry for the misinformation.

by **Geezer** Thu Jun 28, 2018 9:49 am

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Post n°7

Re: nut from antler

by Geezer Thu Jun 28, 2018 9:49 am

As for bone vs. horn: I once turned a roller-nut from the solid tip of a large black ox-horn... yes, the keratin-stuff. It looked great polished up, was strong and spun beautifully, but after a few days' shooting I discovered the roller was shedding layers at the edge of the back platform, and on the ends of the lugs. That's when I discovered cow-horns and other similar keratin products, grow in many layers, like an onion. Under repeated stress, they flake off. Eventually I sorta-kinda- stabilized the flaking with introduction of some very small escutcheon pins drilled/driven into the back edge, followed by a layer of epoxy. I can't really recommend the experiment. Stick with good, hard antler. Geezer.

by stuckinthemud1 Thu Jun 28, 2018 2:55 pm

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Post n°8

Re: nut from antler

by stuckinthemud1 Thu Jun 28, 2018 2:55 pm

I have some antler I spent a short while rounding off and the centre might be a little pithy, the other side is nearer the skull end and should be much tighter so I think it will work out OK. I might flood it with runny cascamite, but for know it looks like this:
nut from antler 20180628_212958

by stuckinthemud1 Mon Jul 02, 2018 3:32 pm

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Post n°9

Re: nut from antler

by stuckinthemud1 Mon Jul 02, 2018 3:32 pm

The nut has come out at 30mm diameter, 25mm width - that is the widest nut the stock can accommodate. Is there a minimum distance apart for the fingers of the nut?

by c sitas Tue Jul 03, 2018 7:37 am

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Post n°10

Re: nut from antler

by c sitas Tue Jul 03, 2018 7:37 am

It depends on how you place the arrow. If your shooting conventional ,where the arrow gets slapped by the string, it's maybe not so critical. But, if you snap the arrow onto the string,then you have to have room for the nock. I shoot this way. All nocks are different width so you make up your own setup. A lot of people shoot with the arrow thouching the string, that would be the same as snapping on to the string.

by **Geezer** Tue Jul 03, 2018 8:21 am

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Post n°11

Re: nut from antler

by Geezer Tue Jul 03, 2018 8:21 am

First: with a roller-nut, you want the butt of the bolt to rest AGAINST the string. It shouldn't slap at all. So you need the distance between the roller-nut lugs to be slightly wider than your bolts. Period bolts are generally pretty thick, so they're tapered at the butt to somewhere in the vicinity of 5/16 to 3/8 inch. As for your dimensions, 30 mm by 25 that's perfectly acceptable. Geezer.

by drawknife Wed Jul 04, 2018 4:43 am

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Post n°12

Re: nut from antler

by drawknife Wed Jul 04, 2018 4:43 am

The best part of a stag for a roller nut is the pedicle. If you can get the skull of an older deer with the coronet still on, the part you want is the bone which sits below the coronet going into the skull. This is extremely hard bone (it has to be to hold a twelve pointer antler up) so cut it out from the skull as a whole piece. The older the deer the larger and harder the pedicle without any "pith". When turned you will still need a steel wedge inserted to stop wear from the sear. You will get at least two from a skull (obviously). The age of the deer will determine the final diameter of the nut.

by OrienM Wed Jul 04, 2018 8:46 am

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Post n°13

Re: nut from antler

by OrienM Wed Jul 04, 2018 8:46 am

I suppose for a 25mm wide nut, I'd go as narrow as 7-8mm (or roughly 1/4") for the gap between the claws; any thinner, I'd fear it would weaken the butt of the bolts.

Agreed about the pedicle, it's very dense, tough stuff. I'd avoid using horn (cow horn, etc) in a nut, I've found it wears out quickly compared to bone/antler. The last nut I made was from moose antler crown, great stuff if you can get it.

by stuckinthemud1 Wed Jul 04, 2018 2:47 pm

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Post n°14

Re: nut from antler

by stuckinthemud1 Wed Jul 04, 2018 2:47 pm

Thanks guys , never heard of pedicle, will definitely try and get hold of some for the next nut I turn out. I'm cutting the nocks next, I'm guessing the string is about 5/16 thick so nocks will be about that diameter?

by OrienM Wed Jul 04, 2018 4:42 pm

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Post n°15

Re: nut from antler

by OrienM Wed Jul 04, 2018 4:42 pm

No need for any kind of nocks, IMO. With a roller nut and bolt clip setup, simple flat-ended bolts, trimmed a bit in width to fit between the nut claws, work very well.

by stuckinthemud1 Thu Jul 05, 2018 12:49 am

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Post n°16

Re: nut from antler

by stuckinthemud1 Thu Jul 05, 2018 12:49 am

Oh no sorry wrong nock, my fault, the bow nocks not bolt nocks

by OrienM Thu Jul 05, 2018 8:50 am

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Post n°17

Re: nut from antler

by OrienM Thu Jul 05, 2018 8:50 am

Oh, right....different kind of nocks, lol. Carry on.... Cool

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