Well, trying to get a piece of a deer antler on my tips of my osage bow. I have a dremel tool. Also have various rasps, like nickolson 49 and 50. Will bone/antler wear out my 49? Is the dremel the easist thing for shaping tips? is there a better method?
I am putting them on with platicweld on advise of another bowyer. Never used the stuff. Kinda like two part epoxy.
You're probably better off with a coarse file than a fine rasp. Antler has a tendency to chip, fairly easily. I know on knife handles I use a succession of coarse-fine files & then sandpaper from 220-600grit. It's slow & smelly work, but worth it in the end.
You could easily burn it or go too far with the Dremmel (you can't put it back on!)
Thanks Rob. I have been using the dremel at lower speeds a little. I learned the 49 rasp doesn't work well. Thanks again
I do a lot of the shaping of antler tips with a thin strip of a used up sanding belt or abrasive tape. I cut a strip about 1" wide and use it in a "shoe shine" method. Use the rasp and files to get the two demensional shape you want. Then use the abrasive tape or sanding belt strip. It will round the tips perfectly and then you can take a round file and make your string grooves. I have been happy with how my antler tips turned out with this method.
I cut the antler a bit wider than the bow tips, then work the edges down to match with a mill bastard file and finish, like Dan, with a shoe-shine. Sometimes, for very porous antler, after the string grooves are cut and all is done, I finish with a think coat of clear epoxy, although spray-on Minwax spar urethane does a dandy job of sealing and hardening also. d