butts, joints & ferrels

K

knifemaker

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Why do you not hear about cue makers using natural bone materials to make ferrels, joints and butt caps. There are several out there that are as nearly as hard as ivory and maybe one that is harder.
Axis horn would make a great butt cap and joints and maybe ferrels.
Barasingha would make either as good as ivory or any plastic, it is the hardest bone there is and has a beautiful grain, I guess after thinking about it Barasingha can't be sold outside of Texas in the US, so that would be a problem, I don't know about importing it though.
I make knives and use these all the time and they are great materials. I suppose I need to have a cue made using these materials and show it on the forum.
Just asking questions and wondering about this stuff.
Percy
 
knifemaker said:
Why do you not hear about cue makers using natural bone materials to make ferrels, joints and butt caps. There are several out there that are as nearly as hard as ivory and maybe one that is harder.
Axis horn would make a great butt cap and joints and maybe ferrels.
Barasingha would make either as good as ivory or any plastic, it is the hardest bone there is and has a beautiful grain, I guess after thinking about it Barasingha can't be sold outside of Texas in the US, so that would be a problem, I don't know about importing it though.
I make knives and use these all the time and they are great materials. I suppose I need to have a cue made using these materials and show it on the forum.
Just asking questions and wondering about this stuff.
Percy
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i've some cues in progress with elk antler
would love to see your materials you mentioned

elk handle, buttcap & joint
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schira moose buttcap & joint

006.jpg


007.jpg
 
If you think about a 4' long tusk that is 5" in diameter & then compare that with a 2" antler, I think you will see how many more usable parts can be gotten, more easily from the tusk. Ivory & bone are 2 of the whitest materials in nature. They also machine, sand, glue & finish beutifully. I personally don't like the looks of the gray specled color you get from antler. It detracts from the colors used in the wood...JER
 
butts, joints & ferrules

I agree JR about the gray in some of the bone. Elk, & Moose have a lot of porus area that leaves black or gray. Axis is more solid and Barasingha being the most solid don't have these areas. You can get some very white pieces from them. I love Ivory myself on knives but it is geting more expensives and harder to get at least to me. I had two tusk I bought in Shreveport La back in 97 but have almost used them up and that was 123 lbs of Ivory.
Just checking on the other
Percy
 
knifemaker said:
I agree JR about the gray in some of the bone. Elk, & Moose have a lot of porus area that leaves black or gray. Axis is more solid and Barasingha being the most solid don't have these areas. You can get some very white pieces from them. I love Ivory myself on knives but it is geting more expensives and harder to get at least to me. I had two tusk I bought in Shreveport La back in 97 but have almost used them up and that was 123 lbs of Ivory.
Just checking on the other
Percy
Click to expand...

Can you post a picture of some finished Axis?
What sizes can you get it in?
Is it solid in the middle or porus like most antler?
 
PERSONALLY I DONT LIKE THE COLOR VARIATION IN ANTLER. I THINK IT LOOKS TERRIBLE. ESP IN FERRULE MATERIAL. jmo

I WOULD LIKE TO TRY WALRUS TUSK THO. BEEN TRYING FOR YEARS
 
antler

I will take some pictures tomorrow of some of the axis and barasingha.
They are nothing like whitetail antler.
If you get an elk antler the brow tine is very solid. The rest of the elk antler is very porus.
All of the whitetail antler is very porus.
I use some of the axis for making pens to get solid white since I don't like plastics
Percy
 
knifemaker said:
I will take some pictures tomorrow of some of the axis and barasingha.
They are nothing like whitetail antler.
If you get an elk antler the brow tine is very solid. The rest of the elk antler is very porus.
All of the whitetail antler is very porus.
I use some of the axis for making pens to get solid white since I don't like plastics
Percy
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None of the materials you mentioned are big enough for a butt cap, are they?...JER
 
butts

I don't think it takes more than 1 3/8 for a butt cap does it.
I have had barasingha as big as 1 7/8 and axis over 1 1/2
In the 1 1/4 - 1 3/8 size it is common remember I am in Texas and we
have some big stuff here. Ha
Percy
 
knifemaker said:
I don't think it takes more than 1 3/8 for a butt cap does it.
I have had barasingha as big as 1 7/8 and axis over 1 1/2
In the 1 1/4 - 1 3/8 size it is common remember I am in Texas and we
have some big stuff here. Ha
Percy
Click to expand...

How many pieces of this size, can you get from one antler? & how available are these antlers?...JER
 
I have quite a bit of whitetail antler and I can say for certain that butt caps from whitetail is out of the question.You can get them large enough but your going to pay out the azz.The whole antler in the picture is a giant and the best you can get from it is about 1-3/8 x 2.0 inches and thats if its solid,which most this size are not and your looking at about a 100.00 gamble.Now joints and ferrules are a different story.I have lots of white tail tines that are very solid and very white that would make great ferrules/joints.I personally dont know how good antler is on a cue(I'm an ivory kind of guy)but you can definitely get some solid enough for joints/ferrules/inlays.
 

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I get the best looking ferrules from white tail tips also. They tend to me more solid and lighter colored. the larger the antler the more porous they seem to be. It's also harder to get them perfectly white. Butt caps are hard to come by as mentioned and rare to get the solid stuff. Joint pieces are hit and miss, but I have pulled a few that were completely solid and dense, did not get them completely white though, there would always be a spec somewhere that was just not coming out. a lot of them are close enough to possibly use, but not completely solid, and they are usually too grey to even get away with bleaching them white.

For me personally I prefer to use only the whitest, most dense pieces, but they are hard to come by. When You do find them, they machine better then most of the more porous pieces, but they still don't compare to the way ivory machines.

One thing though about the grey as far as looks go, is that each piece can have character of it's own, much like some figured woods, so even though it may not be my personal preference, I have seen cues that I thought It looked nice in.
 
I definetlly grabed the very white tips I have.They do vary widely in color from white to as an oak brown.The nice thing about antler is there is so much of it because they shed them every year.
 
Blue Hog ridr said:
As in Brent's cues with the Elk antler, I certainly don't mind the mottled look to them.
Click to expand...

I do! Everyone has their own tastes and preferences but for me - I like a well balanced, clean cue. that meaning same deco-rings at all areas, joint and butt cap match (unless steel joint of coarse), inlays and points in alignment and so forth. I feel the antler material is just plain dirty looking. No two pieces are the same. If someone wanted a cue built with this materials use I would probably build it, but I wouldn't buy it.

Dick
 
rhncue said:
I do! Everyone has their own tastes and preferences but for me - I like a well balanced, clean cue. that meaning same deco-rings at all areas, joint and butt cap match (unless steel joint of coarse), inlays and points in alignment and so forth. I feel the antler material is just plain dirty looking. No two pieces are the same. If someone wanted a cue built with this materials use I would probably build it, but I wouldn't buy it.

Dick
Click to expand...

I agree Dick.
The reason cuemakers went to Ivory in the 1st place, was that there was no such thing as plastic & Ivory was one of the only natural materials, that is white. In fact we owe all that is plastic, to Ivory. A $10,000 prize was offered to anyone who could make an imitation Ivory pool ball. A guy came up with a phenalic (Bakelite), ball & collected the cash. That would be like a million dollars, in todays money...JER
 
Soak some bones on hydrogen peroxide or acetone.
See if they still look bad to you.
 
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