Green antler

[Pine]

So I got this wonderful deer rack that is going to make a couple of great antler handle knives.
I thought it was aged but when I cut the tang slot in the antler, CRAP it is still green. It must have been from a deer this last fall.
My question is, do any of you think I could bake them in the oven or something to dry them out or should I just set them aside until next summer?
They are too nice to experiment with.
And I have the blades in the heat treat oven as I'm typing this.
Thanks for your input.
Graps

[Steve Nuckels]

Hi Dale, maybe keep it a little longer to be sure.  Do you like the color?  If not plenty of ways you can "Age" the antler and color it.  A very good Bladesmith named John Cohea makes excellent Frontier knives using antler.  He uses "Green" antler sometime and heats it withe a propane torch and dies it while hot with leather dye and then 50/50 Mineral oil and boiled Linseed oil.  Looks great!

Steve
---------
Potomac Forge
Member W.F. Moran Foundation
ABS Apprentice

[Pine]

The color is great, it's an off white and I like that.
Funny thing, when I cut the second one, it didn't stick to my cutter. The first one did, kinda looked like peanut butter.
When I usually cut the slots, it looks like talcum powder and doesn't stick on the tool.
I might just stick them in the oven at around 250 deg for a couple hours. I don't see how that would hurt.

[Pine]

I baked them for 3 hours at 225°, that did the trick.