Busted! Antler and Horn Repair,Updated

[Jim B]

After the light sanding,I mixed up a thin wash of Raw Umber and started working over the repair.

When using washes,a transparent color,be aware that if the wash laps over the existing horn,you will have double color in that perimeter area.That will be a dark shadow line that frames and points out your repair.If you get that lap-over,go back with a damp Q tip or small artist brush and remove that was outside your repair.

[Jim B]

This elk had about 12" broken off a 4th tine.A tapered,1/2" threaded rod was epoxied in after bending to shape.The screws around the base held the rod steady while the epoxy cured but more importantly,they give the next layer of epoxy something more to hang on to.

[Jim B]

After the rod was solid,I covered it with Magic Smooth and the following day rasped it into shape leaving room to add app. 3/16 layer of All Game.

Magic Smooth is a good first layer as gets into pores,sticks tighter and is stronger than the filler,sculpting type epoxies.However,I should have used a smaller layer because that stuff was too much work to rasp.

The following day,I applied a layer of Magic Sculp over that.I left it thicker than the shape I wanted so I could rasp and sand it into shape.

[Jim B]

The following day I rasped and sanded it into shape.I ground the texture into it with a Dremel.Texture molds have their place but here,I needed to match all the existing grooves and ridges of the existing antler.That would be impossible with a texture mold.After grinding,some judicious sanding helped blend and soften the texture.

[Jim B]

The only color needed was raw umber.The painting methods were described earlier in the tutorial.

[sheephunter]

Looks like you are getting the hang of these types  of repair.

Great work.

[bigwolfron]

your work is awsome. how do you price the repair work? by the inch or by the hr.i have several white tail racks to repair,some with a few chiped tines , one with four tines missing.the sculpting of the tines arent bad but the blending of the rack has been hard to match like yours. any help with colors i should have on hand.im in michigan and most of the racks are really light .the repaired part seems to always looks to dark. any help

[Jim B]

bigwolf,I do a little of both.In the long run,you just have to determine how long certain jobs will take you and how much you need to make.If you are having trouble matching the color,you may have to go back and read more thoroughly.I can't think of a single thing I left out.With the acrylics,if it is too dark,you used too much paint or didn't thin it enough with water.If you do get it too dark,you have several minutes at least,to remove some.I've tried to stress,over and over,if it doesn't look quite right-change it!The rest of the rack is all the reference you need.