Fake antlers made with Bondo

[call of the wild]

Hi all. I need to ask a question. When I replace a broken tine, on white tail deer, I mold another tine with construction silicone, using Johnson's Paste wax first as a release. When it dries, I slip it off, mix bondo and fiberglass resin together and pour a cast. I use a heavy wire bent to shape of antler, to get air out, then leave it in for support. Works pretty well. I leave about 1 inch of wire exposed, and drill hole into stub.  I just use epoxy sculpt to attach fake antler to broken stub ,flaring and blending out epoxy at union.   
My question is: Should I coat the bondo antler with a putty to accept potassium per menate, or should I coat with a paint and use acrylic colors to match existing antlers?
Does anyone know of an acrylic paint color that matches the color of potassium per menate after it's dry. 
I read the archives all the time, so please don't say read them.
Thanks Jay

[Old Fart]

Why don't you cast it directly on the stub with one of the two part urethane resins instead of the polyester(Bondo).  Urethane resin is what most reproduction antlers are made of so it's usually easy to color to match and there is usually very little to do in the way of patching and blending the union of the replacement time and the antler.

[call of the wild]

Thanks for the reply: I'm not sure what you mean by casting it directly on the stub. Running wires, and putting say All Game? Yea, I know I should be using a different material to cast with, but really don't know of all the kinds of material you can use. Bondo is cheap, but not as durable, I'm sure.
Getting back to the color of acrylics. The base color of every antler is usually bone or ivory. Do they make an acrylic paint of that color or do you have to mix. Any suggestions?
Also, does any one know of a acrylic paint that is the same color of potassium per menate after it is applied to an antler and dried?
Thanks

[Old Fart]

Direct cast.....you are making a mold from another point, right? Suspend the antlers with the points DOWN, take that mold, fill it with your mixed casting resin and slide it UP on to the stub of the point that you are replacing.  Hold in place until it kicks(a couple minutes) and then tip it upright and make sure that the tine matches the direction of the rest of the points(at this point it can be easily bent to shape). When you remove the mold there will be a little sanding to blend the resin to the antlers, but usually not much. The bone color of the resin will not match the antler at this point, blend the joint with neutral grey and stain the point with the proper paint or wood stain. I gave up on potassium permanganate years ago for that purpose.

Try painting your Bondo point with neutral grey or white or ivory(whatever it takes to get a base color) and then go to work on it with the paints to get the color right.  Antler repair is not a "one size fits all" proposition. Each one is a different color and you have to go at it that way. That's why the KMnO4 is not the way to go.  It works best when you are trying to restore color to an entire rack, not matching a repair.

[call of the wild]

Thanks Old Fart for the info. I agree. PP is great for doing the entire rack. Here in south Texas some of the racks off this high fence ranch still have allot of dried skin velvet left on. I'm not sure if it is the major drought we've had this year or not. I have been stripping the skin off and using PP to stain the rack back to color. Works great.
I do agree that trying to blend PP with a fake antler is almost impossible. I thought I might try the Epo Seam and Repair putty over the bondo'ed antler, and use PP to stain, but I'm afraid it will not blend at the union.
I have allways used latex flat white paint as the base color, but I need an ivory color or bone color. I used the sediment at the bottom of a wood stain can for color. I just can't find the right color of stain. That's why I ask if anyone knew of a wood stain, or acrylic color that would match the color of PP. The racks here are a reddish brown-to light ochre color with either ivory or bone base.
Do you have any suggestions on the brand of base colors and other colors in wood stain, or acrylic for that color of rack?
Thanks

[Old Fart]

For repo racks I use MinWax oil stains of various colors.  I believe that "most" of our northern deer have darker racks than yours. For a repo I just paint it on the whole rack and wipe the first coat off(I use Ebony for the darker racks and special walnut for the lighter ones) that leaves a base color. After that I use the "appropriate" color(s) for what I'm trying to do and I use a rag to "blot" it off.  I never WIPE. For repairs, after I blend the joint, I blot on a color and blot it off to the desired effect.  Sorry I can't get much more specific than that, colors vary so much it's hard to pin it down.

[call of the wild]

Thanks for the reply. Here is a cull  buck I mounted last year off a high fence ranch. As you can see, and it's not a close up, the color of antler I'm trying to match. Here's another off the same ranch from last year.

[bearrug]

Great ideas.Thanks for sharing.

[cessnastaxidermy]

I have very good uck using a stain called bartley gel stain it is very thick for staining hardwoods like cherry that dont absorbe stain verry well . I thin it with a little turpentine . My method for repairing antlers is very simple . I grind any sharp edges or flared antler from tines that were damaged in velvet and later broke . Drill into the broken antler and set a fairly heavy wire epoxied into the hole mabey 8 ga ,if point is long set 2 wired and grind to taper on point  . This is important on real pointed tines  sand with coarse sandpaper to roughen the wire . Mix auto body putty hot and spread onto wire . Soon after it sets shape with smal knife and than sand to shape make shure you  had the wire bent to proper curve looking at it from all sides . It is important to sand it down thinner than the tine you are reproducing . You will be adding a thin layer of allgame over the putty smouth with water and fingers to shape and size. You will need several silicone rubber moulds tanken from deer antler to press texture into allgame . build clay dams and cast tines on only one side picking tines with diferent textures . my best mould was from an elk antler . You dont want to pres to hard with a little practice and a solid boty putty core you can ge perfest detail  in your points main beams and burs  wet your rubber mould first presing gentley if it look poor smouth with water and try again often pressing mould several times . my elk antler mould is about 12 inches long and goes from lighe detail near the tip to a very rough base ideal for close to the bur Untill a year or two ago i stained directley over the allgame with the gell stain very sucessfully but they changed the ingrediants in all game makeing it a little darker . I now find it best to airbrush offwhite hydromist  paint first than the gell stain . I find walnut or dark brown gell stain very easy . Often after drying i need to airbrush a little rich brown or amber oxide which is a thin yellow use very little lightley misted over when dry seal with matt clear acrylic which gives a perfect luster matching real tines  dont be afraid to paint white down over antler below repair as blending your color is easer to hide if it is not in the exact spot where you smouthed your allgame to blen with the real antler My custermers are always amazed with how well they match . If you line up all your points to repair and do them all in a row you will find you have very little time in a repair good luck cliff

[call of the wild]

Thanks: Now I'm getting somewhere! I ordered some seam and repair putty. I used it first time, on a practice bondo antler I made. I painted it first with white flat latex paint , but will get some of the white bondo hardener next time. ( Didn't know they made it ) I think this just might be the way to go. I read in the old archives, about George doing the same thing, with the repair putty,  and coloring with Potassium P. The seam and repair putty went on real smooth. I read about all of you using popsickle sticks all the time, but let me tell you, I use an old kitchen butter knife for everything like this. It works really well, for just about everything, and cleans up well.
Oh, this last practice bondo antler I made, instead of using fiberglass resin to thin the bondo, I just used lacquer thinner to thin it, and it worked great. It might not be as hard, but still it worked.  See, you have to be able to pour the bondo out of a Dixie cup,  into the silicone mold.
I like the last post on making impression molds, and I have thought of that. Silicone would work great for that. Don't forget the release!
Anyway, thanks for posting, and anyone else have an idea?
Jay