It followed me home

[Red Shed Forge]

Hey, nice haul.

Mail Call! The traveling Amazonians lost it for about a week, but the book finally made it to my front door. I made my wife send me a picture of it as I'm at the office lol. 

When I first started making charcoal, it was recommended that I start keeping a running catalog of the timber I char to make it easier to identify. It was counselor SLAG (thanks!) who made the suggestion, IIRC. The catalog has been a fun project so far and is certainly proving to be useful. I expect this book will be heavily cited throughout, though I am hunting for more! I think I will check out the Morton Arboretum's library next. 

 

[Chad J.]

Picked up a pack of leaf springs for 50 bucks and spent 20 on a couple elk antlers and white tail antlers.   

[pnut]

I was going to put an ad on the local facebook buy sell page asking for a few sheds or if someone got a one antlered deer this season. I decided to send an email to the KDFWR to check and I'm glad I did. While it's legal to transfer horn material in KY no payment of cash or services can be exchanged. I dodged a proverbial bullet there. 

Pnut

[Chad J.]

That's an odd law.  They sell them as decoration in so many places.   I wonder if there is a differentiation between loose antler and decorations that are made of antler, like old mounts. 

[pnut]

I'm not one hundred percent sure but I believe a European mount like a skull and antlers has to have a tag. I'm completely unsure about antique stuff. There's some weird laws in KY regarding deer and elk. There's been like a forty year program going on to re-establish both herds so it's highly regulated. They've done a good job though. KY now has the largest elk herd East of the Rocky Mountains. 

Pnut 

I think the rules about antlers etc are to keep a commercial hunting industry from developing

 

Edited March 20, 2021 by pnut

[JHCC]

One of my neighbors (a dedicated and enthusiastic walker) found a nine-point pair of deer antlers in the woods the other day. 

I’ve heard of people using specially trained dogs to find sheds. 

[pnut]

There's a club here that hunts for sheds with dogs. It actually seems pretty fun. I learned about it from an episode of Kentucky Afield. I find sheds pretty frequently but I haven't really been able to get out much lately. My back is staging a mutiny so traversing the woodlands is out of the question for now. 

Pnut 

Unfortunately I couldn't get a straight answer from the wildlife officer about selling things made with antler such a knife scales or atl atl knocks etc. 

 

[Donal Harris]

I’ve been trying for the past three seasons to get a couple of cannon bones. Everyone forgets. Many of them don’t even know what a cannon bone is. I have a couple of sheds given to me by the neighbor down the road. He has a tub of them. 
 

Kentucky doesn’t have a commercial hunting industry. That surprises me.  Even Oklahoma has commercial hunting.

[Leather Bill]

In Texas laws about selling antlers are primarily to prevent  slaugtor just for antlers.  Eventhough animal was killed and tagged during season,if attempts to preserve and use meat aren't taken there's a stiff fine.  There is an exception for meat proccessors that alows selling bones,hide and antlers,KY .might also do that.  I believe if you read the law,shed antlers can be traded and sold.  Some jursdictions make exceptions if antlers are sawn into pieces making them worthless as trophies.   I completly understand having antlers to relive the hunt but why anyone would buy a trophy baffels me.

[pnut]

No commercial industry as far as deer and elk parts. I mean the hunting industry is pretty big business with guides etc. but you can't buy or sell venison or elk. The deer herd was almost non existent by the 70's so the powers that be are pretty picky. We have pretty liberal harvesting limits depending on the zone. Truthfully I haven't been on a deer hunt in twenty years at least so I'm not completely familiar and up to date with all the regulations. That's why I initially checked about posting a wanted ad for antlers. 

Pnut

5 minutes ago, Leather Bill said:

In Texas laws about selling antlers are primarily to prevent  slaugtor just for antlers

That's what I meant when I said it's to prevent a commercial industry from forming. You couldn't do it here anyway because there's wanton waste regulations but I'm sure people could get around it somehow. 

Pnut 

Seems like a leg (cannon) bone would be pretty easy to come by. 

 

[Scott NC]

2 hours ago, DHarris said:

I’ve been trying for the past three seasons to get a couple of cannon bones. Everyone forgets. Many of them don’t even know what a cannon bone is. 

  I'm going out on a limb here, but what do you do with cannon bones?  Google was no help and I hope I didn't miss something.  Never heard of them either.

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

I had never heard the term but Google had. I've made a lot of knife handles from them.

https://aboutbone.com/the-versatile-cannon-bone-what-is-it/

[JHCC]

9 minutes ago, Nodebt said:

  I'm going out on a limb here

Ha, ha. 

[ThomasPowers]

Well got up early to get to the scrap yard when they opened---they were going to unstack some HVAC stuff so I could get the big louvers on some pieces to start closing in my shop's gables WHILE maintaining excessive ventilation. (If the CoOp ever gets power to it I would like the forge area to be "dry")

Scrapyard didn't unstack the HVAC stuff Grrr; but I went ahead and got a 40"x61" set of louvers for the front gable.  Took me an hour and a couple of levers---weighs 80+ pounds I estimate, 109# was payout with some bearing races and wrought iron and a 8# sledge head broken in the middle of the eye???, a tire iron.

Chad; unless those were brand new unused leaf springs they should be free or at scrap rate; for me 20 UScents a pound.  I have sources brand new spring packs for free from places that do lifts or lowers and discard the original springs even if it was a brand new vehicle with less than 100 miles on them!

A lot of the hunting laws are enforced at the "whim" of the F&G people who are often pretty good about avoiding abuse of the natural resources while allowing use.

 

[Scott NC]

  Thanks, IFCW, I guess I didn't read deeply enough.  JHCC, sometimes, going out on a limb, you crash on your head asking stupid questions....   I'm a pro at it, but I always learn something!  

  I will re-phrase my question to:  What do YOU do with cannon bones?

[ThomasPowers]

(He got tired of playing the 1812 Overture on the spoons?)

[Donal Harris]

I want to make a frontier style knife some day. The cannon bone is for the handle. I really liked the work Gib Guignard and Chuck Burrows did. There is no way I could even come close to what they were able to produce, but I would like to try nonetheless. 
 

Totally missed the “spoon” thing. LOL

Edited March 20, 2021 by DHarris
Added last sentence

[Scott NC]

I think the spoons went out with the Oklahoma Land Grab.  "I may be wrong".   Thank's D.  I'm sure you will do them justice.

[Scott NC]

2 hours ago, JHCC said:

Ha, ha. 

  Boy am I slow.  I get it now.  What say we all have fun and laugh at my crashing on my head comment!  I'll just go away for a while, now.  

[Frosty]

Great article, I'd heard the term but wasn't even close to what the heck cannon bones are. Thanks for the link. On the downside though, Aboutbone dot com is a huge rabbit hole I'll probably be wandering around for some time.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Donal Harris]

Totally did not expect people here to have to Google “cannon bone.” My idiot baby brother, sure. Same with my son in law. There is no meat on them, so they just get tossed.
 

This past season I texted my son in law twice to remind him while he was hunting in Arkansas. Even sent him a screenshot of a deer skeleton with the bones circled in red with arrows pointing to them and a note saying “tell the processor you want these bones back.”  Still he forgot. 

[George N. M.]

Shed antlers are pretty big business in western Wyoming.  The Wyoming Game and fish Department prohibits collecting antlers from Jan. 1st to April 30th in parts of the state to prevent disturbing elk and mule deer on their winter ranges.  There is a big annual elk antler auction in Jackson, WY.  Average price: $17/pound.  They are sold for mounts, trophies, and an ingredient in traditional oriental medicine. Skulls with large antlers go for much more.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

[Chad J.]

Thomas, the springs were about 200 pounds so In on the range but I feel like I was also buying a bit of goodwill and a potential for some work.  They do some custom work on bikes and hot rods.  My response was send me the drawing and I'll see what I can do.   I have a friend from when I was in scrap that can also supply me with springs at no charge,  he just replaced the springs on his flatbed so between what I just got and what I can get I'll be in flat stock for a while.

What kind of prep so y you have to do for a fresh cannon bone?  I've seen a few roadkill that I could harvest then from. 

[pnut]

8 minutes ago, Chad J. said:

  I've seen a few roadkill that I could harvest then from. 

You are allowed to do that? It takes a special tag to be able to harvest roadkill where I live. It's basically just a matter of calling the number and asking but without doing it you are opening yourself up to a poaching charge. I have some friends in Wisconsin I might go visit when it's reasonable to do so. It's gorgeous up that way. 

I don't know the laws in your state but it's something you should probably look into before attempting it unless you already know the regs that is. 

Pnut

[Chad J.]

Not sure what the regs are really but there's at just 1 dead deer per mile up here.   I'll check that out.  If you make it up this way let me know, I have plenty of room in the shop for anyone who wants to stop by.