How do I colour roe deer heads?

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The colour that deer antlers acquire once they are clean of velvet does depend on the type of tree or shrub the deer uses as a fraying stock.

Thursday, 11 January 2007

Is there any way I can naturally colour roe heads that were shot early in the season and are quite pale in colour? Would it be possible to achieve the right colour by rubbing the antlers against a tree?

A:

The colour that deer antlers acquire once they are clean of velvet does depend on the type of tree or shrub the buck or stag uses as a fraying stock.

Conifers produce very dark antlers, oak and hazel the more familiar mid-brown, but the process takes time.

These colours are probably sealed in by various waxes and oils from the same source; it would take a great deal of dedication on your part to apply the same process to a trophy in order to colour it!

If you try to inflict the same damage on a tree stem, that even a small roebuck manages, you will understand the incredible strength the animal brings to bear while fraying. There might also be a certain embarrassing merriment if you were seen by passers-by!

Using artificial means you can produce what amounts to a work of art, as many taxidermists do with success, otherwise patient work with teak oil will enhance the antlers, but be warned, it is all too easy to ruin them.