Home made cromach

[Twa_Corbies]

Years ago I recall having seen some very attractive sticks made from carved oak and topped with an entire deer antler. While these were not true cromachs, they were beautiful sticks. The top of the sticks were carved to look like the head of a thistle, with the antler attached at that point. If you happen to have a copy of Neil Grant's book "Scottish Clans and Tartans" there is a photo on page 49 which shows the late chief of the Clan Gordon walking with a stick very similar to the ones I recall seeing, though the antler on that particular example isn't complete.

[wyldathart]

I'll look into that. I think that what I'm making can't be called a true Cromach. Cromachs are bent enough at the crook so that it can be used to catch lambs. Well since I'm working with Antler bone instead of horn, I can't bend the stag antler to form a proper crook. I'm not sure about the terminology. doesn't really matter I think, folks will know what I'm talking about

[wyldathart]

Well so far I've been carving the horn with a dremel and a high speed bit. Gotta love the dremel for this, wow does it do a number on horn. You can mess up real fast if your not carefull.
I appologize for not having pics, I don't have a proper camera yet, so I'll do my best to explain what I'm doing. Anyway I'm taking the cut off tines and smoothing those as well, one is going to be the hilt for a sgian dubh that I'll be making. Another tine with be turned into a walking/hunting staff with a fork on the top for ones thumb or to rest a rifle on. the rest of the cast off sections I'm going to turn into horn toggle buttons for some project down the road.