How to Make Glue From Deer Antlers

As an alternative to using hide glue from dead animals, naturally shed deer antlers provide an excellent glue with the same workflow and properties. Simply simmer the cut antler pieces for several hours and and pour out the mixture to cool. As it dries cut it into smaller pieces to store later in an container.

Deer antlers
A saw
A large pot
Glass tray or large container
Cooking thermometer

The best way to source antlers would be by finding one in it's natural environment . However it's more practical to buy one and that could be ordered to your home or some pet stores sell antlers as a snack for dogs. Look for wide pieces and if you have a choice between several cut pieces avoid the lowest part that connects to the deer as it could contain bits of non antler material or debris.

If your antlers are not already cut you will need to saw them into smaller pieces. Any small toothed blade would work well such as a metal saw but I have used a cheap wood saw and it does work.

To obtain the glue from the antlers they have to be submerged in water and simmered (not boiling) for around 4 hours. The cut antlers should reach half way up the pot you will use and you need one large or several trays to pour the liquid in once it is ready.

After that you will need a knife to cut it up into small pieces and a container of your choice to store it in.

Place your cut antlers in a pot and fill with water. The water line should exceed the height of the antlers by around 25 percent. Turn on the heat of your stove and keep the heat low enough so the water will not boil.

This is a project that you do need to keep supervised so I encourage you to make your kitchen work area comfortable and entertaining. In my case a chair and some music.

As we are cooking the antlers, collagen is being extracted from them and into the simmering water. So it is very important to avoid the water from boiling as it will reduce the strength of the glue. If by accident it does boil for a short time it will still work well, so dont be discouraged if it does happen.

Once the water reaches a simmer which is a very light boil keep readjusting the heat to keep it stable. If you have a thermometer it is around 70 to 85 degrees celcius, if not look for small bubbles on the surface of the pot and a gentle turbulence in the water.

You dont need to put a lid on the pot instead for the first few hours keep adding more water once the level goes down and reaches the antlers.

After around four hours on low heat a strong smell of antlers and a thicker consistency in the water indicate it is soon ready. At that point you want to stop adding water and let the warm water evaporate till half way down the antlers. As the water level goes down the heat will rise faster from the flame, so keep an eye on it and keep the flame low. Once you reach the correct water level remove the antlers from the pot with a sieve to take away everything that is not a liquid. (The easiest way is to pour it out into a new pot that is clean. ) once you have separated the mixture place it back on the flame to further reduce. If your antles filled half of your pot height reduce the liquid to around ten percent or less.

At this point we can notice that the water in the pot has different properties visually and its consistency is thicker. Turn off the heat and pour into trays to cool.

The aim of pouring it Into trays instead of leaving it in the pot to dry is to reduce the height of the gel so it dries faster. When its hot it's a liquid but it cools down to a soft gel and then solid once fully dry. I used trays and plates to spread it thin. Around 1 cm height is good. Once it starts to gel roughly after a few hours you can cut it up into smaller and smaller pieces and use a ventilator to dry it faster and avoid too much humidity.

As it dries it will keep shrinking and become hard. Once fully dry place in a dark area in an airtight container. You can grind up the cubes into powder or leave them as is.

Place your dried gel cubes into a small heat proof container. I use a glass yogurt cup or a very small pot. Add water till you cover the dry glue and let it sit for two hours. If all the water gets absorbed add a bit more so there always is a little water in the container. After it is saturated place your container in a pot. Match the height of the water in the pot to the height of the glue in the small container. Heat slowly till you first see bubbles and the glue has melted back Into a liquid.

Now your glue is ready to use, by painting it onto your work surfaces with a paintbrush. To get real strength with any animal based adhesive you have to clamp your work together. Very important to note that with out pressing the glued wood together with clamps it is very weak. Somehow the pressure makes it incredibly strong and it should dry for at least 24 hours for most work. Aswell I recommend putting glue on both sides of the wood you Intend to glue together.

Cleaning the brush is easy with water and soap and any left over glue you do not use can be thrown away or composted.

Some traditional woodworking relies on using the leftover remains of dead animals to make hide glue. When I attempted to make a violin I wasn't happy about a cow or horse having to die for me to make an instrument. so I spent months looking into how to make vegetarian glue and I could not find or make anything that had all the same properties required to make a violin. So it occurred to me maybe deer antler could work as they just fall of every year it would be more ethical.

Research suggested it would work, but I could not find any youtube videos explaining it for my circumstance so I substituted the recipie for cow hide glue with deer antlers and it worked incredibly well to glue my violin together.