Been a bit of talk of late about stags shot in hard velvet and how to go about colouring them up

There was one on here the other week with fence stain but it looked a bit "painted" for my liking so I thought I would shear what I use and how to do it to get a natural look

I have coloured a fair few heads now for myself and mates
both hard velvet head and sun bleached
Its not a hard to get them looking good just takes a bit of time

You will need some potassium permanganate, a small paint brush, a knife or a metal ruler and some coarse and fine sand paper

You can pick up the potassium permanganate from the chemist for a couple of dollars 30g would
do a few heads


Mix the potassium permanganate with boiling water to dissolve the crystals  
then brush onto the antler
(make sure you have a good drop sheet down or do it out side on the grass as it can get a little messy)
it will be a purple colour to start with but once it drys in an hour or so it will end up brown


Brush the main beam and feather it out to the points,
if you want a lighter finished colour only give it one coat
if you want a dark finish give it a couple of coats  


You can either use the course sand paper
or the edge of a steal ruler or the blade of a knife
to expose the pearling and to feather the points  
to forum a natural look
then use the fine sand paper to finish of


A before and after


A lighter natrually coloured on the left and one I coloured a bit darker on the right


Here is a head I coloured up for a mate

2506 wrote on Feb 11^th, 2009 at 6:33am:

220DS

No I don't seal them with anything, some have been done 15 years now and haven't faided at all

Did you only give it one coat? looks like your water to crystal mix might have been a little diluted  

Id say you watered it down to much looking at the pic of it on the fence

I did this red head of mine 15 years ago and it hasn't faided at all

Hell of a red madness! Ive done a few with nugget that come out good and stay good if inside.

Try another chemist the one you delt with is being a co*k 

I've never had a problem buys it in smaller lots e.g. 30/50g at a time

If you have no joy getting Potassium permanganate from the chemist, then try asking for Condy's crystals. GP's still prescribe it for children with infected eczema to take baths in. It's the same stuff by a different name. MADNESS was right, your "chemist" person was being a co*k. Ask for it from the pharmacist dude (the person with a degree in pharmacology, usually out the back), not the sales assistant "manning" the counter.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potassium_permanganate

Posted link so you can see for yourself.

I had an impressive Red stag brought to me for work. Shot at the end of February, fair chase on the Wairarapa coast, in hard velvet. I knew this thread was here, or I wouldn't have accepted the job. Thank you MADNESS. The head was a hell of a mess, after 4 months on top of a tankstand:


Because I hadn't stained before, tho I do lots of European mounts, there were a couple of things which were not evident to me from the instructions. Firstly, the dilution rate. I bought 25g of potassium permangate and I obtained advice (thanks Alan L.) to use boiling water to give a large coffee mug. Gives sufficient for a big Red stag or a Wapiti. Here is the container I mixed in and stained from:


The other query, it wasn't clear just when I had to work on the pearling. You let the stain thoroughly dry first. I worked with the back of a heavy knife.
I'm very happy with the end result.