Thanks, all! I appreciate the enthusiasm, especially since it was something new for me. Since there is some interest, I will try to throw out what I learned with this project....I'm sorry for the rambling that is about to happen
I would love to take credit for the antler pen, but it's someone else's clever idea. Since the consistency and curve of the antler varies, I probably spent the most time trying to decide on what parts of the rack would make the nicest pen. Obviously, the thicker antler has the thicker marrow, so I don't think that will work well on a slimline. I used the lower part of the antler (closest to the skull) for the cigar pen. I offset the drilled hole by a little in order to leave some of the natural 'bark' look to the side of the pen. I tried to be careful, though, to minimize the amount of marrow that would be exposed at the top where the pen tapers.
For the antler pen, the following are the steps I took. I'm not sure if it's the best way, but I'm happy with the results. First, I cut the pieces of antler at the bandsaw as I felt I had the most control and would minimize waste and possible chipping there. The bandsaw went through the antler very easily. Then, I put the antler pieces in a wood clamp and spent a lot of extra time making sure that the piece was positioned correctly. This is important since the piece has extreme changes in thickness/shape/curve even in these little pieces. Once I was certain that the antler would not blow out one of the sides, I drilled using the standard slimline 7mm bit. I then glued in my brass tube for the pen.
With freshly sharpened tools (as I understand is a requirement ) I turned the antler. I was careful to have the windows of the shop open and the dust collection on. The smell was not overly bad, but I didn't really want to breathe in the dust and wanted to minimize any potential smell. The tools seemed to dull fairly quickly and the antler does not exactly cut into 'ribbons' like a nice piece of maple will. I was, however, easily able to get a really nice finish on it from just a skew chisel.
After using the skew, I went ahead and applied a coat of thin CA because I had read the sanding dust will fill the pores ,showing up as black dots all over the white antler. After filling the pores with CA, I went through a quick sanding regiment and then applied a normal CA finish.
Overall I was suprised at how easy it was and how nice the pen turned out.
