Will gives the general idea, pretty good. I've built a few stick tang knives out of whitetail deer crowns;and in fact shot a big 10 pointer two years ago that had really thick antlers and is just waiting for a blade. One thing is the antler should have dried for at least a year, otherwise it will shrink/split on you when you try and work it. Other than that, pretty much boils down to reaming out that soft, pithy core, adding your blade,with attached guard, and any spacers you might like, and pouring a lot of epoxy down that hole(before you add the blade/spacers). It's good to have a large hole full of epoxy in there, since it forms a solid, strong "core" to support the tang. Deer antler is not overly strong stuff. The guard/spacers should be larger than the diameter of the antler, so you can bring them down to the antler. Also, when epoxying it all together, use masking tape on the antler, and then rub vaseline around the taped part closest to the guard to keep the epoxy from being absorbed into the antler. Something I also do, is I pin the tang to the antler. I do this by drilling a hole in the antler about 1 1/2" above the end that will fit against the guard using a #30 drill(slightly larger than 1/8"). Then I add the blade/spacers, and pushing hard it together against a piece of wood I've clamped against my drill press table, I insert the drill into the hole and drill on the tang just enough to make a mark. Then I remove the blade and drill the tang completely through. By the way, the blade should be completely taped while your building the knife, to keep it from getting scratched/dinged. This means either having a soft tang or using a 1/8" carbide drill I get from one of the knifesupply houses. I don't think I've ever seen a carbide drill in the Number sized drills. I opt for the carbide drill anyway. When the epoxy is poured into the hole in the blade and everything is added, I then insert a 1/8" piece of brass/copper etc rod into the antler/tang hole and GENTLY peen the rod until it just fits into the slightly oversize hole. DO NOT peen the rod until it is too snug....the antler will eventually split. A word on epoxies....don't use the fast 5 minute stuff, use the 30 minute or longer variety. That give you more time to work with, and the longer setting stuff makes for a stronger bond. As far a building a full tang knife using deer antler, that had best be a really big antler, since that soft core will show on the butt end unless you remove it completely. That means grinding each piece of the split antler(you can saw it in two using most any manual/table/saber saw with a reasonably fine blade), until the core is completly gone. That was the great advantage of Sambar stag....it only had a tiny core, that was easy to remove and still left a lot of antler. If you can do that, then its just a matter of building the knife by conventional full tang means....which if you haven't done that part, you need to either get one of the many videos or books that's available on that. Most knife supply houses carry them. One last very important point; when grinding/sawing antler(or bone, or ivory) ALWAYS wear a respirator....not one of those flimsy paper things, but at least a felt painters mask, and preferably a full respirator. You should do any sawing/grinding also in a place that has at least a decent fan blowing, to get the dust away from you. Antler/bone/ivory dust is DEADLY stuff if it gets into your lungs.
