Andy Dingley wrote in message . ..
On 27 Oct 2004 08:53:18 -0700, (Sam) wrote:

always used deer horn for the blade stabilizer

I had a long (far too long) talk with someone recently about deer, and
the fact they didn't even have horns. Except that some do, but some
taxonomists then argue as to whether they're really deer.

Deer, apparently, have antlers. Which are a whole different material
to horn. So whenever poor muggins here is wondering whether to use
horn or antler for something, he should think about how much wear it's
going to see. If it's going to see any wear (like this blade
stabilizer) then avoid deer and antler altogether and go for buffalo
horn. Cow horn works too, but only comes in thin layers. Horn it
seems is the stuff that's solid, hard wearing, and has this property
of self-lubrication.

Which leads me back to the other threads, and how on earth you're
supposed to work buffalo horn (which is resistant to most rational
tools).

I wasn't thinking too deeply. I DO know that bulls don't have antlers.
So, is this what defines, antlers fall off but horns don't?