This is food for thought for the hunters who follow my work... A shoulder mount for your deer or elk is $650-1200 or so locally, according to a well known and often used local Taxidermist who does quality work. A screenshot of their pricing table from their website is below.

This Brow Tine model below with fully optioned build is handled in a hunter's personal elk taken by bow with a custom fit sheath retailed for less than the elk would have cost to be mounted and retailed for similar money to the deer mount.  My knife included: Magnacut steel upgrade, tapered tang, liners, the hunter's elk, carved lanyard bead, an EDM pin upgrade that was also carved, elkskin lined sheath, and full coverage tooling on the sheath.

One day you may be in a home where the mount doesn't fit anymore and it may be given away or sold at a significant loss as most taxidermy is. My knife will maintain utilitarian value for multiple generations as a family heirloom piece, never be too big to take along as you move, can join you on more hunts, and will likely continue to grow in market value as my work becomes more refined and in higher demand.

I'll never encourage anyone to not do taxidermy if that's what motivates them but I would encourage hunters to think about other uses for their animals. I can turn your memories into heirlooms at Polk Knives and do so in an artistic way that honors the animals harvested and allows you to continue to enjoy the hunt well after the time in the field and the meat has run out. I've used horn, antler, and bone from hunters as well as sentimental woods and other structural materials for handles on many custom knives. If you harvest a special animal and would like to preserve part of it for a custom knife just let me know. I hope you all have a blessed and fruitful season in the field this year.

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Just to ad to what you are saying, I've found one of my most popular knifes is a Turkey Bone knife. A nice way to remember a bow shot wild turkey. Here is a picture of a Wild Turkey femur knife donated to an auction for the NWTF...tippit
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Quote from: tippit on November 13, 2022, 12:23:22 AM
Just to ad to what you are saying, I've found one of my most popular knifes is a Turkey Bone knife. A nice way to remember a bow shot wild turkey. Here is a picture of a Wild Turkey femur knife donated to an auction for the NWTF...tippit
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Absolutely is exactly what I am talking about!  We have many vendors here who are artists and craftsmen who can help up-cycle things from the field for us! I would encourage all of our other sponsors to jump in on this thread as well!

Also, this post for me is not about marketing at all. This is about valuing the animals that we are blessed to harvest and utilizing them to their fullest potential as man has done for thousands of years until very recently in human history where most hunters are meat only harvesters unless they want taxidermy services too. I have game calls made by Jeremy Holden and bows with parts from my animals and other gear as well.

This is a buck I harvested on public land from the ground at 7 paces with my bow on opening day of muzzleloader season several years ago. His right antler is now on my two piece longbow as padding for the limb tips for use with fast flight string materials.
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This is a sketch of how I intend to use his other antler base as the butt cap/pommel for a field knife for myself along with stacked leather and some vintage rag Micarta from a friend in the handle of my next personal build.
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NICE GUYS!!!

Interesting thread. Thanks.

Years ago knife building posts over whelmed the regular Pow Wow posts. So the administrators  specifically made a forum for knife building after that. Now that that Trad Gang is desperate for posts they now allow commercial posts specifically for knife sales on Pow Wow. Sad. Expected though.. Trad Gang is a dying forum sadly. Always enjoyed coming here but can you see the buzzards flying over.

FB trad hunters, Black Widow followers,  Instagram, tik tok the list could go on and on. A  post here can stay for DAYs  on the list. They other options change in minutes or SECONDS!

Quote from: LC on November 14, 2022, 05:26:24 PM
Years ago knife building posts over whelmed the regular Pow Wow posts. So the administrators  specifically made a forum for knife building after that. Now that that Trad Gang is desperate for posts they now allow commercial posts specifically for knife sales on Pow Wow. Sad. Expected though.. Trad Gang is a dying forum sadly. Always enjoyed coming here but can you see the buzzards flying over.

FB trad hunters, Black Widow followers,  Instagram, tik tok the list could go on and on. A  post here can stay for DAYs  on the list. They other options change in minutes or SECONDS!

I'm sorry you see it that way, Larry.  If you look a little deeper and read the second reply you might also see that I have both encouraged other vendors to chime in AND given examples of some of the things that I've commissioned other vendors to do for me with parts from my own hunt.  I merely used my own product line as a talking point because it's something that I'm familiar with. 

The point of this thread wasn't to drum up business for myself but rather to encourage folks to think about utilizing their harvests completely and in some ways that pre-dates TradGang, FaceBook, or even the internet in totality.  Modern hunters often under utilize the resources they are given and frankly I think many of our users would find value in preserving more of their hunts in some creative non-taxidermy pursuits.

As for the TradGang is dying stuff, This is a screenshot of the users and guests currently logged into the PowWow.  It's ~1k users on the main forum.  I get emails multiple times a day with new members joining as admin.  Post numbers aren't as high as they once were because society is more spread out across multiple platforms now as you pointed out.  But, the buzzards aren't circling either.
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Btw LC, Polk Knives is a Sponsor.

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And the date he became one...

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3 of my 11 custom game calls from Jeremy Holden here on the forum. His work is impeccable and he is a FIRST class man to work with. I've also given several others a call from him over time. All of mine from Jeremy are made in some combination of cocobolo, bamboo, my antler, and/or brass. I'd highly recommend his work.
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Nice thread.  Been hear a while and never seen this come up. Admins don't worry about lc, his last post was 12.5 years ago. As for me, I never look a gift horse in the mouth. Thanks guys.

I'll share a pic for you when I get home.  Some yall can ponder on as what to do with it. I have an idea already.

I like that Turkey Bone knife. May have to look into that if I ever shoot another. Or maybe a Coyote.

   I actually glad this post was made with letting everyone know there is other ways to keep a memory of a deer,Turkey or whatever you harvest and don't want to put so much in a Mount or display a bucks antlers.Rather it be a knife (which is a Great idea) a deer call, key chain,ring,necklace,box call,bow tips,overlays,ink pens or walking stick handles .
  The ideas are endless and you can save money if you can't afford a Mount.
I can say this "If" I ever shot another Big game animal and can afford the Mount I would but now Mr. Polk just gave us some outstanding ideas and I Thank you sir .
  Good post by the way .
 

Quote from: Keefer on November 16, 2022, 12:05:50 PM
   I actually glad this post was made with letting everyone know there is other ways to keep a memory of a deer,Turkey or whatever you harvest and don't want to put so much in a Mount or display a bucks antlers.Rather it be a knife (which is a Great idea) a deer call, key chain,ring,necklace,box call,bow tips,overlays,ink pens or walking stick handles .
  The ideas are endless and you can save money if you can't afford a Mount.
I can say this "If" I ever shot another Big game animal and can afford the Mount I would but now Mr. Polk just gave us some outstanding ideas and I Thank you sir .
  Good post by the way .

Another simple one is to turn your first set of antlers into rattling antlers for the pre-rut and rut. Just saw and sand/smooth off the brow tines to save your fingers then add a length of shock cord between them. It's basically free and allows you to carry your first buck with you into the woods every single fall!

Any other thoughts than a Bison Blade Boat Paddle?


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My zebra taken in 2019 in Botswana became a wall mount, but that left the beautiful back skin which I just had made into a quiver and companion armguard.   I have now done this for the third time, previously using a nyala backskin and the entire pelt from a black backed jackel

Quote from: 2wfstlhunting on November 20, 2022, 07:15:34 AM
My zebra taken in 2019 in Botswana became a wall mount, but that left the beautiful back skin which I just had made into a quiver and companion armguard.   I have now done this for the third time, previously using a nyala backskin and the entire pelt from a black backed jackel

Nyala backskin quiver

NICE GUYS!!!!! Thanks for sharing....

As far as the Bison Paddle, I was thinking about a Dean Torges faceting approach with an osage stave, but not rounded off at the end but left with the facets for a sure grip. And a handle made out of some type of antler beam.

Quote from: Terry Green on November 20, 2022, 09:54:01 AM
NICE GUYS!!!!! Thanks for sharing....

As far as the Bison Paddle, I was thinking about a Dean Torges faceting approach out of an osage stave, but not rounded off at the end but left with the facets for a sure grip. And a handle made out of some type of antler beam.

.

Ohhhh. That would be incredible!