Editing Antler (section)

=== Carving for decorative and tool uses ===
[[File:Wallace CollectionDSCF7493.JPG|thumb|upright|A German [[powder flask]] made from a red deer antler, {{c.|1570}}. [[Wallace Collection]], London (2010)]]

Antler has been used through history as a material to make tools, weapons, ornaments, and toys.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bauer |first1=Erwin A. |last2=Bauer |first2=Peggy |year=2000 |title=Antlers: Nature's Majestic Crown |publisher=Voyageur Press |page=7 |isbn=978-1-61060-343-0}}</ref> It was an especially important material in the European Late [[Paleolithic]], used by the [[Magdalenian]] culture to make carvings and engraved designs on objects such as the so-called [[Bâton de commandement]]s and the ''[[Bison Licking Insect Bite]]''.  In the Viking Age and medieval period, it formed an important raw material in the craft of comb-making. In later periods, antler—used as a cheap substitute for [[ivory]]—was a material especially associated with equipment for [[hunting]], such as saddles and horse harness, guns and daggers, [[powder flask]]s, as well as buttons and the like. The decorative display of wall-mounted pairs of antlers has been popular since medieval times at least.{{citation needed|date=April 2015}}

The [[Netsilik]], an [[Inuit]] group, made bows and arrows using antler, reinforced with strands of animal tendons braided to form a [[cable-backed bow]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Balikci |first1=Asen |title=The Netsilik Inuit |date=1989 |publisher=Waveland Press |pages=38–39}}</ref> Several [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Indigenous American]] tribes also used antler to make bows, gluing tendons to the bow instead of tying them as cables. An antler bow, made in the early 19th century, is on display at [[Brooklyn Museum]]. Its manufacture is attributed to the [[Yankton Sioux]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/63442 |title=Bow, Bow Case, Arrows and Quiver|website=Brooklyn Museum}}</ref>

Through history large deer antler from a suitable species (e.g. [[red deer]]) were often cut down to its shaft and its lowest [[Tine (structural)|tine]] and used as a one-pointed [[pickax]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ingenious.org.uk/See/Tradeandindustry/Handandmachinetools/?target=SeeMedium&ObjectID=%7BB316DA4B-0B90-D31E-C28F-94EC504B8D04%7D&viewby=images |title=Deer-antler pick, used in flint mining from Grimes Graves |access-date=July 6, 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120308102837/http://www.ingenious.org.uk/See/Tradeandindustry/Handandmachinetools/?target=SeeMedium&ObjectID=%7BB316DA4B-0B90-D31E-C28F-94EC504B8D04%7D&viewby=images |archive-date=March 8, 2012 }}{{full citation needed|date=April 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=970747.JPG |url=http://www.dkimages.com/discover/previews/847/970747.JPG |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110725165301/http://www.dkimages.com/discover/previews/847/970747.JPG |archive-date=July 25, 2011 |publisher=DK Images |access-date=28 December 2022 }}</ref>