Just wondering what part of the horn is the best for making a full antler/horn handle knife. I have been collecting both of Sami knives and antlers for sometime just wondering whats considered the best part.

Cannot speak to your question, sir, but would love to see some of your Sami blades. Isn't the iconic puukko descended from Sami design?

I have used reindeer only once. I found it to be the same as whitetail.

Here is what I know about horn material for scales. I used to sell sheds I found to a guy that used them a lot for knife scales. My experience is with elk and mule deer sheds.

Any section of the horn can be used provided you can get the thickness and width you want after trimming out the spongy marrow section.

He would cut the horn into about 6" lengths, then bandsaw the sections lengthwise to cut out the sponge center. On a large elk antler, he could get 4 scales, two small and two fairly wide out of one section. Thickness was always the issue on elk as some had a large section of sponge in the center.

Stag is used because they have a denser antler with less marrow/sponge.

Mule deer sheds had to be off a brute of a buck to get good scales. Otherwise, they wanted bucks with 3"-4" bases to use as hidden tang handles. They like the muleys for this since they often didn't have a brow tine.

Jeremy

I watched a documentary on caribou hunting last night. The hunter commented that caribou has the hardest antler of the North American deer and little "honeycomb".
Not sure what you say, but that would surely make it best for scales and hidden tangs.
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