"Stag"- whats the difference

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You got burnt stag, genuine stag, stag bone, sambar stag, red stag.
I,m pretty sure stag bone is carved bone to look like stag correct? so whats the story
 
Well, you can definitely tell the diff between stag bone and stag because of jigging is fairly easy to recognize. I will let some of the gurus explain the finer details of the stag.

God Bless
 
My take.

Genuine stag - any stag horn, can be Sambar or Red Stag or anything else. It is untreated in its original color and texture. But it is the outside, or bark, or the horn. Mainly a designation by GEC to differentiate burnt and unburnt stag on their knives.

Burnt stag - Same as genuine except "burnt" with fire or chemically to alter its color, make it darker.

Sambar stag - Horn of the Sambar Stag physical animal, or its equivalent. It is named differently in different places. Very distinctive bark.

Red Stag - Either red in color originally, dyed red or from a red stag (deer) physical animal. This term is not very well defined.

Second Cut Stag - The inner layer of any stag horn. No bark. Can be plain, burnt, jigged, etc.

Winterbottom - I would say this is either bone or second cut stag that had been jigged in the traditional winterbottom pattern. Technically it may be second cut stag only, but it has been applied to bone as well.

Bone - bone from the shin of a cow or other animal that can have any manner of jigging, dye, burning, carving.
 
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It sure is confusing isn't it? Stag is made from deer antlers. The bone comes from cow legs. You can cut it, stain it, burn it, jig it or send it on a holiday and it all just gets down to antlers and legs. Personally I never use the terms stag bone or genuine stag. Stag is stag. Putting genuine in front of it is akin to putting genuine in front of the word water or highway. It is what it is. Bone is bone. If you jig bone to look like stag it is still bone. I call it jigged bone. That's what it is. I've never understood why people put up with hype that attempts to make something out of something else.
 
Knife Outlet said:
It sure is confusing isn't it? Stag is made from deer antlers. The bone comes from cow legs. You can cut it, stain it, burn it, jig it or send it on a holiday and it all just gets down to antlers and legs. Personally I never use the terms stag bone or genuine stag. Stag is stag. Putting genuine in front of it is akin to putting genuine in front of the word water or highway. It is what it is. Bone is bone. If you jig bone to look like stag it is still bone. I call it jigged bone. That's what it is. I've never understood why people put up with hype that attempts to make something out of something else.
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I agree and I should clarify in my post that the Genuine Stag designation to me is mainly Great Eastern's way of differentiating burnt and unburnt stag on their knives.
 
There are also differences in the animal the antlers for "stag" come from. Lots of different critters have antlers. I believe the antlers from the Indian sambar deer is considered to be the "premium" stag. You also see stag from other animals used, like the American elk, whitetail deer, moose etc. The hardness, density, texture etc. vary considerably from species to species.
 
moonwilson said:
There are also differences in the animal the antlers for "stag" come from. Lots of different critters have antlers. I believe the antlers from the Indian sambar deer is considered to be the "premium" stag. You also see stag from other animals used, like the American elk, whitetail deer, moose etc. The hardness, density, texture etc. vary considerably from species to species.
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Moose, elk, whitetail, sambar are all deer. As far as I know only deer have antlers. Other animals have horns.
 
eswartz said:
I agree and I should clarify in my post that the Genuine Stag designation to me is mainly Great Eastern's way of differentiating burnt and unburnt stag on their knives.
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I'm not criticizing your definitions. I thought they were well thought out and accurate. I'm also very familiar with the habit of referring to stag as "genuine" stag. It is industry wide. It is a way of differentiating stag from other things that people like to call stag but aren't. It just seems like a redundancy to me. It wouldn't be necessary if people didn't use the word stag for things other than stag.

The whole thing reminds of me of words like "leatherette" and "wood grained." It irks me. It's just a personal thing.
 
I think the Sambar deer is similar to the European Red deer,but the texture and quality of the antler is superior in the former. All 'stag' comes from animals which shed their antlers periodically,presumably the bucks(males) have more massive and valuable antlers than the does/hinds.

Here in Scandinavia, our elk (which Americans refer to as 'moose')cary a massive set of antlers, but I've not heard about them being used much on knife handles. Probably the texture is too smooth. American elk looks very smooth and less dramatic than Sambar or Red Stag handles, nice enough though.

Smiling-knife I think, posted a fantastic pic couple of years back of a shed full of superb antlers in the yard of a Sheffield cutler.Sigh! To get some of that stuff now....

My question is, why do so many old knives have 'popcorn' stag? It seems rare these days.Great thing about stag is,you don't have to kill the animal(like with elephants and ivory...)to get the material, just wait for them to drop. But, I have heard that unscrupulous poachers have in the past killed Sambar deer just to get the antlers quicker, the foolish stupidity of homo sapiens.....
 
Great memory willgoy. Here is the photo of the Rodgers Stag store circa early 1900s. The stag of choice in Sheffield was from the Indian Sambar deer. Not to be confused with the infamous 'Sandbar' stag ;-)

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Nice one s-k:thumbup::thumbup:

I'm going to archive that shot, sets off all kinds of fantasies in my brain...imagine a long forgotten overlooked warehouse shed in Sheffield,untouched since 1914 full of stag and knife parts,blanks:eek: Be the cutlery equivalent of un-earthing Tutankhamun's tomb:D
 
willgoy said:
Nice one s-k:thumbup::thumbup:

I'm going to archive that shot, sets off all kinds of fantasies in my brain...imagine a long forgotten overlooked warehouse shed in Sheffield,untouched since 1914 full of stag and knife parts,blanks:eek: Be the cutlery equivalent of un-earthing Tutankhamun's tomb:D
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Rats would have a party with that stuff! They'd eat all of that lovely stag right up. Critters love to eat antlers! Almost every shed antler I've ever found has had varying degrees of nibble marks on it- from squirrels, chipmunks etc. There's a reason you don't find long-discarded shed antlers in the woods. I think most antlers end up as squirrel droppings.

That is a lovely image though. Think how much all of that stuff is WORTH!:eek: That's like stacked money.
 
kidwholaughs said:
I was curious too. SK, why don't we see a lot popcorn stag anymore?
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I thought #36 here (from CollectorKnives.net) had some popcorny stag.

But I think the real reason is that there are a lot of restrictions these days (ban) on exporting the Sambar Stag antlers, so it is hard to get in large quantities.

Popcorn Stag.jpg
 
kidwholaughs said:
I was curious too. SK, why don't we see a lot popcorn stag anymore?

God Bless
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Thanks and I'm glad that you all like the photo of the stag store. I don't think the antlers hung around long. In the late 1800s it was estimated that the Sheffield industry required aproximately 72,000 stag scales and handle per week.

I think it does have something to do with restrictions on sambar exports so most modern stag, especially on production knives, is from different species.

This one has some nice popcorn 'kernels'

17-05011-1.jpg
 
That Irish Elk is an outstanding monster.

Just think that 'stag' is only overgrown head nails..if only I could grow my toe-nails that long I could get some decent popcorn scales....
 
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