Scrimshaw

[markwesti]

I always wanted to try it , so I watched a few YouTube videos . The knife is a Rough Rider , Bovine ($20.) the sheath is from the Bay . The scratcher that I used is a carbide tungsten scriber . I used India Ink but a sharpie will work also . With a sharpie you can get some color in there too .

IMG_0891 by mark westi, on
Flickr
IMG_0890 by mark westi, on Flickr

[nuku34]

Yeas ago I found a sperm whale tooth in a pawn shop in Suva. A very talented cruiser, Bill Sellers, did this scrimshaw for me in a few days using a high carbon steel scriber and India ink by the light of a single halogen bulb on his engine-less home-built S&S 38 ft wooden cutter. I wanted a full rigged sailing ship and a sea dragon and got them both. I made the display box; the tooth can be rotated with a knob on the outside of the box bottom.

[markwesti]

Wow nice @nuku34 , I have another knife that has a Corian handle on it . That material easily accepts Scrimshaw , I got the Corian piece at a homedepot tile section . It was a sample a salesman gave me .

[psk125]

I have a whale tooth, but it's not smooth, the way yours is. It has ridges. Can/should the ridges be sanded down and then polished before starting to carve a design?

[nuku34]

Hello psk125: When you say "carve", do you mean scratch the lines into the surface with a pointed scriber or actually carve a 3D relief design into the surface?
I'm not a scrimshaw expert, but I think a smooth polished surface is necessary for doing the traditional scratching method.