Messing with some scrimshaw on buffalo bone

[RezDog]

Passing a little time while on duty and doing a little scrimshaw.

 

[verndahl]

nice work Shaun. I've done a little scrimshaw on some piano ivory and deer bone but not buffalo. do you seal it with anything before starting? i thought i remember reading somewhere that if you don't than the little vein holes would make it look speckly. what sort of scribe do you use?

 

[RezDog]

I have two scribes. One is a pin vice with a reversed bit and a sharpened tip. The other is a double ended holder with carbide points on each end. That gives me three sizes. I use renwax to seal the bone before and during working on it. I sand to 600 grit and then wax, draw the design, scribe, ink, wipe, wax and repeat until I either get mad and sand it off or I finish, which ever comes first. I have never really practiced much at drawing some it is a long process for me. I’ve been doodling this design for a few months, as pencil doodles. Then a took a couple runs at it doodling on the bone and was lucky enough to have not sanded this one off. It is in the planning for a pair of Herder razor and a nice display box. I have no idea if Sasquatch is going to be on both or if another mystical animal is the other scale. No sense rushing into these things.

 

[Bruno]

Nice! It makes sense that with your job, putting time in scrimshaw makes a whole lot more sense than working on steel. You can easily store this, and take it out when you have time without needing a whole bunch of tools that might take up a lot of room.

 

[RezDog]

the art of scrimshaw started with mariners on the whaling ships as well, so it make me feel connected to the past while I am at work too. It’s nice to get my little box of supplies back out of hiding.